Strange Superstitions

Depends on the candy... if it's wrapped -- why not? Still, NOT from a garbage can. ick-ick

I remember something about a turned-up part of a hem, but not to kiss it, just to make a wish for the day before turning it down. I'd forgotten that one!

Here's one for you macsm11. Instead of cabbage, my mother from La. always served collard greens on New Years Day, representing wealth and prosperity thruout the year. My husband, who hails from Savannah, says that the black-eyed peas/hoppin john represents pennies, according to his daddy.

Cool! I never heard that one about the pennies!

I have had greens instead of cabbage at various people's houses; they are definitely an acceptable alternative.

Piffka, New one to me. You mean to tell me that if someone dies inside, the home must be abandoned? Mighty expensive superstition. WOW.

Misserfly, I've heard about the ladder and the coins superstitions. But the cemetary one is new to me. And the tunnel? Tunnels in this part of the country are very long and have lots of traffic. I doubt that it would be possible to hold your breath from entry to exit. Next time I'm passing through one, I'll give it a try.

I've never heard of eating special foods on New Year's Day. This might be because my family celebrates a different New Year's Day. And the hem of the skirt thing. You're supposed to kiss the hem of your skirt--in public. Maybe this was invented by some pervs who want to see a woman's underwear.

Never heard of the five-second rule for candy. If it's something I really like, I don't care how long it's been down there.

Atop or in the garbage can. I agree with Piffka. Yuck. Also feh, pooh.

Has anyone heard of this: When someone moves into a new home, you must bring them bread, salt, and sugar. Bread so that life there will be plentiful. Sugar so that life there will be sweet. And salt so that life there will be tasty.

Ooof oof, superstition, that's what we live off in Slovakia. Most of them come from old pagan habits and rituals and we hold on to them like a flea to a dog.
For Christmas we put a chain around the dinner table, to keep the family together, the youngest one puts money under the tablecloth, so that they multiply over the year. The mother of the family throws walnuts into 4 corners of the room, so that nobody gets harmed if he has to travel anywhere in the world. Naturally we cut the apple to see a star or a cross. the mother also puts a dab of honey on her daughters' foreheads - so that they are pretty and healty and thus able to find a good husband. We eat fish, a carp, scales of which we put into our wallets and keep them there until next Christmas (money multiplying method again). The domestic animals (our dog) get a little of every course of dinner that night, so they stay healthy and productive (not that we use the dog for anything, but tradition is tradition).
Easter is much weirder. Herds of men gather from early morning and visit the houses of single maidens, equipped with long (2-3 meters) whips plaited out of weeping willow branches. Ladies get whipped and buckets of water and cheap perfume are poured on their heads in return for food, drinks (most herds are hardly able to walk by noon), beautifully decorated eggs and even money. so unfair. it all has to do with fertility and health, don't see exactly how. if you are a particularly popular maiden, you will be thrown into a river or at least a bath tub and soaked thoroughly. luckily i am safely here, in the u.s. this year. my fther did call to whip me virtually though.

Pifka's right, though, Roberta. For what it's worth, east is the good direction, so all hogans are oriented with the door facing east. North is the direction of evil, so when someone dies inside, they make a hole in the north wall to let the spirit (chindi?) escape. This doesn't seem highly trusted - they still avoid a home or building in which someone has died.

Dagmar, Fascinating stuff. Whipping and dowsing. Walnuts and fish scales. I'm impressed.

Roger, Thanks for the additional info.

Roberty, in Germany you bring bread and salt to someone who just moved into a new house. Something to do with always having enough food, I guess.

Dagmar, that's very interesting. I know some if it - like the fish scales. But especially the Easter things are something else. Fun to read! Wouldn't want to be there!

Does anyone know why a shiny new copper penny is traditionally attched to a gift of new knives? I bought some from Williams Sonoma and they came with the penny and a note, but I forgot what the note said.

