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Personal Superstitions

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Anonymous

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Today on the BBC Radio London Breakfast Show, Danny Baker polled callers for their personal superstitions, and I was wondering if anyone here had any interesting ones.

For example, one man had to reach the bottom of the stairs before the upstairs toilet finished flushing; Danny Baker himself admitted to not being able to watch a light go out. I'm sure I have a few -- just can't think of any off the top of my head.

Any takers?
 
I have a friend--no, it's not me, who has to touch all four walls of any room he enters.

I personally believe that if I see a "ring" around the moon, that it will snow within a week.
 
I always have to be out of the room when the computer turns off. Dont ask me why, its not like I actually beleive anything bads gonna happen to me, but its just become habit.
 
And does it actually snow that week, or is it an unfounded belief?

I've weaned myself off not walking under ladders or on cracks, but I still cannot address an envelope by hand without adding a little zigzag squiggle beneath it; despite being atheist I genuflect at funeral processions (Catholic ancestry) and cannot go to bed without resolving an argument.

More to come as/if I remember...
 
Minor Drag said:
I personally believe that if I see a "ring" around the moon, that it will snow within a week.
Click to expand...

I think that one actually works.

I carry a bullet with my name carved into the case and a compass that points the wrong way for some reason best known to itself. For luck, you know.
I won't walk under ladders, or cross my cutlery on a plate. Oh, yeah, and I spit every time I see a white horse.
 
When I was at sea I subscribed to the sailor's superstition of not allowing whistling on board, which was thought to bring bad luck.

There are a couple of explanations for this. One says that Finns (for some reason) are often witches who can whistle up a storm. This may be a kind of sympathetic magic - when the wind increases to dangerous levels, it whistles in the rigging.

Another story has it that certain commands in the Royal Navy were given by blasts of a whistle, so anyone whistling could inadvertently create chaos!
 
I can't go to sleep at night without going outside to say goodnight to the world. It's something my Mum taught me as a child which, now I come to think about it, may well be something along the lines of "it's dark, now go to sleep please ". :rolleyes:

Jane.
 
There's one from where I come from that has cropped up occasionally.

when walking down the road it is bad luck to step on those manhole covers that come in rows of 3. You know the ones, the most common are the CATV ones put into pavements by cable companies. 3 prefab blocks in the way!!! aargh! can't walk on them!

*calm...*

Its interesting watching strangers do it too, because I'm left thinking 'where do they know that from?' I first heard it at school (10yrs ago now!) but I'm curious to find the root of this(apart from knowing its probably something to do with 3s like triangles/ladders against walls and all that).
 
Inverurie Jones said:
Oh, yeah, and I spit every time I see a white horse.
Click to expand...

I like it, but you must get funny looks on train journeys.

I walked round a ladder the other day, and I'm not normally bothered by such things. I used to believe all the superstitions when I was a boy, but I guess you just learn them from your folks and peers. Some superstitions are more like OCD (touch wood, third light etc)
 
mejane said:
I can't go to sleep at night without going outside to say goodnight to the world.
Click to expand...

Whenever my mother has been out for any length of time, she'll say "hello house!" on returning. I've always thought her quite insane for it, although maybe she's just naturally friendly..
 
Me and my sister say "Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit" everytime we see the clock turn to 12:34. Iv'e never heard anyone else do it, so I wonder where it came from.
 
Ah yes!

If the digital clock displays XX hours 59 minutes, I have to keep watching until it rolls over to 00.

I suspect that's quite a common one, though...
 
Long post about Escargot's irrational fear, sorry....

I'm dreadfully and fearfully superstitious about angels!
As a kid I was taught that angels are dead people. Thus, Uncle Bill didn't die, he went to be an angel....

I suppose this was a way of avoiding talking about death with little kids but it spooked me up big-time.
Because not only adults but children and pets died too, and they were also angels. So when my Nan's lovely Alsatian, Mona, suddenly disappeared, she was, I was solemnly informed, now an angel-dog.

And children too. I heard of several kids' deaths during my own childhood. They had gone to be angels. At the same time, one heard good or beautiful children described as 'little angels'. To me, it seemed that these kids might be marked out in some recognisable way as prospective angels, i.e. doomed!

My first child was a tiny, smiling blonde thing and like all new mothers I loved to show her off. Just occasionally, an older admirer would call her a 'little angel' and after a sharp intake of breath I'd HAVE to say, 'Please don't call her that!' It was like removing a curse.
Nobody took offence but I bet they thought I was nuts.

I attended all my kids' Nativity plays and each year prayed aloud that they wouldn't be picked as angels- that seemed too much like tempting fate! I used to look, horrified, at the kids playing angel parts and think, 'How can their parents let them do that? Don't they know how dangerous it is?'

Yes, I know, totally mad.
I understand now I'm older that I was just fed crap like all kids are, and love to read about angels and their supposed intervention in human affairs at times of stress.

But don't EVER, any of you, call a child an angel. You never know.
 
I follow some common ones, like not walking under ladders, picking up pins for luck, etc.

I also refuse to wear green on a Monday (don't know why, just as well I'm not a leprechaun!)

And I won't wear red, I have a feeling it's unlucky for me (no proof, of course, apart from the red Peugeot that I had a head on collision in).

And I don't like numbers that add up to thirteen, eg, 49, 58, etc, if I'm reading a book I won't stop reading it at a page with such a number.

