Superstitions and good luck charms

[wpadmirer]

Okay, I'm Southern, and we have a whole passel of superstitions and good luck omens. I grew up hearing things such as, if your palm itches you're about to come into money, or if your nose itches you're about to kiss a fool.

My father always made an X on the windshield of the car when a cat passed in the road in front of him. (And I have to admit that I do this, too.)

Currently with the pandemic going on, I have found that I wear this earring that is my birthstone and was a gift from my dear hubby of 42 years. Somehow I have convinced myself that if I wear it every day, that we will both be okay. (Now we also wear masks and wash our hands and social distance like crazy, but it's just a little added extra luck.)

I won't walk under ladders, and my husband makes fun of me because I won't open an umbrella in the house.

And did you know it is bad luck to have anything that's the image of an elephant where its trunk is down? It is indeed. My mother owned a pitcher like that, and things did not go well in her life. She always told me about the superstition, and yet, she hung onto that damned pitcher. My brain still believes that it was part of the problem.

So do you have any superstitions or good luck charms?

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

And did you know it is bad luck to have anything that's the image of an elephant where its trunk is down?

I guess that means this isn't just the happiest, but also the luckiest picture in the world.

[jesse_the_k]

<3

[wpadmirer]

Definitely!

[redrose]

I have decided it is good luck to drive underneath a moving train or airplane.

Also starting a roll of tp, or a jar of peanut butter, though for the latter, you need to scrape the shiny new top completely off.

[wpadmirer]

Driving under an airplane coming in for a landing at an airport is wild. Makes me smile!

And I can't get those tops off the peanut butter. I have to find help, or they're in pieces on it forever.

[althea_valara]

I do have some superstitions! The biggest one for me is "make a wish if the time is a repeating number" like 11:11 or 5:55. I've been doing this less lately but that's because I have less sense of the time these days.

I also don't step in the cracks in the floor in the main room of the gym, for the old superstition: "Step in a crack, break your mother's back". It's kind of a habit, though it's good that I'm not totally convinced that stepping on cracks is bad, because the locker room has pretty small tiles and I'd basically have to do a dance to skip cracks in there, so I just walk as normal, cracks be damned.

Hmm, I also seem to remember holding my breath when I drove past cemeteries when I was younger, but I don't recall what the superstition about that one was.

[ng_moonmoth]

>> Hmm, I also seem to remember holding my breath when I drove past cemeteries when I was younger, but I don't recall what the superstition about that one was. <<

There are a bunch of beliefs about the dead "stealing" signs of life from the still living. Might be that if a dead person in that mood sees you breathing, they would "steal your breath" and you'd wind up joining them in the cemetery. So you hold your breath so they wouldn't think to do that.

Not definitive here, just a thought.

[wpadmirer]

I never had any about cemeteries. Huh.

[wpadmirer]

I used to do that! I also remember there was another one that went, "Step on a hole and break your mother's sugar bowl." I always thought, well that's pretty extreme the other way!

[lash_larue]

I remember the cat thing, but ladders are only good for falling off of.

Never heard of the elephant thing, but I've always heard that hanging a horseshoe upside down is bad luck.

One thing I do believe is that if an orange s.o.b. crosses your path it's bad luck.

L

[redrose]

I was taught to hang horseshoes the same way, but I've seen the reverse held up as right, too!

[wpadmirer]

I always heard that the luck pours out of them if you hang them with the opening at the bottom.

[wpadmirer]

LOL! Yeah, I agree with you on the orange thing.

[brumeier]

One of my personal, long-held superstitions is that I won't hit a deer with car if the radio is on. Even better if I'm singing along to whatever music is playing. So far it's held up.

Something my dad always did that I also find myself doing, is when he has to write three sixes in a row, he puts a little dash through the stem of the middle one to make a cross. Therefore negating the whole number of the beast thing, presumably. I'm not a religious person myself, but I can't write three sixes by hand without doing it.

