• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Superstition From Logic

B

Breakfastologist

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Jul 31, 2001
Messages
916
I was just wondering whether anyone else has experienced or noticed superstitions that have evolved from completely logical and rational actions because the original reasoning has been lost?

I noticed the other day that I will only use the left hand toilet cubicle at work, having a strong feeling that it would be unlucky to use the right hand one. It was the first time I noticed this although I think I've always used the left hand cubicle and I couldn't work out why on earth I would think that. Looking in both of them I noticed that in the right hand one the coat hook is above the toilet roll dispenser so that a coat like the long one I was wearing the winter before last would cover it. The other left hand one had the peg on the other side. I'm guessing that I started making that choice when I was wearing the coat and then it became a habit and I forgot why and so it became a superstition.

Anyway, long and dull examples aside, has anyone else found examples of this type of thing?
 
That's similar to the story of the young newlywed couple. After they had been married for a while the husband noticed that his wife always cut a joint of meat in half before roasting it. When he asked her why she explained that she did it this way because that is what her mother had always done. When the occasion arose, he asked his mother-in-law the same question, and received the same answer. It was done this way because that was the way her mother had done it.
Long story short. After making enquiries with increasingly elderly relatives, it turns out that the original reason that meat had been cooked in this way was that one of the wifes ancestors had only had a very small oven and had been forced, by necessity, to cut a joint of meat in half before cooking it. her daughter had observed this and just thought that it was the proper way of doing things. likewise her daughter and grandaughter, and so on down the line.
A prime example (though probably apocryphal) of a necessity becoming a tradition.
 
Some superstitions seem quite logical. Grannie always said that she
only got pregnant when she stopped biting the pillow. :eek:
 
James Whitehead said:
Some superstitions seem quite logical. Grannie always said that she
only got pregnant when she stopped biting the pillow. :eek:
Click to expand...

ROTFLMFAO!! :D
 
I thoguth granny got pregnant when grandpa remembered to take off his pyjamas? :D
 
James Whitehead said:
Some superstitions seem quite logical. Grannie always said that she
only got pregnant when she stopped biting the pillow. :eek:
Click to expand...
Jesus that's horrible!
 
You think that's horrible? Well Grandad tried to strangle her when
he found she was taking her pillow out to whist drives!

Oh dear, my nose is growing again. :p
 
This 2008 New York Times column (with reader comments):

https://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/why-superstition-is-logical/

... focuses on the logic of superstitious behavior in relation to avoiding risks. This is an interesting angle on the subject (and one that's been subjected to experimental research), but it doesn't cover all forms of superstition or superstitious behavior.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top