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Superstition

My Mother didn't like me hanging washing out on the line on a Sunday, she said it was 'disrespectful' and I assumed she meant to the Sabbath (although she wasn't that religious). Eventually got the confession that the practice came from the old women in her village (Prussia, Germany) when she was a little child. The 'disrespect' they didn't want to show was to the Winter Huntsmen lead by Odin searching for his missing wife Frea.
Pagan mum - well well.
 
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My mother (born Perthshire, 1913) had a couple of superstitions that l recall:

Boots or shoes on a bed were bad luck.

If one left the house, then had to return almost instantly for a brief period, e.g. to retrieve a forgotten item, one had to sit down and count to ten.

maximus otter
 
My mother (born Perthshire, 1913) had a couple of superstitions that l recall:

Boots or shoes on a bed were bad luck.

If one left the house, then had to return almost instantly for a brief period, e.g. to retrieve a forgotten item, one had to sit down and count to ten.

maximus otter


Did she ever say why boots on a bed were bad luck ? Surely there must be a good book of origins and explanations of Superstitions somewhere. Or is it all aimed at corrective behaviour of small children ?
 
Did she ever say why boots on a bed were bad luck ? Surely there must be a good book of origins and explanations of Superstitions somewhere. Or is it all aimed at corrective behaviour of small children ?

The Welsh side of my family wouldn't have footwear anywhere but firmly on the floor. Not on tables, beds, stairs, even the house back step.
 
I've certainly heard shoes on the table are supposed to be bad luck, new or otherwise. But not shoes on the bed - does that include slippers?
 
To my shame l don’t remember ever asking. lf pressed, l’d guess that it was something to do with death - corpses being laid out on the deathbed in their Sunday best for viewing?

maximus otter

Oh um... that was a bit darker than I was expecting. Thought it would be something like 'bad luck to get Granny's bed clothes dirty' or the like.
 
To my shame l don’t remember ever asking. lf pressed, l’d guess that it was something to do with death - corpses being laid out on the deathbed in their Sunday best for viewing?

maximus otter
That's the reason we were given too. The dead had clothes and shoes laid out on the bed or table so putting shoes there was a bad omen.
 
Given the work that was required to keep even a modest house sensibly clean and the working and living conditions of even 100 years ago, that might just be sound common sense.

There was no problem about wearing shoes in the house. You'd wipe your feet though! When people had slippers, which you wouldn't expect to get dirty outside, they weren't allowed on beds/tables etc.

Come to think of it I won't allow shoes anywhere except on the floor either. If I place a suitcase on a bed to pack it any shoes stay on the floor and then go straight in, they don't sit on the bed with the pants and socks!
 
Sure, the powerful Lucifer Morningstar, ex-archangel, ruler of Hell and all its dominions, stopped in his tracks with a bit of a stinging eye. Makes sense. :D

Salt used to be expensive back when it was used in practically the only feasible method of preserving meat. It was therefore precious and even magical.
 
The Welsh side of my family wouldn't have footwear anywhere but firmly on the floor. Not on tables, beds, stairs, even the house back step.

Picked up the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain & Ireland today - shoes on Table, no plausible explanation offered but suggests a corpse laying there. Also "Boots placed where they could not reach the ground suggested the dangling of the body - and the gallows" (not the slightest evidence to support this.). Most interesting is that the first known reference only dates from 1869. Who else can I bore ?
 
A forebear of mine was hanged in the 19th century for sheep-stealing, in Shropshire. Most likely Shrewsbury.

That wasn't on the Chapel-going, God-fearing Welsh side though.

A tip of the hat to you Sir for your illustrious ancestry. My forebears (mainly the elderly) had a habit of starving to death at the end of assorted wars.
 
Picked up the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain & Ireland today - shoes on Table, no plausible explanation offered but suggests a corpse laying there. Also "Boots placed where they could not reach the ground suggested the dangling of the body - and the gallows" (not the slightest evidence to support this.). Most interesting is that the first known reference only dates from 1869. Who else can I bore ?

Umm... Putting boots up on things is kinda dirty. I had no idea there was any more behind that prohibition than germ theory.
 
In my deepest self, I know it has no effect ( there are so many damn magpies around here that I'm lucky I have no superstitions regarding them) , but there's that little niggling, ' what if ' that flashes on at some moments. Having had the unverse fequently drop piles of ill fortune on my head, I ' know ' that sticking a finger up at the whole thing would result in something walloping me over the head. :)

I have a friend from Australia, and she says they wear bike helmets with zip ties arranged like spikes all over them to stop aggressive magpies swooping and pecking their heads during their nesting season.
magpie-4-1-2.jpg

The first time I saw a person in a bike helmet covered with zip ties I was bemused and a bit weirded out. Apparently the zip ties deter the magpies, much like corks on strings on swagman (tramp) hats in Australia used to do (allegedly) for flies. Having experienced Australian flies, I think the corks on strings are less plausible.
 
