Silly Superstitions

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Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Ok I was making some lentil soup and spilled some salt.
Of course I threw it over my left shoulder.
Then I wonder why I still do that.
I've never noticed the devil there yet

I also put nail cuttings on the fire along with any hair clippings.
No witches I know would have any possible need of them.

I'll salute a single magpie

My elder son is used to spending Hogmanay on the doorstep with a lump of coal ( we only put him out there just before The Bells ), I'd be reluctant to let younger son with his red hair be our first foot.

I'm a reasonable fairly rational person but why??

Then there's the more modern superstitions that creep in.
All bank statements put on the fire
Covering the keypad when using ATM
Changing passwords

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:23 pm

Those last "superstitions" sound sensible to me Smile

The only one I really have is never brushing straw out of a horse's tail.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

I'd never heard that one.
Which way do you hang a horse shoe.
It seems to vary where the curve should be to the top or bottom.

It's also a varies as to whether a red head first foot is good luck or not, from what I've heard its lucky in Yorkshire.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

Sailors are Superstitious

Quote:

For sailors, it was unlucky:
to name the boat with a word ending in "a"
to have the bottle not break when used in the launch ceremony
to change the name of a boat
to sail on a green boat
to sail on a Friday
to see rats leaving a ship
to have someone die on the ship
to whistle on board a ship
to cross an area where another ship once sunk
to lose a bucket at sea

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

I also consider myself reasonable, yet follow a few superstitions.

When I see a penny on the ground I always pick up the heads up ones and leave the tails up ones.

When I say something that could jinx me, I knock on wood.

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:58 pm

Horseshoes are to be hung open end up. If the open end is down, all the luck runs out.

I automatically say "Bless you" when anyone sneezes. It startles people in the store sometimes.

I was "cave-kissed" once. If you are in a cave and a stalactite (the ones that hang from the roof) drips on you, it's good luck. Those things drip about once a week or even less often. Think how many drips it takes to build them up to six or more feet long - that's a powerful lot of time!

My other idiosyncracies are due more to OCD than superstition.

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:13 pm

Another Sailor superstition is never board or disembark with the left foot first.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

How do Fire Fighters and window cleaners get around the not walking under a ladder rule

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:11 pm

I have some wind chimes on the landing at the top of my stairs. Normally you dangle them from a tree branch outside and the wind does its stuff. Not in my case.

I always set them off when I'm on the way down for luck. Too date I haven't fallen down the stairs<crossed fingers>. I never ring them on the way up... Bad luck. And I'm not kidding.

[Edited for grammar]

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:13 pm

Nanny Ogg wrote:

It's also a varies as to whether a red head first foot is good luck or not, from what I've heard its lucky in Yorkshire.

First-footing is meant to be by a dark-haired man, I was always told by my deeply Yorkshire granny. Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Yeah that's what I thought Eight , but it's in the Penguin Guide to the superstitions of Britain and Ireland.

Another wee habit is when I've lost something I put money in St Anthony's box
( he's the patron saint of hiding things and holding them to ransom )

Oh and I'd never kill a spider

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

Quote:

Oh and I'd never kill a spider

I escorted one from the House today Smile

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:52 pm

I will avoid ladders and cracks. Ladders more than cracks, however.

I haven't seen a black cat cross my path, but I think I'd get a little off-put by it.

I also don't open umbrella's indoors.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

New shoes on tables

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:00 pm

^^ My father is deeply superstitious and always ranted about me putting new shoes on the table. My reply - I've got arthritis and can't bend down to pick the box off the floor, where do you expect me to put them?

To be honest, I'm an anti superstition person, I go out of my way to flaunt superstitions and have never had an accident yet, except for getting hit by a couple of paint pots, falling over cracks, getting hit by cars after seeing a black cat (very bad joke).

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:46 pm

Sorry,I'm in there with Dionysius.I'll walk under a ladder while spilling salt on the floor,kick the black cat who is in front of me,and smash a mirror on the sidewalk while stepping on every crack.And if anything happens,It's been great to be here Shocked

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:22 am

Well, I have a simple reason for not walking under a ladder. I don't want it to fall on me head.
When I see a black cat I try to befriend it.
And I spill a lot of salt, usually on the food.
I don't kill spiders now, but I had my share in my childhood. I tortured them in unspeakable ways involving molten candlewax. Now I am more food-chain wary, and I like spiders because they eat some nasty insects I can't stand, like mosquitoes, midges, and some others.
Any superstitions about wasps? I killed a lot of them too, to get the larvae. Very good fish bait.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:02 am

My Paw Paw would say that if you swept under someones feet that they would never marry again. Smile

I've often heard that a woman should never work the gardens when it was that time of the month. Mad

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:24 am

I've often heard that the handsome looking man you picked up in the bar at midnight will still be handsome in the morning if you take him home and sleep with him. Shocked

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:20 am

packman wrote:

Another Sailor superstition is never board or disembark with the left foot first.

But what if they don't have a right leg?

I'm not too terribly superstitious I think. The occasional knock-on-wood is all, really.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:48 am

There are two traditions involving apples:

Peel the apple in one unbroken length of skin and throw the peel on the floor behind you. Try to figure out which letter it most resembles. That is the initial of the last name of the man you will marry.

Twist the stem until it comes out, counting the alphabet as you do so. The letter you are on when the stem breaks off is the initial of the man you will marry. (I stopped doing this when the man I was dating had a name beginning with B and the stem held on all the way to P.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:47 am

Having considered myself free of silly superstitions I just realised that I avoid saying the word "wind" when it is a calm, lovely day. I'll phonetically spell it out instead, lest the 'gods' feel tempted to raise a gale.

Having little superstitions is perfectly harmless until they begin to impede a person’s everyday life. A worse case example being that poor kid in the USA who blames himself for the Sept 11 2001 terrorist attacks because he stepped on a crack.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:56 am

Sir Cumfrence wrote:

Having considered myself free of silly superstitions I just realised that I avoid saying the word "wind" when it is a calm, lovely day.

How spooky I should be next to post. Shocked

I don't believe in anything thankfully, makes life easier. If I remember correctly, the word 'superstition' comes from stand-over. It means you are being watched and judged by some imaginary higher force.

BOO! Wink

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:57 am

@nanny - I probably shouldn't say this to you but the tradition with horseshoes is that cast iron repels witches. There's also lots of superstitions involving hair from horses tails being wrapped around things to keep the witches away.

Horse leg colours are supposed to indicate their luck potential, especially white socks (the lower 1/4 of the leg), one is lucky, two less so and four positively unlucky.

Sunshine (<--- her over there) has four... and is the best horse I've ever had!

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Titania wrote:

Horseshoes are to be hung open end up. If the open end is down, all the luck runs out.

Interesting, I have a horseshoe hung over my door open end down, so the luck "showers upon the person who walks under it". That was the way I always heard it as a kid.