Superstitions

Quite a few here that I've never heard including no hats on beds...

Living in London as a child in the 1950's, if a funeral procession passed by, everyone would stop and touch their collar - I think this was to ward off bad luck - if you didn't do it, you could be the next to go...

I remember that too bohemian

I remember the funeral superstition. Slightly off point, I also remember the bereaved household hanging a black wreath on the door.

I was rather taken aback when 'trendy' black wreaths appeared at Christmas.

x

At my Granny's Scottish funeral, all the curtains were closed before going to the church service, men only went to the grave yard and the women went back to the house to open the curtains and windows. Letting the spirit out.

After the wake the women went to the grave. I really don't know why it was like this. x

I suddenly remembered another one that my mother and grandmother used to stick to - you weren't supposed to grow your own parsley from seed, it had to be given by a friend as plants/seedlings. They must have spent their whole time pricking out seedlings for friends and praying that the plants would set seed. What a pain that must have been in my grandmother's farming community, where they ate tons of the stuff.

Putting shoes on the table - nono.

My mother would suddenly say 'Give me a number'... Someone would suggest a number, she'd count through the alphabet to the letter at that number, then think of someone whose name began with that letter. All this was to 'cure' a singing in her ears!

Putting new shoes on the table.

I must admit I don't like shoes on the table. I also am a bit superstitious about the magpie's. Mum had lots of them and she has passed some down to me but I seem to have grown out of most of them. I do however never buy my own purse, I give the money to my kids and they 'buy' it for me. Mum said you ould always be short of money if you bought your own. My girls do the same and get me to 'buy ' theirs.

I'm not a bit superstitious .....except .....I always put a coin in a purse if it is for a gift - so that the recipient will never be short of money. No shoes on the table, say good morning to the magpie, say white rabbits (if I remember) before anything else on the first of the month, throw spilt salt over my shoulder, knock on wood..... ...well perhaps just a little!

I sort of "acknowledge" magpies when I see a single one. By that I mean one on it's own. It might be in a deep and meaningful relationship, but that's nobodies business but theirs. I don't suppose that if a magpie sees me walking to the village shop, on my own, it presumes that I'm single?

My mother went along with the empty purse thing, whenever I received one from her it usually had a gorgeous pair of earrings in it!

(Not likely to happen now, she hasn't spoken to me for over 10 years

Well, at least you should never be short of earrings, phoenix!

Nope. No superstitions in my family growing up. As a teenager I briefly had an Italian stepmother (my father never remained married for long) and she had loads of superstitions. We just thought she was daft and ignored them

My grandmother, and most of her generation always closed their curtains when there was a death in the family and kept them closed until after the funeral. She explained that this was to inform any casual callers that there had been a bereavement and not to disturb the family.
One of my uncles married a Jewish lady who had stopped practising her faith. When my uncle died she covered up all the mirrors in the house until after the funeral.She said this a ritual she remembered from her Orthodox childhood when a death occurred.

I remember the rule about no new shoes were to be put on a table, and don't open an umbrella in the house.
My mother always told us to curtsey to a new moon, and also to turn your money over when you saw one.
It was a custom where I live to give a new born baby silver coins to hope he or she would never be short of money.

My husband worked in the shoe industry and he goes nuts if I put my takkies on the table. You NEVER put shoes on the table he says!!

It's also supposed to be good luck to say 'white rabbits' first thing on the first day of a new month. That's what my mum told me anyway.

A girlfriend's mother, a French lady, used to call me on the first of the month, shout 'Rabbit, rabbit' and hang up... She would also try to leave a paper fish somewhere where I would pick it up on 1st April (Poisson d'avril). This she found amusing...

Gosh, what a strange life I lead. I don't think I'm superstitious but read through all the posts above just in case there was something I did without thinking.

But no, none of them feature in my life, although I've heard most of them of course.

Are there any you can recommend I start believing in?

Oh feetlebaum, I'd forgotten the ear thing. My mother did the same and said "Right for spite, left for love" showing if the person was saying nice things about you or not.
pinkprincess we also gave silver to babies, if they grabbed hold of it they were going to be good with money.

No shoes on the table and turn over the money in your pocket when you see the new moon. And it's bad luck to see the new moon through glass. I'd almost forgotten Mum's strictures until I read this thread.

interesting to hear all these superstitions, some I know, others are new to me.My Mother was not superstitious, so we could break mirrors, walk under ladders, and ignore black cats/make a fuss of them, whatever we wanted.Why is it always Mothers and Grandmothers that pass on and maybe believe in all theses things?We don't have enough men on this forum to give us their take on this subject, Mr Rosesarered says it is all nonsense( he wasn't as polite as that ) and I agree with him, maybe ask your husband/partners?

rosesarered
My DH is certainly not superstitious, he keeps saying it is all a load of rubbish. His mother certainly was though.She was a firm believer in a lot of superstitions.One of them was not allowing a woman to be your firstfoot on New Year's day.She fell out with her sister-in-law because she would not let her into the house one New Year as she was the first visitor that day.I think she would have let any strange man in first, the fact he might of robbed her or worse had not occurred to her!
MIL's father came from Ireland, and it was rumoured he had been one of the travelling people, so that was probably where she got a lot of it from.

Upon seeing a single magpie I always say

"Good morning fine gentleman and how are you today"

DGD 1 has started to say it too. But is totally

DH is more superstitious than I am - one of his that I haven't seen mentioned is not to cut toenails on a Sunday.

Oh no or the devil will get you on Monday! My sons think all of these superstitions are a huge joke and greet them with "Don't tell me, it's Yorkshire superstition/saying number 379!" and other much ruder comments.