A Month of Superstitions

I don’t think there is anywhere in the world one could go and not find superstitions. All this month I’m going to share some common superstitions right down to the strange. If you have a favorite or weird, superstitions please feel free to share.

* Special Note- I will be giving mostly American versions and maybe the British as well. But, there are too many takes of superstitions that it would be too time consuming to cover them all.

Mirrors

A baby could not see its reflection or it would die. Now in my family it was bad luck. Another is to cover all mirrors after the death of a family member. It was so their spirit could not come back and haunt you. And of course the favorite: breaking a mirror is said to cause seven years bad luck.

Salt

Salt has many meanings. It brings prosperity. In witchcraft, its use is for protection and cleansing of magical items. To spill salt is a very ill omen. You must throw salt over the left shoulder to avert misfortune. If salt is scattered in the direction of another bad luck will come to that person. In ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’; Mary gives The Martinis salt as a house-warming gift. So their life would always have flavor.

Black cats

It’s bad luck to have a black cat cross your path. In Britain it is lucky to own a black cat and unlucky to own a white cat. A dying cat was often thrown outside for feat that Death, when it came for the cat it would stay for a member of the family.

Knock on Wood

To touch wood or knock on wood is a superstition action to ward off any evil consequences or bad luck, perhaps because of some recent action you’ve taken or untimely boasting about your good fortune (“I’ve never been in danger of drowning, touch wood”); it can also be a charm to bring good luck. The origin is unknown, though some writers have pointed to pre-Christian rituals involving the spirits of sacred trees such as the oak, ash, holly or hawthorn. There is, I’m told, an old Irish belief that you should knock on wood to let the little people know that you are thanking them for a bit of good luck. There’s also a belief that the knocking sound prevents the Devil from hearing your unwise comments. Others have sought a meaning in which the wood symbolizes the timber of the cross, but this may be a Christianisation of an older ritual. It wasn’t always wood that was lucky: in older days, iron was also thought to have magical properties, and to touch iron was an equivalent preventative against ill fortune.

I find it fascinating to see some of these superstitions. But what is more remarkable is that we still believe in them. Myself included. Most of these I’ve covered are the superstitions I grew up with and to this day still practice. Better safe then sorry.