Do you have any superstitions? Or does your family have some?

[begin_within]

I don't know why I do this... but I always pet my cats three times each when I leave to go somewhere. I guess I feel like it will keep them out of trouble while I'm gone. Has to be three pets on each cat - if it's only 2, I don't feel right. I have no explanation for this.

My mom used to say that if someone drops a fork on the floor, we will soon get a female visitor. If someone drops a knife on the floor, we will soon get a male visitor. She doesn't claim this any more, though.

My neighbor says that if you are trying to sell your house, put a statue of St. Jude in the living room, facing the wall.

[ironflange]

1. Nope, no superstitions here

Don't need them, touch wood.

[mykpart]

2. A couple from my Irish father:

If you forget something when you leave the house and have to go back for it, you must sit down and count to ten before you go back out.

Never give someone a knife as a gift. You must insist on payment of a penny, or it will cut your relationship.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. A few.

Whenever speaking about a possible disaster, I always follow with "G-d forbid." I don't spell out the name "G-d" in any language. Both of those are Jewish superstitions, but are more of a "habit" for me. I don't place a bed with the foot-board facing a door, especially if it is a direct line to a front door. I actually do "knock on wood." I do throw salt over my shoulder if it is spilled.

I have heard about the Saint Jude 'thing,' but I heard it was another saint and he is to buried upside down in the front yard until your house sells. Living in New Orleans, that saint has been sold out for two months. Store owners can't keep him on the shelves.

[idgiehkt]

4. Nobody in my family gets named Mary

Every "Mary" that has been born on my mother's side of the family has died in childhood. My great aunt had around 10-twelve kids and all those kids have kids and grandkids now and there is not a Mary among them.

[tjwmason]

5. A few

I always throw salt over my left shoulder (into the Devil's eyes).

Only one person should pour the tea (not sure of the origin of this one, but once a pot of tea has been made one person becomes 'mother' and pours all of the tea for all of the people).

I do the whole "touch wood" thing, though usually tap my head as the closest thing to wood around...

When I mention people I know who have died I always make the sign of the Cross (that's not so much a superstition as a prayer for the repose of their souls).

I never wear brown shoes in London (again not so much a superstition as an archaic fashion rule).

Oh and S. Jude is useful for lots of things - he's the patron saint of lost causes. Apparently he wasn't invoked much because of the potential confusion with Judas Iscariot - but as one of the Apostles he's a pretty important Saint up there in heaven...if one needs something then a candle, novena &c. to S. Jude is supposed to help lots, traditionally one is supposed to thank him publicly afterwards which is why newspapers &c. frequently have "with thanks to S. Jude" notices posted in them.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

6. All I know is

before I had my car wreck, black cats would cross my path while I was driving with such frequency that I started to take notice.

[zanne]

7. My brother thinks black cats are bad luck

He's staying with us for the summer. We have three black cats! (Come to think of it, he has been rather jumpy lately).

[begin_within]

8. I never bought into the black cat thing,

since I've had 2 black cats in my life and they haven't brought me bad luck, and whenever a black cat crosses my path I stop to pet the cat - and it doesn't seem to have brought me bad luck either time. I have no idea how that one got started, but I believe cats are a blessing.

[China_cat]

23. Black cats are only bad luck if they cross your path.

They are good luck when they come to live with you.

[MorningGlow]

9. My grandmother used to have tons of them

Brought folk magic beliefs with her from Sicily. We only remember a few now: never give a knife as a gift, sneeze three times mean you'll get a letter, always go out of a house through the same door you came in, things like that.

[begin_within]

11. About cutting a birthday cake,

did the "birthday person" have to cut their own piece in order to get their wishes - BUT if they took the knife out of the cake themself, the wish would not come true - someone else would have to take the knife out. Was this one of her beliefs?

[MorningGlow]

12. You know, now that I think about it

That may have been one of them, yes! I do remember the birthday person cutting the first piece of cake, but I had forgotten that they never drew the knife out all the way. Wow, blast from the past on that one! :hi:

[susanna]

27. My aunt picked up on your grandmother's knife one...

...she taped a brand new penny to the back of a chef's knife she gave to me for Christmas one year, like it canceled out the bad luck or something? Weird. I should point out that this aunt knows I love to cook and realized it was the best present she could have given. She's pretty cool. :-)

I don't have too many superstitions, myself, but I do knock on wood when I say something that I really, really don't want to happen, and I throw salt over the left shoulder when I spill it.

Now my mother...lots of them. Too many to list.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. I don't know of any family members now who are superstitious,

however, the older relatives on my father's side of the family were very much so. They were also prone to visiting fortune tellers about certain important matters.

[Thirtieschild]

13. Knock on wood - absolute must for me and anyone else

[MrCoffee]

14. if i ever see a hat on a bed around here, you'll never see me again.

[China_cat]

24. Got that one from my grandmother.

Along with a lingering jitteryness if someone opens an umbrella in the house.

[FloridaJudy]

15. If you lick a knife you'll go crazy

According to my deceased Russian grandmother. I have never heard this particular superstitious belief from anyone else, nor have I confirmed it in any Google searches, so I'm not sure if this is something common in small villages in Siberia or something she made up herself. If true, there was an awful lot of knife-licking in my family tree.

This applied to all knives. It could be argued that licking a surgically-sharp chef's knife is crazy, but the butter knife just used to frost a cake or spread jam on your English muffin? To this day I carefully rinse off those knives before putting them in the dish-washer. Not that I believe her, but old childhood habits die hard, and this one is fairly harmless.

[skygazer]

16. Shoes on the table make me crazy

Picked that up from my mother-in-law - she insisted it was bad luck to put a pair of shoes on a table and though I'm the least superstitious person in the world, I just won't do it out of habit. And if my SO does, I scold him. :blush:

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. Never, never put a hat on a snowman.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t4n6FpRnJf8

That and never put a hat on the bed.

Wait, that was someone else too...

[kath]

18. Re: the selling a house thing -- St *Joseph* is the one who's supposed to help - you're supposed to

bury a statue of him in your yard.

[begin_within]

19. So THAT's why the house didn't sell..

Thanks

[kath]

20. BWAH!

[susanna]

28. Wow - now that's interesting.

When I dug my herb garden, I unearthed an amazing buried charm/statue site. I swear there were about fifteen charms and statues buried in the area. Once I found them, I worked around them or re-buried them if I accidentally dug them out (goodness knows what kind of ill luck I brought on myself that way).

Anyway, I had never HEARD of burying such things. How neat to find out it's not all that unusual!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

21. Never say out loud anything along the lines of "Looks like the Cubs may go all the way."

Minimum result is a groin pull to one of the starters.

[kath]

25. And never EVER say, "gee, this ol' car's been running real well lately"

about your old clunker.
MEGA-jinx!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

26. Yup, you've got the idea.

[FloridaJudy]

22. "If you put your purse on the floor, you'll always be poor"

My sister heard that one from the Portuguese mother of one of her students. That must be why I'm not rich.

[JTG of the PRB]

29. I've got a few...

I throw salt over my left shoulder if it's spilled.

Whenever I'm driving, if I pass under a yellow light, I kiss my fingertips then press said kissed fingertips to the roof of my car. If I pass under a yellow light while turning or if I go under a red light, I kiss and tap twice. If it's a red light while turning, I do it three times. It's sort of a "thank you" to the Traffic Gods for keeping me safe as I drive.

I guess that's all I can really think of at the moment.