My mother does that one, cjhsa! As I recall, it's bad luck to receive knives as a gift, so the receiver must pay a penny for them.

Mom also thinks it's good luck to have a shiny penny in a new wallet or purse, so when she gives one, she always has to put in a penny.

How about pennies in loafers? Did that start out as superstition and became a fashion statement or what?
Has anyone mentioned "splitting poles" yet. Two people together must both go around a pole (or any other obstruction) in the same way and direction otherwise the partnership will split up.
Or the broom one. If you touch a persons' foot with a broom, you're "sweeping" them out of your life.
macsm, my mother followed the penny in a new wallet or purse one also.

We used to say "bread and butter" if two people went on either side of a pole or obstruction. (As in, we go together like bread and butter?)

I don't know about penny loafers...

cjhsa, I believe that it's bad luck to give a gift that has a point on it--knives, scissors, whatever. So the person getting the gift gives you money. A penny is getting off cheap. The way I've heard this superstition is that you must give a penny for every point on the gift. I used to love to give steak knives as an engagement gift. I'd get some money back! Six cents.

As for the coin in the purse, I've heard that too, except that it doesn't have to be a new coin, and it doesn't have to be a penny. The coin shouldn't be placed in a wallet but should remain at the bottom of the bag. This way, you'll always have money.

macsm, Bread and butter is the way I heard this too. When you're walking with someone and something forces you to separate, you say "bread and butter." Why? I have no idea.

eoe, I think the pennies in loafers are a fashion statement. But I do believe that they should be placed heads up for good luck.

It is a tradition when a mast is stepped upright on a sailboat that a coin is put at the base of the mast. I've never seen a sailboat that didn't have this done, even in casual circumstances... there is a rush to place the penny, nickel or, best of all, a dime.

According to this LINK, it is to protect the crew if the ship has troubles and goes back to a Roman belief in paying the ferryman to cross over the R.Styx.

Never paid much attention to superstitions. Except one of my own.
I always used to dread getting to the point where I had 13 cigarettes left in a pack. I was almost smoking 2 at the same time.

There's some great ones that have been added here. My mom did the thing with giving someone a penny in a purse and wallet -- Now I do it too. For awhile she did the one, asking the person she was giving something sharp to--for a penny, but that fizzled out.

My own superstition, since having a couple of poems accepted, I'll only mail out of a certain post office.

Lately wondering about another one, when people (who are very ill) think they see relatives who have already passed away either in delusions or dreams, is this a superstition that they are going to die soon, i.e., that relative is there to take them away, etc.?

Doll, how often does the ill actually pass away after seeing one of their deceased relatives?

Piffka, Somehow or other I heard about the coin under the mast.

oldandknew, You made that up. May I ask why you're counting the number of cigarettes in your pack? I do that only when I'm running low.

edithdoll, eoe has a good question. How often do the people who see the dead people die soon thereafter? I'm inclined to think that this happens because people who are very sick are thinking about dying and may have dead relatives on their mind. Congrats on having your poems accepted. I am superstitious in that way only when it comes to sports or gambling. For example, when I'm at the race track and I win, I have to do all sorts of things exactly the same way the next time I bet, including going to the same pay window. And when I'm watching a game and something good happens for my team, I'm inclined to do the same things the next time my team is playing. The year the Giants won the Super Bowl for the second time I ate more popcorn than I ever did or will again simply because I was eating popcorn when the team won at the beginning of the season. I was popcorned out that year.

From the Irish side of the family:

If you are setting a table and drop a spoon on the floor, unexpected company's coming. If it's a knife, there will be some sort of fight.

Spillt salt goes over the left shoulder because the devil is never on the right.

From the English (American since pre-1700) side:

Sing before breakfast, cry before supper.

Whistling girls and crowing hens always come to evil ends.

Why don't "they" like people to sing or whistle??? I don't get it.

But I do ALWAYS toss some salt over my left shoulder, even if nothing has spilled -- you never know!