And you must never, ever put shoes or hats on tables! LOL!

[wpadmirer]

I love all of these!

I'd heard about the hat thing, but never shoes!

[aome]

My good luck charm growing up was a silver pendant of a pair of wee Dutch "wooden shoes," which I received for my 5th birthday, spent with relatives in Holland. I wore it whenever I had any sort of big exam at school, and even my driver's test. For some reason, it represented my Oma (grandma), whom I sorta-prayed to, not really being big on God back then. I still have the necklace, and I still love it, although I no longer wear it as a good luck charm.

These days, I wear a silver necklace with about a half-dozen sentimentally signficant pendants on it all at once. One of those things is a seriously banged up cross that I got when I was 9. I have often thought of replacing it with something NOT banged-up, but I admit I feel kind of superstitious about it. Not like Heaven Will Smite Me or anything like that just ... unlucky, I guess?

It's not really for luck, but I'm OCD enough that if I do something on the right side - like step on a small rock, which I can feel through my shoe - I want to do it on the left side, too, so things feel balanced. I'll feel weird otherwise. :P

[wpadmirer]

I totally get the not changing the pendant.

I think all superstitions are probably a bit of OCD.

[light_of_summer]

These are really interesting! Most of the above are new to me.

As I recall it, my family's approach to bad-luck superstitions like ladders and cracks and black cats was "Some people believe that ___ is bad luck, but it's not true." I think the only warding-off-bad-luck custom we observed was to say "Bless you!" or "Gesundheit!" after someone sneezed. (Interestingly, I learned the latter word from an an aunt who pronounced it "Kazoomtite" and told me it was Chinese. I don't think I learned the truth about that until around eight years later, in high school German class.)

However, our family's approach to more good-luck/wish kinds of superstitions was "Why not try it? It's fun, and no harm done if it's not true." The ones we observed were:

Making a silent wish before trying to blow out all the candles on your birthday cake with one breath

Making a silent wish after seeing the first star of the evening and reciting "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight!"

Two people each making a silent wish before tugging a chicken or turkey "wishbone" apart, between them (the one who ended up with the larger piece of the wishbone supposedly would have their wish granted)

Two people each making a silent wish after saying the same word simultaneously, while hooking their little fingers together (I later heard that some people say "Jinx!" after saying words simultaneously, but my family didn't—what was important was to be silent until the little-finger-hooking and the wishing was done.)

There was one more that I learned from my family, probably from my father, that supposedly predicts the future. In my experience, it absolutely does not work. It says that a white spot on your fingernail predicts a forthcoming event that will happen around the time the white spot grows out to the end of the nail. The kind of event depends on which finger it is. The order, counting from thumb to little finger, goes "Gift, friend, foe, sweetheart, journey to go." Which hand it is doesn't matter.

Content Warning for the rest of this entry: contains material that may be offensive to practicing Catholics. Highlight to read, at your own risk.

I was a practicing Neo-Pagan witch for a large part of my adult life. I learned a couple of parking charms from other witches. They are recited aloud, as you approach or travel toward your destination. I still use those fairly often. Hard to say whether they have any effect or not.

One of the parking charms goes, "Hail Mary, full of Grace, help us find a parking place!" (No, I'm not sure why I learned a probably-Catholic charm/prayer from a witch, but many of the Neo-Pagans I knew were people who seemed wounded by experiences with more mainstream religions.)

The other parking charm, in the form that I use it, today, goes, "Squat, Squat, a parking spot near [destination], please, and I will send you three nuns!" After I have parked successfully, I say, "Thank you, Squat, your nuns are in the mail!" and I mentally picture three Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence flying through the air towards Squat, the Goddess of Parking Places.

For those who may not have heard of them, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are an organization of queer and trans people with a mission "to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt." They are often seen in nuns' habits and dramatic drag makeup. Their website and wikipedia article are easily found by web search. I have never asked them, but have always thought Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence would be less likely to be offended by me picturing them in a parking-charm thank-you than someone in a conventional Catholic vocation.

