Superstitions

I think some of you must be my sisters as my mum had all the superstitions: pearls mean tears, no lilac in the house etc. But green is my favourite colour! Our youngesr daughter updated the magpie greeting for the 21st century and we now say "I salute you, Citizen Magpie, you and your Significant Other if applicable."

My mother was quite superstitious, and my gran i thìnk, i observe a few but not as many as them- no shoes on table, the salt,the umbrellas open inside but never spoken to magpies, as i read that if more people than you see it that cancels the 1 for sorrow out!- Never heard one about bananas & travelling though, and believe me my mum knew (& observed) them all!

Goodness GrammarGrandma, thats quite a mouthful for a superstition!😆😁

Have never heard of the banana one or the crushing of eggshells but pretty much tie in to all of the others.

JackyB- I think if your mother observed all those, then yes she most definitely WAS superstitious😁

I inherited a whole raft of superstitions from my mother. Never cut your nails on a Friday; if someone drops a glove never hand it directly back to them (put it somewhere else first); Never pick snowdrops to bring into the house; never put a pair of new shoes on the table; if you put on an item of clothing inside out don't change it for the rest of the day. She claimed to have well-founded reasons for many of them. She would cite the case of a neighbour whose son died in a motor cycle accident on the morning that she had been picking snowdrops.

My father said to never twiddle the hook of a coathanger.
He worked for many years in the "rag trade" and said it meant bad luck in the business.

I suppose if you have time to twist a coathanger you aren't doing any work!

My lovely cat tom is black, and we've mostly kept black cats in our family over the years for generations.So not considered bad luck to us.🙂

I was raised in America and don't remember any particular superstitions from my childhood, in fact I heard about the 7 years bad luck from a broken mirror on telly and my mum laughed about it. However I moved here (England) in the late 90's. I was engaged to be married to a local man in 2005 and I was teaching at a further education college. On a lunch break, I went to the High Street and bought what I thought, was the perfect pair of shoes for the wedding. When I returned to the college and got in my classroom, I put the shoes on the table to show the students (all girls). They went crazy!! NO SHOES ON THE TABLE! I had never heard this. They explained it to me, and I removed them back to the bag on the floor. Three months later, the groom cancelled the wedding, ON THE DAY.

biglouis

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

I think that if people believe them it makes them expect the worst, rather like a placebo in reverse.

My mum usually had a horseshoe tacked above the back door, but yes, upside down to keep the luck from running out😀

I remember the magpie, broken mirror, shoes etc. ones my Mother also refused to do washing on Good Friday as she said it would be washing in Christ's blood!

On New Year’s Eve my old dad who had black hair would have to go outside just before the bongs then come back in just after midnight, apparently is good luck for someone with black hair to come in the house dead on or just after midnight.
My OH who is from the ME says that if sneeze once it tells you to wait a few mins, but if you sneeze twice go straight ahead.
Also if you catch the back of someone’s foot whilst out walking with them you could both have an argument unless you shake hands immediately. And never use a knife after sundown.
X

Whiff

I do say fingers crossed or fingers and toes crossed to wish people well. I don't walk under ladder but that's because knowing my luck something will drop on my head 😁 also I have a strange walking gait due to disability and would walk into it 🤦.

I like routine it's how my life works. I do a set of exercises every morning and have to do them in the same order if I don't I start again .
I do throw salt over my shoulder if I spill it just because my parents did.

I do believe in karma and fate.

I dropped a carton of milk yesterday and the top came off and said spilt milk sign of a birth. What I should have said was xxxxxxx hell another mess to clean up 🤣.

Love nursery rhymes but they all have hidden meanings which are sort of pagan . But I refuse to pander to PC versions of them . As there are black sheep and Jacob sheep are black and white .
I find myself sounding more like my mom as I get older saying all the sayings she said. Plus I had an English teacher at high school who for hand writing practice used proverbs.

If I give a purse or money box as a present always put £1 in it.

Can't anyone remember the hand and foot saying . I know if you have an itchy hand one hand is meant you have money coming and the other money going out . Itchy foot means you are going on a journey but can't remember which foot. 🤔

You give with your right and receive in your left.

