Family rituals and superstitions

No shoes on a table. No open umbrella indoors. Spill salt and you must throw some over your left shoulder.
Washing never done on a Sunday.

All those mentioned by harrigran

No crossed knives on the table

My mother in law was anti the royal family so as a joke her daughter bought a very battered old tray from a charity shop which commemorated the wedding of Charles and Diana,wrapped it up one Christmas and gave it to her as a present under the tree. The next year MIL ‘regifted’ it to another family member. This tradition has since gone on for many years and my niece served us champagne on it at her wedding!

Ixion......malt and cod liver oil.....lovely!!!!

My mother put a white tablecloth on the table for Christmas with a coloured one on top.

The top one was changed as needed between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night, but the lower one was not. She firmly believed someone in the family would die, if that cloth was removed.

Mirrors were supposed to attract lightening.

When I was a child, we switched off the television and wireless during thunderstorms and unplugged them.

We had to answer the phone as Daddy was a doctor on duty, but my mother did not like doing so.

In Scotland no-one hung washing out on a Sunday, never mind Ne'er day!

Sorry to make you cry LoLo ?

Do any of you avoid the cracks on pavements or have any little rituals that you have to perform to feel safe ?

Oh yes, remember the thing about putting on an apron inside out

You couldn't turn it yourself, but had to get another woman to undo the strings, turn your apron and tie the strings again.

I remember being told by an elderly aunt that a girl who got her apron wet while doing the washing would marry a drunken husband!

4 note family whistle here. My son told me that he when he whistled it at his grandpa's funeral (outside after the service, I hasten to add) lots of heads turned to see who it was.
I still use it to locate members of the family in supermarkets ?

I love the whistle.
My dad still does one long continuous whistle. When we were little the three of us and the dog would turn up to that whistle. Me and my dad worked together for years and he would whistle if he wanted me.
The first time I did it to find my husband he was furious and it ended in an argument, so if I want him I shout MARMALADE.

When my children were little, on Christmas Eve I would gently rattle a lovely sounding bell and say that it was Santa and his reindeer on the roof waiting for them to go to bed so that he could check his sacks of presents and deliver the right ones.

These foibles from my very much a 'country bumpkin'!!
No lilacs or bluebells in the house.
Don't know any reasons why but have always followed her superstitions!

There’s a saying in my family that everybody uses, I’d be really interested to know if it’s used by anybody else, particularly in Derbyshire - when there’s a dark cloud on the horizon, my nana, then my mum and her siblings, and now all the grandchildren say:
‘It’s a bit black over Bill’s mothers’
However none of us know who Bill ever was?

My sisters and I have started a new family tradition: one of us when we were young was given a musical birthday card, which had a small handle you would turn and it would play Happy Birthday. One of my sisters rediscovered it (in a distressed state), refurbished it, and now we pass it on to the next of us on each of our birthdays in turn with the date written inside.

I attended a Zoom talk by U3A the other day on superstitions and their origins. Really interesting, but some beliefs are really cranky.
Don’s have any myself, but still respect my mother’s superstitions (shoes on the table, etc) even though she died over 20 years ago - don’t want to tempt fate!!!

The wet apron when washing up explains everything ??
No new shoes on the table.
No diamonds and rubies together as they represent blood and tears.
You can't pick up a sharp knife if you drop it, its unlucky apparently ??‍♀️
No peacock feathers in the house.
I really love the sound of the family whistle.
The idea that you had 4 men show up when you whistled is hilarious ?

If we give a gift of a purse or gloves we put silver coins inside. Also we salute a solitary Magpie and turn money over on s full moon.

Nice to have a heartwarming post. We had a family whistle too - three notes. We were three sisters so my poor Dad had to herd us up on family outings. I presume my Mum couldn't whistle. I will definitely tell my GD when I WhatsApp them next. Brought up lots of fond memories too, thank you.

I was just thinking we had no rituals until I read your comment about the bells on Christmas Eve. I did the same and I still have the bells and they bring back memories of our children’s happy Christmas times.
?

Ashcombe

My mother used to drape towels over mirrors during thunderstorms. I never understood why.

My mother also used to do this. She would always open all doors so that “if a thunder ball came down the chimney it would follow the draught”. But my family do have a strange generational thing of being struck by lightning, and surviving, so maybe her actions weren’t so odd.
My old family ritual is not to do washing on New Year’s Day as “it washes someone away “. The one year I ignored it my mum died the next day. Coincidence??‍♀️

To this day I don't do washing, let alone hang it out on New Years Day - you are supposed to be washing the bad luck from the previous year into the new, if you do.
I'm another who was always told it was bad luck to put new shoes on the table .
Does anyone else remember holding their collar if you see a hearse passing by ?

Grandmasue and Bluebelle the red and white flowers together is the only one of my mother’s superstitions I follow. She also followed many of her own mother’s, like no shoes on the table, no hanging out washing, cleaning windows, or cutting nails on a Sunday. She made me throw out a lock of hair from my firstborn’s first haircut ( ‘ Keep hair, keep care’), and would never wear pearl jewellery ( Pearls are for tears).
I do follow the village death customs like closing curtains at the time of a funeral, but that’s more respect than superstition.

My Mum always used to put a piece of silver (money) outside on New Years eve and bring it back inside New Years Day, she said it brought luck into the home. I still do this, usually put a 50p piece on the windowsill .

My husband's father had a whistle of two notes for his other and I use it now. (Husband can't whistle!). My mother was full of superstitions - all the ones above. Shoes on table, peacock feathers and lilac in the house, no washing your hair when you had a period, pearls mean tears. But she was a countrywoman.

We weren`t allowed to put new shoes on the table as it was supposed to bring bad luck,i still don`t to this day.
My mom always opened the front and back door if there was a thunder storm.
I can`t remember why.

Remember, if we saw an ambulance holding our collar until we saw a dog! Why I don't know!