[wpadmirer]

That silent wish thing is cool. We did that with the birthday candles and the first star, but nothing else.

And I love those other superstitions from the sisters. They rock.

[liseuse]

Hah! I grew up Catholic and I have to say that a large number of any intercessionary prayers (to the Virgin Mary, to the saints, etc.) were for relatively minor everyday things. Lost your keys? Quick shout-out to St Anthony! Running slightly late to catch a train? Quick plea to St Christopher! I am not particularly faithful as an adult but I do still find myself asking them for a little smidgen of help.

[wpadmirer]

I like that!

[liseuse]

It's habit at this point rather than faith, but it always tickles me. A friend of mine grew up Methodist and she was mildly horrified when she first heard me, in her words, "bargaining with St Anthony" because I couldn't find my umbrella.

[light_of_summer]

Interesting to know, thanks!

I had one practicing Catholic grandparent and one anti-Catholic grandparent who were married to each other. They made a deal with each other that their kids would be baptized into the Church, but not raised in it.

There was adoption on the other side of the family, and the adopting family was Presbyterian. My parents married in the Presbyterian Church, but they switched to the very similar but more friendly local Methodist Church, when they changed towns, around the time I was born.

So, I was baptized and raised bland, liberal Methodist. However, apparently enough Catholic influence came through that at least one of my past therapists spotted it. Even though I've only been to Mass maybe three times in my life.

[wpadmirer]

Actually I like the Methodist church in general. A doctrine based on love is pretty amazing.

I was raised Baptist, but fortunately before they lost their minds. At least before Reagan, they believed in education.

[liseuse]

I had one set of strict practicing Irish Catholic grandparents (maternal) and one set of not that fussed Church of England grandparents (paternal).

My mother wasn't particularly faithful by the time I was born but it would never have crossed her mind to not have me christened Catholic and I suspect my father (who was at that point a fairly hardcore Marxist) just wasn't given an option. I tend to describe myself as culturally Catholic rather than actively Catholic - I am the definition of a Christmas and Easter Catholic. The guilt though, wow does that stay with you.

[liseuse]

I won't open an umbrella inside a building - I will leave an umbrella slightly open having come indoors with it that way, and leave it somewhere to dry out. I also won't put shoes on tables because apparently that's bad luck?

I always salute or curtsey (depends on how in public view I am) to magpies and say good morning to them.

I'm not fussed by ladders and have never thought black cats were bad luck - helpful because I have owned two! I mean, the current one might kill me but it'll be by deliberately tripping me up because he's horrible rather than because he is bad luck by nature of the colour of his fur.

I grew up with the idea that an itchy palm meant money was coming your way and that an itchy nose meant someone was talking about you.

[wpadmirer]

Good to know someone's with me about the umbrella thing!

The cat crossing the road thing is ANY cat, not just black cats. I actually like black cats, and honestly, we never attached any particular bad luck to them.

Now cats, in general, trying to kill you? Yeah, that's true. (grin)

[liseuse]

The umbrella thing is one of those where sensible!me knows it's nonsense, but the effect of habit means I'll never do it!

Oh, I'd never heard the cat crossing the road thing but there is a fairly common superstition in the UK that black cats are bad luck because they used to be a good choice for a witch's familiar. They're just more likely to not be seen when hiding on the stairs and cause their owner to go flailing towards the floor, I think.

[ninetydegrees]

Not really but I kind of believe that I have a lucky star as we say in my native language or... how shall I put it? That luck is on my side some days or for some things. Well, believe is way too strong a word but I don't know how to phrase it. It's more like a fleeting thought maybe. (I'm also a very anxious person who can believe the worst is going to happen so maybe it's my brain trying to counteract the catastrophizing :)

[wpadmirer]

I like that. A lucky star. I would find that comforting!