Superstitions

Artdecogran
Im so sorry to hear about your husband. It sounds like hes looking out for you. I hope your move goes well. All the best.

I've heard just the opposite.....if a bird flies in your house it's supposed to be good luck, so don't fret!

On holiday in rural France in 1980’s. we were all asleep. I heard frantic knocking at the door. When I opened it, I saw my father. He was wearing his pyjamas and he said ‘I’ve come to tell you I not very well’. Then I woke up. Next morning, still troubled by this alarming dream I persuaded DH to drive to nearest town to find a phone. Rang home. The previous night at the time of the dream my Dad had been rushed to hospital by ambulance with Pneumonia and was in intensive care. This sort of thing has happened to me several times.

Oodles. My ex heard the knocking too. So it wasnt heart palpitations.
I cant describe it because it wasnt just like someone just knocking on the door. It was really frightening.
The odd bit was the dream about me going down the stairs.
However the kids told me loads of things later which they had seen. My eldest daughter 16 yrs woke up to find one side of her bed soaking wet from top to bottom. Then another time a jacket which she had hung over her computer chair was completely soaking wet. No water on the floor or anything else. No leaks in the roof etc. Unexplainable.
We all individually at different times saw something pass by an open doorway.
Also one day my daughter came home from school and saw me (as she thought) through the window , sitting on he sofa in the lounge. Except it wasnt me. I wasnt in and there was no one else in the house.
I didnt talk to the kids about any of things I had seen until they were adults and thats when it all came out from them.

All superstition is irrational ...I include religion in that. Don’t think anything about it. It’s all mumbo jumbo ....my goodness are we still in the infancy of life that this ‘stuff’ still has power to scare us?!

A lot of cultures in every part of the world have superstitions, myths, fables, stories, symbols, beliefs, omens etc that relate to birds in some way, so many people would have been told these things from childhood and may or may not believe them. I think there is a lot in this world that has no rational or scientifically provable explanation. For a lot of circumstances it is how we personally choose to interpret things within our own belief system or realm of experience. Personally I am OK with birds being in the house and will always try to get them back outside, unharmed, one way or another (encouraging them to leave or sometimes catching and quickly releasing them - including a few the cat has come home with!)

It's interesting how this post has created so many responses relating to various omens and the supernatural world. Discussions on how we 'sense' or 'feel' things, seem to know things when logic says the opposite, sometimes predict deaths or other big events in life, have some sort of contact with, or sense of, an afterlife - all fascinating. I've had a few uncanny experiences in life but as they are not directly related to the original post I'll save them for another time and another thread.

Also great that Gransnet encompasses such a wide range of beliefs & opinions where people can 'agree to disagree', debate respectfully and avoid a lot of the judgemental attitudes present in a lot of online forums or social media platforms.

Whenever I see a single Magpie, in the morning, I have to raise my hat and say, 'Good morning Mr Magpie, I hope your wife's all right'. This is a superstition that is meant to ward off bad luck. Not sure if it works, but I am not risking it! Mind you, I saw 5 Magpies, the other day. This means Silver. I am still waiting and not holding my breath.

Saggi. My response would be YES we are still in the infancy of life.
I often imagine what it would be like looking down from space and seeing all these little people scurrying about, fighting each other , ruining their enviroment . Every one of them thinking they are a huge matter of the greatest importance.
Hopefully one day we will get the message that we need to help , support, and love each other if we want to survive and open our minds to what ever else is out there.
Also what is more irrational than a huge ball of rock spinning in space, populated by allsorts of curious species.
This diversifies greatly from the original post . Sorry.

Can everyone stop scaremongering!! We are all entitled to our beliefs but surely not if those beliefs are frightening people. I’m descended from gypsy blood on my great grandmothers side and my mother was the most superstitious person you could meet but they wouldn’t ever use their beliefs to frighten anybody. I think some of these posts are unkind.

About 3 years ago I was playing with my toddler DGD in our sitting room when 2 jackdaws flew down the chimney. There must have been a nest up there. I rushed out of the room with the wee one shouting to DH to deal with it as they were hurling themselves at the closed window. He managed to free them but not before one had broken the glass.
That wasn't lucky! I don't think it was a death warning either.

Couldn’t agree more!

I have lived in several houses that unexplained things have happened in, and then been told by a neighbour maybe that whatever i had heard or seen had previously really happened in the past
My dad told my mother he had a lovely dream that he was in a beautiful garden, he was an avid gardener, and he said everything was very vividly coloured, she thought no more about it, but then he asked when the 24th was, didn't say why, and couldnt give an explanation, it was the beginning of May, and on the 24th he had an aneurism and was rushed to hospital , where he passed away
If anyone else had said it was a sign or omen about anything he would also have said it was mumbo jumbo, he didn't believe in anything of that kind
I believe he had a premonition, and maybe he did know why

IMO the one thing guatenteed to bring bad luck is being superstitous!

