Superstitions

Have to avoid walking on three side by side man holes/pavement thingy’s

Throw salt over my shoulder if I spill any.

Cannot walk under a ladder.

Do the shoes and magpie rituals, haven’t heard about bananas and travelling.

Oh white rabbits white rabbits white rabbits on first of the month.

No shoes on the table.
Always acknowledge a magpie.
Always throw some salt over my shoulder if I spill some.
Never walk under a ladder.
Never open an umbrella indoors.
If I find a coin, I always spit on it and put it in my right pocket.

Other than that, I'm not superstitious at all.

We always say 'Good morning, Mr Magpie, how are your wife and children?'

Although, currently, I often feel like saying 'B****r off, Mr Magpie, and take your mates with you - the bird food is not for you!'

Did you know that you can counteract the bad luck of seeing just one magpie if you can also see a heron? Well, that's how I used to calm DD2 on her way to do her A levels - and it worked.

Walking under a ladder.
And seeing a black cat cross a road.
I think that's one bad, and one good.

When we were dwardling my Gdad used to say

If you step on a crick
You’ll marry a brick,
And a beetle will come to your wedding.

Total nonsense as far as I know but got us skipping along as we tried to avoid stepping on the joins between the paving slabs.

No not at all superstitious don’t do any of those things probably most I do is say fingers crossed about an life happening

Yes, ridiculously so! 😂😂😂

I'm not at all superstitious.

My daughter was, to a degree, and my mum.

No- but some of them are fun- I tend to focus on the good luck rather than the bad luck ones!

Green was considered very unlucky in my mum's family (long story, but based on experiences!) and I feel uncomfortable wearing or buying green things (unless no choice). But I haven't imposed that on the next generations.

No shoes on the table (hygiene?), salt over the shoulder, don't open umbrellas indoors, don't walk under a ladder (safer not to, anyway).

My mum painted the living room green after my dad died, saying she couldn't have any more bad luck.
She would never have had it before.

New shoes on the table used to make her really cross, too.

I’m getting better as I get older, but my mother was very superstitious and some things stick.

The stranger the better? Well, I could never throw eggshells in the compost bin without crushing them first. And that, of course, is because if I didn’t witches could sail out to sea in them to sink ships.

Not at all superstitious, load of rubbish.

Yes, I'm superstitious.

I cross my fingers
Salute the magpie, but only before 12pm and hope I see another one.
Throw salt over my left shoulder if I spill it
I don't walk under ladders
New shoes on the table is a no no
I don't open umbrellas indoors
Try to remember White Rabbits on 1st of month but rarely do.
Feel uneasy about a black cat crossing my path.
Always uncross crossed knives by removing the lowest first.

My mum would never have cut lilac in the house and was terribly distressed if a bird flew in, as this was a portent of very bad luck. She always stopped me from whistling too as apparently that's bad luck as well. She also said that pearls were for tears and opals were unlucky, so she never wore either.

Im not superstitious and all this nonsense about black cats, shoes on the table or umbrellas indoors is like a form of OCD.

My Mum was superstitious and thought the colour green was unlucky. I never wore green clothes as a child. But when I left school I bought myself a lovely bottle green winter coat of the kind that were worn back then. However, while walking along Torquay seafront one day a huge wave came over the sea wall and drenched me and the coat. It was never wearable again in spite of all our cleaning efforts. Mum never let me forget it.

I always say hello to magpies, crows etc., not because of superstition, just politeness!

About the only one I won't do is crossed knives or scissors.

Yes biglouis imagine living with someone who observed these rituals, it’d drive me up the wall across the ceiling and down the other side🤯

The bananasone is a joke surely!

I don't really abide by any of the superstitions mentioned above.

However, I have inherited a beautiful opal ring which belonged to my mother. It was her birthstone. I never wear it as it is supposed to be unlucky - unless it is your birthstone.

According to my research (the internet) , this is the reason: Maybe I should start wearing it!

'Some maintain that diamond merchants of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries saw the amazing attributes of opal and realised it was going to be a serious threat to their livelihood. When high quality Australian opal appeared on the market in the 1890’s, it is understood that diamond cartels actively spread the false rumour that opal was unlucky and seriously damaged the reputation of opals.

'Opal, with its stunning play of colour, was increasing in popularity and could represent a threat to the lucrative diamond trade now that it was being mined commercially. The story goes that jealous diamond traders spread the belief that opals are bad luck to protect themselves and give opals a bad reputation. Some of the rumours stuck and became the ‘old wives’ tales which are still repeated today'

I quite like that some superstitions remain, and wonder where they started.

All the technology in the world, it seems, can't entirely wipe out man's rituals, beliefs, and "safeguards".

I do wonder exactly what the mechanism is for making these superstitious predictions of "bad luck" come true. People say "If you do X then Y will happen" but no-one explains what it is that causes X to influence Y.

They can explain logical things like not smoking because it coats the inside of your lungs with tar and does other bad things too, which make you far more likely to get lung cancer than a non-smoker (and most people know knew someone who proved this true) but the link between stepping on a crack and breaking your grandmother's back is pretty tenuous. So I don't believe it.