Nannan2

My lovely cat tom is black, and we've mostly kept black cats in our family over the years for generations.So not considered bad luck to us.🙂

Why do the English give black cats for weddings, I thought it was good luck here. It is definitely bad luck to see a black cat cross the road on the continent.

I always touch wood and salute single magpies. My mum was very superstitious, as was my granny who would stay in bed all day on Friday 13th.

Theatre environments have a few superstitions attached to them but I can think of any examples. Anyone here know of any?

Yesterday my DGD said to her dad that she needed a purse now she has a bank card and my son told her that she had money in her account so she could buy one herself, I quickly told them no it’s unlucky to buy yourself a purse

I would still hesitate to put new shoes on a table. What I can't stand and not a superstition is people who place a hat on a table. See it often on tv a man especially taking off a hat and placing it brim down on a table. So unhygienic. The no hat or upturned only was a rule in my parents' house.

Me too. Never knew about bananas

Maggiemaybe

pascal30
harrigran
“Not at all superstitious, load of rubbish.”
Quite.. but also quite amusing

Yes. And quite heartening that some old beliefs and traditions continue. One of our police family told me that when they’re sent to a death at home, they open a window to let the soul out. I find that very…human.

I know that one - about opening a window to let the soul out after death. My mother asked me some time back if I would make sure to do that when she died - cue for my father laughing at the superstition and atheist him saying to her jokingly "You'll just go out up through the ceiling anyway". But I thought "Superstitious nonsense" privately and agreed she'd just go out through the ceiling, but promised I'd do that. Cue for when she did die some years subsequently and me living in another part of the country by then and Lockdown on anyway I asked the firm that sent carers in for her to ensure they opened every window in the house, because I'd promised her I'd "open a window" and would have travelled over from Wales to Devon regardless if I had a car...but was unable to do so because of public transport etc restrictions. Hopefully they did so - especially as she was the sort to hang around to make sure it was done.....

I found out about the "not giving a purse without a coin in it" one when a local Welsh friend gave me a couple of little presents and one was a little purse with a coin in it. She told me she'd put that coin in as a way of saying she hoped I'd always have enough money. Well - I appreciated the positive thought for me and it's a nice little purse that goes in the tiniest of my handbags nicely.

So I have no superstitions myself - but respect other peoples ones basically.

The only thing I've done of myself is that a good friend of mine is an evangelical Christian and he asked me one time (a few years back now - ie when I was still living in my own area) if I'd noticed any unwound cassette or video tapes lying around on the ground, with the tape pulled out, at road junctions. I said that I had and wondered why people kept doing that. His reply was that it was down to people practicing black magic and their reasoning was it was a magnetic tape and they deliberately put it at potential road accident spots hoping to cause peoples death!!!!!! and then the magnetic tape would (they thought) magnetically attract those peoples "life Energy" to them to (mis)use!!!

So - when I subsequently saw even more of these unwound tapes, I'd pick them up every time and mentally blast them one with "positive healing white light" and then carefully leave them in a bin some distance from a potential accident spot, mentally blast myself with protective white light and wash my hands of it. Now that one felt a bit nerve-racking.....and I'm glad it doesn't happen where I am now or has stopped...

Apparently throwing salt over the shoulder dates from Judas Iscariot spilling the salt at the last Supper. Throwing it over the shoulder is said to ward off the devil. I didn’t actually know that even though I still do it if I spill it.

I feel anxious about wearing pearls or opals too. I had an opal ring but gave it to my daughter as she has an October birthday. Opals are supposed to be lucky for October birthdays.

Maggiemaybe

pascal30
harrigran
“Not at all superstitious, load of rubbish.”
Quite.. but also quite amusing

Yes. And quite heartening that some old beliefs and traditions continue. One of our police family told me that when they’re sent to a death at home, they open a window to let the soul out. I find that very…human.

I have just asked my relative who is a police officer and she said it’s the same where she is stationed and throughout the Police.
I presume it applies to all people in that position, eg paramedics, nurses etc.

My MIL insisted on giving money (silver coins) when she gave us some knives as a present apparently to ward off bad luck. I do touch wood