I have always seen and heard things that other people didn't. Just over a year after I married my husband my father in law passed away quite suddenly. A few months after he died I woke up and saw him at the foot of our bed. He had one of my husband's Uncles with him and, as I watched, he linked arms with him, then they both disappeared. I woke my husband up and told him what I had seen. He thought it was just a bad dream and we went back to sleep. However, I woke up early and still had a feeling that something had happened so I made him ring his Mum. She was surprised to hear from him so early in the day (she was always up hours before anyone else) but said she was just thinking about calling to let us know that his Uncle (the one I saw with my father in law) had died during the night. Coincidence? I don't think so as it wasn't the first time I had 'seen' someone who had died nor was it the last either.

It looks as though most folk who've posted have experienced something beyond the physical world or know someone whose judgement they trust who has had such an experience. As a Christian, I firmly believe there is a supernatural realm. I have often felt an overwhelming sense of God's presence and love and have known people receive amazing healing. I also think we have a spiritual connection with people we are close to and may well be able to sense when they are sad, in trouble or dying. I also believe that both angels and evil spirits are real. On the other hand, the human brain is capable of producing incredible things, including hallucinations. Some events are hard to explain, but I certainly don't think we should be frightened by or directed by these events or "omens". My own approach is to trust God with the future and with things I don't understand and let him replace any fear with peace. Sorry - didn't set out to write a sermon!

Thankyou everyone who responded. Ive taken a bit on board from you all.
All will be well. Touch wood. (Another superstition)
Elaine. I think you are spot on.
Take care everyone. X

A blackbird flew down my aunt’s chimney. It was bad luck for the bird that they were away on holiday, so it died. It was also bad luck for my aunt. She came home to a room covered in soot and bird poo, and a lot of smashed ornaments.

I don't think anyone s intending to scaremonger, just different peoples experiences,,some might be just coincidences regarding the birds, and mean different things to different people

The only bad luck I had when a bird flew into our house was that we were actually away on holiday. Unfortunately it had obviously been feasting on blackberries so it flew round leaving deposits of deep purple poo on everything whilst smashing some of our ornaments. When I walked in I honestly thought we'd been burgled . However, the bird was unluckier than us...we lived to tell the tale, it didn't.

Omen or superstition?
I’ve never heard of a bird in the house being unlucky maybe it’s a regional thing.
My mother in law had superstitions I’d never heard of and she’d rattle them off.
The only time I believed was when we went to her graveside after the headstone had been erected. A little robin flew up and calmly sat on it the whole time we were there.
She had always loved watching the robins when she came to visit us.

I shouldn't have read this before going to bed last night! Such interesting stories. Mine is my brother died five years ago after a very short illness he was only 50, no age at all. We weren't that close but he was my brother. I hadn't even met his current partner until I went to hospital to visit him. I don't keep in good health and was unwell myself during that time. After he died I came home from the hospital exhausted and went to bed during the day my head filled with grief and the new partener plus a wife he had not divorced from. I found it hard to sleep and was just lying in bed eyes opened when he appeared sitting on the chair at side of bed. He looked so handsome had a lovely striped shirt on and tie, had lost weight. He said " I'm so sorry to have left you with all this stuff to do" I panicked and shouted "Go away don't you dare scare me" and he went, ( he was always scaring me when we were young) I will always regret that. I wish I could have spoke to him more and was so angry at myself later. I know it wasn't a dream because I always forget them. A few months later we put our house up for sale we had three estate agents call to give a price. One of them had the same shirt and tie on that my brother had when he spoke to he. Of course he got the job.

We fear what we do not not know and cannot explain with any surety.

If talk about superstitions scares someone so much they have to dismiss it as 'mumbo-jumbo' (a Mande word meaning 'masked dancer' ) then that says more about them than the idea they dismiss.

History is full of dismissive people who have scorned what later became world-beating ideas and inventions, particularly in the field of medicine, anatomy, astronomy, science and technology.

We can now print human organs but I vividly remember this idea being shot down as science-fiction. Thank goodness we don't listen to the doomsayers.

In my view, it is better (and more interesting) to have an open mind: listen, learn, evaluate and maybe advance, than to slam the door immediately on every little thing outside our ken. That smacks of superstition!

The paranormal is a fascinating subject simply because it is beyond rational explanation.