I have a friend from Australia, and she says they wear bike helmets with zip ties arranged like spikes all over them to stop aggressive magpies swooping and pecking their heads during their nesting season.
View attachment 12423

The first time I saw a person in a bike helmet covered with zip ties I was bemused and a bit weirded out. Apparently the zip ties deter the magpies, much like corks on strings on swagman (tramp) hats in Australia used to do (allegedly) for flies. Having experienced Australian flies, I think the corks on strings are less plausible.

Amazing - never heard of this before.
 
Amazing - never heard of this before.
When I lived in Singapore, '67 or so, we had mynah birds nesting in the roof one year and they defended their territory by swooping down and attacking us as we left the house, pecking at the top of the head. For some weeks it was less trouble to stay out of the garden, especially down the side of the house where the nest appeared to be.
 
If one left the house, then had to return almost instantly for a brief period, e.g. to retrieve a forgotten item, one had to sit down and count to ten.
The Russian twist on that is not to sit down and count, but to look in the mirror and meet the eyes of your reflection. Alas, I don't know the reason why.
Given the work that was required to keep even a modest house sensibly clean and the working and living conditions of even 100 years ago, that might just be sound common sense.
Also a Russian thing: shoes off at the door. The further East you go, actually, the sooner one is expected to remove one's footwear: certainly in Malaysia and Vietnam it's something of a faux pas* even to cross the threshold shod, whereas in Russia you're allowed as far as the hallway.

I've always understood it to be a courtesy to the mistress of the house**, at least in Russia, in terms of not adding to the burden of keeping the dwelling clean.

*avez-vous vu ce que j'ai fait la?

** Yes, all the full patriarchal weight of that expression is intended, give the socio-cultural and socio-historical context.
 
I found a penny yesterday. I don't usually think finding a penny is a lucky thing, but I found this one after a hard rain washed things around. It was a 1957 penny--my birth year. Should I carry it forever in my pocket or put it in my shoe?
 
I found a penny yesterday. I don't usually think finding a penny is a lucky thing, but I found this one after a hard rain washed things around. It was a 1957 penny--my birth year. Should I carry it forever in my pocket or put it in my shoe?

Impress your mates by saying you found it metal detecting.
Then bore your mates by telling them how much you spent on the detector.
 
Ah, now, I have an interesting story about lucky coins.
 
Ooh tell us more young Crone.

Oi Cheeky!

I used to carry an old half-crown coin for luck, mainly because when half-crowns were legal tender I was a kid and would have felt RICH to own one! It fitted neatly in my jeans watch pocket.

When I met the ex and we got to know each other, for some reason one day there was a half-crown on the pub table. One of us picked it up, can't remember who, and the other said 'Oi! That's mine!'

Turned out we each carried a half-crown for luck in our watch pockets, both dated 1952. Spooky eh!

That relationship is long over but the coins are still together, in a box in the loft somewhere.
 
At Primary School in the '60s the Dinner Ladies put sixpences and thruppenny bits in the Christmas Pud at the end of term. If you found one you had STAND on your chair in the Dinner hall, wave the coin in the air and say "Hello little sixpence" or " Hello little thruppence" whilst receiving a smattering of applause from your choking peers. This wasn't a superstition, just a ritual humiliation marginally compensated by the monetary remuneration.
I guess the practice died out long before the introduction of laws stating that you can't hide an inedible item in an edible one (which is why US Customs confiscate Kinder Eggs). I state there were many items on my plate that were inedible - is there a School Dinners thread ?
 
I have a friend from Australia, and she says they wear bike helmets with zip ties arranged like spikes all over them to stop aggressive magpies swooping and pecking their heads during their nesting season.
View attachment 12423

The first time I saw a person in a bike helmet covered with zip ties I was bemused and a bit weirded out. Apparently the zip ties deter the magpies, much like corks on strings on swagman (tramp) hats in Australia used to do (allegedly) for flies. Having experienced Australian flies, I think the corks on strings are less plausible.

These politicians need cable-tie helmets.

Swooping from the sky with a blood-curdling shriek, the magpies that gather around parliament in Canberra have been tormenting politicians by pecking them on the head.

MPs have been left bleeding and some have suffered injuries to their eyes, officials say.

Fiona Knight, the building services branch assistant secretary, said that the magpies had become a menace in many courtyards and outdoor spaces. According to experts, they are unlikely to leave of their own accord; Australian magpies can occupy the same territory for their entire life — up to 20 years.

To combat the threat, countermeasures such as scares resembling hawks are being deployed, including recordings of the noise they make.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/mps-under-attack-from-parliaments-angry-birds-3sfbpcvtd
 
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