superstitious?

[maxxi]

Searching the forum for this topic only revealed a squabble over something called the steiner school so I am curious about the superstitions (or lack of) of our sceptical urban forumites.

Deliberately avoiding any comparision with peoples' beliefs re religion, Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy et al, I wonder how many of the superstitions we learned from parents (more usually grandparents) still niggle at us through the veneer of post modern cynicism.

If a ladder leaning on a building stretches to the curb and has an arc high enough to pass under easily how many of us would step in the gutter to avoid passing under it? And if we did would we be doing so for fear of being spotted going 'around' and being thought idiotic? Who doffs their hat/touches their brow and bids good morning to the solitary Magpie? And who would dare do it aliud and in company? Who breaks into a sweat at the thought of new shoes on a table?

I am sure the reasons for superstitions can be yahgooglepedia'd but I am not interested in origins - just whether or not anyone out there still believes or is affected by them.

*makes mental note to turn around three times holding a lump of coal and chewing a magpie feather before posting*

[Annette Curtain]

New shoes on the table. Good morning Mr Magpie, Good morning Mrs Magpie, How's mister magpie ? How's missus magpie ?

*spits*

Now, the ladder thing IS silly.

Sorry what was the question?

Superstitions ?

What a load of rubbish.

*touches wood*

[Frankito]

It's all a nonsense I say.

I remember my younger sister refused to sit one of her many driving tests because she din't see enough magpies in her front garden on the big day.

Fast forward ten years and she is now a Jehovah's Witness.

*pulls nit from scalp and hungrily bites the head off it cackling whilst he chews*

[Moos]

My father used to say that if you clink your wine glass and let it ring out (instead of stopping the ring with your finger on the rim), a sailor will die at sea. My mothr says it made him rather a nuisance at cocktail parties.

Marmora Man, have you heard that one? Apparently it was a Navy superstition.

[mockney piers]

Missus Mockney is full of them, and itching seems to feature prominently.

Left hand gain money, right hand you're going to get into an argument soon.

Left ear someone speaks about you, I can't remember the right ear. Magpies, ladders, you name it.

The only one she truly believes is that if i say 'ooh, traffic is surprisingly good' that we're screwed.

[Ridgley]

Interesting thread maxxi as I am Part West Indian we have loads!! Of superstitions I think some of this dates back to the slave trade a lot of it is silly and some of it has some sort of sense.

Don?t cut a child?s hair until he/she utters there first words ? it is believed it will effect speech

Don?t play with your shadows ? It will frightened you

When a newborn baby sleeps open a passage of the bible and place it in the crib ? wards off demons

If a member of the family dreams of fishes it means some one is pregnant in the family ? happens to be some truth to it my mother rang me when she had this dream before she new I was pregnant with my daughter.

To avoid morning sickness put a newspaper on your tummy before dressing and chew on a nutmeg ? actually works

When we were children my gran made a cake in the cake was three items a ring a rag and a coin my siblings and I had a slice of cake a coin means a prosperous year a rag means financial future is doubtful a ring means impending romance or continued happiness.

Yes you can all guess I got the rag:'(

[HonaloochieB]

MP, Mrs MP is Irish isn't she?

My mother had the similar itch-related superstitions, though hers was right hand gain money, left hand lose it.

Either ear meant you were going to hear bad news, the nose or chin meant you'd be in an argument/fight that day.

An itchy foot meant a journey and itchy genitals meant a journey to a special clinic.

[HonaloochieB]

Actually I made that last one up, Mother Honaloochie would never discuss genitals in front of the children, it's bad luck apparently.

[mockney piers]

Actually I think yours were a more accurate description than mine, and yes, Irish.

[Ridgley]

Like I said superstitions for West Indians dates back to the slave trade as the slave owners would have been Irish, Scottish, English, West Indians would have adopted some of this as well as there own ancestry African superstitions as well.

[mockney piers]

The Irish would have been far more likely to have been slaves than slave owners, though I guess there would have been some protestant grandees who would have been owners, but I think people forget just how many Irish did end up in slavery across the empire.

It doesn't even figure largely in the Irish narrative, hugely overshadowed by famine and revolt, but it's likely the figure was in the hundreds of thousands over a century and a half or more.

[Ridgley]

Maybe that where the saying, comes from you have to walk a long mile to find a good Irish man and good black man as you say MP there have something in common.

[Guest]

Not to mention with women, who are still effectively in slavery in many countries today. In the USA I believe that black men won the vote about 50 years before white women did.

I've also been told that the Catholic Church accepted that women have souls round about the same time they granted them to dogs. Nice if true.

[PeckhamRose]

Macbeth

MacBeth

MacBeth

Macbeth

Macbeth!

[Ridgley]

We are all doomed now!! you wrote that word PeckhamRose:))

[maxxi]

I can certainly testify to the truth of the itchy palm thing - my OH is also Irish and when having itchy hands intones "Left to leave, right to receive" meaning that money is coming if the right hand itches and vice versa with the left - but it only seems to apply if I or someone else scratches the said palm.

My mother (good Somerset stock) would never look at a new moon through glass and as kids on long car journeys, if we saw a white horse in a field we had to call out "white horse, white horse, bring me good luck".

I think the traffic saying is more 'Sod's Law' MP, like if you light a cigarette at a bus stop a bus will come straight away.

Very interesting Ridge- I think the rag, coin, ring thing is like the coin, thimble etc in xmas pud (the thimble meaning you'd end up an old maid).

[PeckhamRose]

Wot, MacBeth?

It's okay, I said it whilst I tossed salt over my shoulder turned round three times, got dizzy fell over got up and walked under the touched wooden ladder as the black cat crossed my path.

It's all nonsense, it really is, made up by people who wanted to pretend there was some kind of power, or to tell stories to explain stuff that science had not yet got round to explaining. Bit like religion, but dafter. Like homoepathy. ;) (pulls out pin, throws, runs away!)

[maxxi]

A lot is made of the witchcraft in Macbeth and that being the reason it is unlucky to say the name but it also - as a lot of theatrical superstitions do - had a more down to earth origin.

In the dim and distant past the one production a theatre company that was about to go bust could put on to guarantee 'bums on seat' and drag in some revenue so, if you heard it being mentioned the odds were that you would soon be out of work so it was unlucky to mention it.

Similarly whistling backstage was unlucky not as it annoyed the spirits but because most stage workers were ex sailors who were used to sheets and rigging and carried out orders based on blasts from a bosun's whistle so any unsuspecting fellow whistling on or back stage could cause a stagehand to let drop a weight/bar/sandbag etc which could fall on and kill the whistler.

[????]

Apparently it is very lucky to go to go and see a Pinter and fall asleep

[katie1997]

Its considered to be very unlucky to get married in May (in Scotland).

I never, ever, have daffodils indoors as my mum (and her mum) considered that to be very unlucky. I hate it if I see them in a vase anywhere now, probably as I'm now scarred for life after the Incident When I Picked Daffodils and wasn't allowed to take them indoors.