Daft, aren't I?

Carole
 
All you people are in big trouble. Don't you realise that it is bad luck to be superstitious.
 
I sometimes have unlucky days, when I just know everything is going to go wrong. Actually, I think most people do- there seem to be generally bad days that affect everyone to some degree.

For a long time Tuesday was my unlucky day, I don't know why- just a sort of Arthur Dent thing I suppose.

I sometimes also have superstitions about items of clothing I am wearing when something good or bad happens, especially if they are consistent- I used to have unlucky jeans that always seemed to be the ones I was wearing when I fell over or fell off stuff or generally had bad things happen. Sometimes it is easier to blame the trousers in that kind of situation.

I won't walk under ladders, but that is because I don't trust them not to fall on me or people up them not to drop stuff on me, rather than any superstitious thing.

Single magpies make me nervous too- especially as I'm never sure what counts as seeing a single one- is it two in the same field of vision or two that you can see if you turn your head a bit or can you add up a day's magpies? And what if someone studied magpies, would their luck be permenantly changing? Does seeing two magpies negate the luck of seeing one previously and vice versa or does it give you some lucky event as well as the unlucky one?

I worry that I think about that too much, but there are a lot of magpies round our way.
 
I always get a bit worried in May, as my mother told me that our family always seem to die in May. The fact that all my cancer screening happens around that time really doesn't help. Neither of my actual parents died in May, but it isn't logical is it? Otherwise I'm not at all superstitious. 5 days to go. :(
I've just remembered I'm flying to NY on the 31st of May. :eek!!!!:
 
Though nominally on different dates, both my parents
died on the same night of the year, though seven years
apart.

I am always glad to get past that date each year.

Did it for 2002 anyway.

Now what is the age at which we stop feeling invulnerable
to the Grim Reaper? Does it come with a certain weight of
years or does it depend on lightning striking close to home?
:confused:
 
Dying relatives

Since my uncle died just before christmas 1982 I always feared that more relatives should die around the same time each year. This might be more fear than superstition though.
 
I always used to hate February. Every year for years I was unacountably depressed in February. It was always my low month.

Then a few years back my Grandfather, who I was very fond of, died in February. I was one of those by his bedside when he died.

It's funny, but the last couple of Februaries haven't been quite so bad.

Cujo
 
I think everyone hates February- it is so grey and dark and cold and it's always raining, a whole month of rain and you feel it should be spring by now but winter won't let go. So depressing.

It's universal enough that people write songs about it anyway.
 
Suspersitions

Whenever I get off my motorcycle I have to pat it twice and call him a "good boy" or he won't start up again. This leads to some odd looks in car parks.
 
i always have to put on my left sock first, and my left shoe too.(more than a superstition, a ritual, but is there a big difference?)


and now for some italian superstitions: do you have them in the uk/us too?

only one or two people can make the bed. NEVER three. (i suppose it has to do with infidelty...)

never leave a hat on a bed. (it's supposed to mean the owner is dead, i guess. anyway, death in the house soon).

if you spill salt, you'll have to pick a little bit of the salt itself and throw it behind your shoulder. (salt was v. precious; wasting it was a disgrace; throwing it away means "i'm rich, i can afford it...")

breaking a bottle of oil is VERY very bad (because it was expensive? or because it's a mess to clean it?)

(why am i trying to explain every superstition?)


also, two superstitions from when i was a kid (70s):
nuns=bad luck. if you see one, you have to pass it on to somebody.
a certain kind of car (NSU prinz)=very bad luck. if it was a green nsu, TERRIBLY bad luck. pass it on as fast as you can. (this is i think because nsu prinz was the lousiest car ever built...)
 
Superstitions

Leaving a door ajar while you sleep. Either you close it fully or open it fully. I never really know why I do it.
 
beakboo said:
But if the door isn't open a little bit, how would your cat get in to jump on your face? :confused:
Click to expand...

:wtf: I don't have a cat to jump on my face while I'm sleeping!
:rolleyes:
 
This is deeply insane, but when I turn off a TV, I always turn down the volume and set it to channel 2. I'm not sure why I do this, but it feels really bad luck not to.

Like carole, if I'm going through a set of numbered items (pages, songs, photos), I never stop at number 13.

Ginoide: I also do the salt-over-the-shoulder thing. I was told as a child you're supposed to it because salt is expensive, and so the devil must have made you spill it, so throwing the salt over your left shoulder makes it go in the devil's eye.
 
I always have to walk the dog around the town taking a clockwise route or I will get bad luck the next day.
 
superstitions

I have a few. I always, always, ALWAYS knock on wood accordingly. (Like if I say something like, "Don't worry babe, we're not gonna crash") If something self-entrapping is said and there isn't wood around, I knock on my boyfriends head. Good enough. :laughing:
Also, when I am driving at night, and a I see a car with one headlight burnt out, I HAVE to slap my dashboard. I've been doing it for years now, never missed a car, and now I think if I don't do it, I'll die in a car crash. This one is important to me because I was badly injured in a terrible car accident when I was young.
Escargot , I liked what you said about calling the little kids angels. I could see how that would be terrible if you were raised to think angels were dead. :eek:
Mr_Claw , I just wanted to ask you where you got your avatar pic from? I am really into art and that picture really struck me as beautiful for some reason. Is it personal or did you get it on the net somewhere? Neat!
*peace out peeps* :D
-andi
 
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