Are You Superstitious

The peacock feathers comes from them having almost an "eye" on them, I think.

In this area of South Wales it is still considered unlucky to have any paintings or depictions of birds on crockery or on ornaments inside the house. My neighbour would throw away any Christmas cards that had robins on them.
I don't know if this superstition was common in other mining areas of the U.K. but supposedly it arose because of taking canaries down a mine to warn of methane gas.

I think my mum wouldn't have 'honesty' in the house.
Does anyone know if that was a superstition?
Honesty was almost like mother of pearl, dried out papery circles...

FannyCornforth; I'm not superstitious, although, out of habit I suppose, I do 'knock on wood' when saying that 'such and such has never happened' .
I wear a gold heart on a chain with the number "13" on it.
It was given to me when I was bridesmaid of my Italian friend where the number "13" is considered lucky.
My DD and I can never go for a walk after a rain and not lever an earthworm to the safety of the verge, but not because we're superstitious

I had forgotten it was Friday 13th, but that explains it - the motherboard on my very expensive laptop blew up, and the shop has told me it would take 4 - 5 weeks to get a replacement at a cost of £800 plus new battery and labour costs. To say I am distraught is an understatement.

And the job I applied for has just emailed to say that despite having my loads of experience, it is not quite the right type, so there will be no job to pay for a replacement...

I’m not superstitious but it’s been one mishap after another for me today, so maybe I should be.

Not really, but sometimes numbers signal to me. If they are particularly relevant I might use them for things like the lottery.

Slightly off track but my son and his partner bought an old cottage in 2020. Part of it dated from the 1580s. When they had a wood burner installed, the workmen opened up the boarded up chimney and 5m of rubbish fell down on to the floor, including a cat's leg bound at one end with copper wire.
Apparently, people protected their homes from witches and other evil forces by putting dead cats or parts of them up chimneys or under the floor boards in front of door ways, to ward them off.
Likewise, there are scorch marks on the beams over the fireplace...another remedy against evil spirits.
I think the cats leg was put back up the chimney afterwards. They weren't taking any chances!

I have a lovely little peacock with a real peacock feather as his tail. It's been here with me for about 20 years I think. What is supposed to happen to me?

I also have a couple of those plates on the wall with yes, birds! A robin and some blue tits. Am I doomed?

Slightly off track but my son and his partner bought an old cottage in 2020. Part of it dated from the 1580s.
That is one spooky story about the cat's leg! My son-in-law always said he would never buy an old place in case it was haunted. So they bought a brand new property. I discovered it was the site of a huge rebellion back in the 16th century and a couple of thousand peasants were trapped there and then brutally slaughtered! I never told them they were living on the site of such foul deeds, but it just shows you never know what happened in the past. Now a modern housing estate with children's play area!

I hadn't heard of the magpie greeting - but never needed to know because we don't have them here. I have seen them in southern areas of our province, so will keep that in mind when I am travelling.

I do little silly things like toss salt over my left shoulder if spilt, tell someone to 'break a leg' if doing a performance, we would hold our breath going through a tunnel with the children and make a wish. on the other side. We always save the wishbone from a chicken or turkey and make a wish with the GC.

Not in the least suspestitious. As a kid I used to deliberately wind up my parents by opening up umbrellas in the house and other things they considered as "bad luck". I see very little difference between religions and superstition. However I love to hear other people explaining and rationalising their beliefs.

It's well known that the more religious an individual is, the more superstitious they tend to be.
The less religious, the less superstitious.
However I think we all grow up with a bit of the 'knock on wood' mentality and the older we get, the less we want to stop the habit of doing that ( just in case)!

I heard a big crash today and a painting had fallen off the wall in the dining room. It’s said to mean news of a death and actually has always come true when it has happened ( luckily infrequently ) before.

We always say Good morning Mr Magpie, how are you’re wife and children?
Sometimes I seem to be saying it for a whole journey.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying I believe in it all, but I don’t go looking for trouble, I don’t walk under ladders, bring lilac into the house, although I really want to, don’t do washing on New Year’s Day, can’t hurt to be cautious can it?
I rang the hygienist to make an appointment a few weeks ago, and she said, oh no you won’t want Friday 13th will you, I agreed, I probably wouldn’t, but I’ll be sorry if my teeth start falling out between now and then!

i am not superstitious and i do walk under ladders, sometimes on purpose, i do go by the saying if it's for you it won't go by you.

My wonderful daughter celebrates her Birthday today, whilst looking after my gorgeous baby grandson, who is teething. My cup runneth over!

Years ago, I don't know about now, residents rooms in care homes never had a number 13.

MissAdventure is absolutely right. And it happened in roads too where the house numbers jumped from 11 to 15.

Golly, there are people who don't say "Good morning, Mr Magpie " Who knew??

No.. Touchwood

Hotels still, although they have to have a '13th floor' ( of course) will re-name it something else; 12B, 14A for example.
They have to do that because of customers who will not agree to stay on the 13th Floor!
So superstition is here to stay!

yes but no

I 'touch wood' to make sure something nasty doesn't happen. OH makes sure visitors always go out of the door they came in by.
We open the back door to let the old year out before opening the front door to welcome the new one in.
It's an odd feeling - don't really believe anything disastrous will happen if we don't do these things, but feel more comfortable if we do them.

I'd never heard of saying Good morning Mr Magpie until I moved to Bristol.

I always assumed it was a just Bristolian thing