Superstition: Old Traditions


When looking through some superstitions, it becomes apparent that it would be hard to get through an entire day if you had to stop and observe all of them. 

Superstitions are the belief that something supernatural can affect our physical world unless the human does some magical gesture. In some forms of OCD, this magical belief is part of a dysfunctional thinking pattern that leads a person compelled to keep checking a lock or taking a certain amount of steps in every sidewalk square. Superstition is found in religions and folklore. Ask an athlete who keeps a penny in his left shoe-he made a superstitious correlation that he had something amazing happen when he did that and henceforth will not press his "luck."

Here's just some. Which ones do you actually succumb to?

Friday the 13th is an unlucky day
Break a mirror--seven years bad luck
Walking under a ladder causes bad luck
A black cat crossing your path is bad luck
A rabbit's foot brings good luck
Wearing clothes inside out is good luck
Crossing your fingers brings good luck
A lock of hair from a baby's first haircut is lucky
A sailor wearing an earring cannot drown
If you drop a fork, a woman will visit
Cat's take away a baby's breath
Warm hands, cold heart

I admit that when I was a kid, I used to have the hardest time with the mirror superstition. To my young mind, a fractured image would mean a fractured person who was reflected in that mirror. When I broke a mirror, I made sure not to lean over the pieces and be caught in the fragments. Some time between sixth and seventh grade, I got past this fear and actually opened umbrellas indoors and found it enchanting to have a black cat cut across my path. To this day, Friday the 13th is my lucky day which is, in itself, a superstition. Haha

Comments

  1. I am Mexican, and our entire lives are controlled by rituals and suerstitions. It is awful.

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  2. I have but one superstition I follow in life: "Believing in superstitions will turn you into a paranoid schitzo".

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