Superstitions

Mine's knock on wood too rosesarered.

Knock on wood!

Oh dear - red and white flowers- blood and bandages - nursey one there.

Shoes on the table - dirty habit really.

Crossing on the stairs- don't know why just dangerous I suppose.

One to make the tea and one too pour it - give birth to ginger twins.

The last three are my mothers - yes she was batty!!

I never stir anything with a knife - "stir with a knife, stir up strife" . Never put new shoes on a table.

Umbrellas open indoors, ladders, 13, salt nor magpies bother me, but those first two ingrained from childhood.

I've overcome most of my mother's superstitions apart from those first two.

A few weeks ago I pulled up behind a friend queueing at the petrol station. I couldn't understand why she didn't drivel in to the first available bay, so sneaked in instead. She told me later that is was because it was pump 13! I would never notice the number, let alone refuse to use it! She is another who acknowledges magpies.

To my shame -

Acknowledge a solitary magpie

Throw salt

No new shoes on table

I never do washing on a Sunday , don't do housework or shop on Sundays , because it's The Sabbeth

Do all of the above, also if I drop a knife pick it up by blade ( pick up plade pick up trade ,pick up handle pick up scandal) also never put shoes on table but not sure why about this one

I was told about red and white flowers. Odd that they are so common as bridal bouquets.
DH talks to the magpies but he says "Good morning Major"

My mother would never have put washing out on a Sunday but I think that was more to do with it being Sunday than a superstition. My only one is not putting shoes on the table , especially new ones. Also, oh yes realise there IS another one, I don't like climbing up 13 steps, so I repeat the last one to make it 14, hoping not too many people have noticed.

Ah yes - I wouldn't put red and white flowers together either! There - I do have a superstition I follow! There is no reason why one shouldn't have e.g. Gypsophelia with red roses.

I'd be talking all day to them if I started addressing the pesky magpies - in the summer there are always some in the garden.

We were brought up to scorn superstition and I think the only one that I really practise is "don't put shoes on the table" - which for plenty of other reasons is good sense.

I always leave my umbrella open indoors to dry it off (or it might go rusty)
I walk under ladders - especially if walking round them would mean wading through the water in the gutter or putting me in danger of getting hit by a passing car.
No cat crossing my path has ever brought me luck - they just make an unpleasant mess in the garden.
Throwing salt over your shoulder just means there's some salt to sweep up and you've wasted some salt.
Spitting at any time is quite repulsive.

Can't think of any more for the moment.

Daddima Your Granny was not following a superstition she was just not working on the Lord's Day and keeping it as a day of rest.

On New Years Eve, if I am in a house, I have to open the back door to let the old year out, and the front door to let the new one in.

Definitely acknowledge magpies, never cross knife blades, always put a coin in a purse for a present.
Umpteen more from my mum but apart from magpies and throwing spilt salt over my left shoulder nothing else!

I throw salt over my shoulder if I spill it. Quite happy to walk under ladders however. Nothing should happen....touch wood.

My friend does that also, Hilda.

If I see one magpie, I always have to greet it with, "good morning/afternoon/evening Mr. Magpie, how's your wife and children", so that he doesn't give me the bad luck associated with one magpie.
As in the rhyme, "one for sorrow", etc.