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Superstitions you follow

post #1 of 44
7/10/10 at 4:01pm
Thread Starter 
Just thought this might be a fun topic of conversation. Obviously there is no way to prove if these superstitions make sense, but if you abide by them it would be interesting to share which ones you hold as important. Also, we can discuss how these beliefs/rituals effect our lives

1) I never pick up any coin less valued at less than 10 cents if it's fallen to the ground tails up.

This has caused issues before because sometimes I'll drop a bunch of change and just walk away from it or refuse to pick it up, even though my dad thinks I should retrieve it. I usually try to convince him not to touch it either but he doesn't follow that rule

2) I never set my alarm to an odd number, or to a number ending in 0.

3) I always hold my breath when passing a graveyard in a car. The second we hit the graveyard, no more air can enter my lungs. If I didn't get a full breath? Tough. If I accidentally inhale a bit after we've passed the start of the cemetery, I have to exhale more than I just inhaled. Also, I need to hold my breath till I literally can't hold it anymore. I can't just give up because I know that a given graveyard is too long to hold my breath through. If it suddenly occurs to me that I'm driving through a graveyard, I need to cease respiration and continue through with only the air that was in my lungs at the moment I realized my mistake

4) If I see a rock with a band on it (like a line of white running through a black stone, all the way around), I need to pick it up and put it in my pocket until I get home and can store it (I have a box full of them now). To pick it up is good luck, to ignore it after seeing it is a bad luck. If I've already collected a bunch while on a walk and my pockets are full, I basically try and stop looking at the ground in order to avoid noticing rocks I'd need to pick up

5) I'm something of an amateur numismatist, and I have a bunch of coin related superstitions. I never spend bicentennial quarters (the treasury must love me) or coins from the year of my birth (or before 1969) if I notice that I've acquired one. It's bad luck to do so, IMHO

Ok, that starts us off. Anyone else care to embarrass themselves? I know that none of these are logically sound, but that's kind of the point of superstitions

PS I also am generally pretty contemptuous of religion and religious people! Go figure, lol
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post #2 of 44
7/11/10 at 9:26am
Okay I'll bite. I'm not particularly superstitious, but it's fun to act like I am sometimes. Does that make sense?

I always pick up heads up pennies. I will never, EVER say bloody Mary five times into a mirror. I've thrown salt over my shoulder after spilling a shaker before. I also hold my breath when I go through tunnels.

Mostly this comes from my mom, who always warns me not to "jinx" things. We went to the Petrified Forest in Arizona when I was a kid and I took a rock when I wasn't supposed to, and she got mad because we'd been warned it was bad luck.
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post #3 of 44
7/11/10 at 11:42am
I'm not particularly religious, even though I was baptized Catholic. But I always cross myself on a plane right before take-off. Or on a bus before a long road trip.

That's as superstitious as I get.

There are other weird little things and routines, but I don't consider that superstition. I just chalk that up to latent OCD tendencies.
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post #4 of 44
7/11/10 at 12:06pm
Kate, your list has very little actual superstition in it. Superstitions are vestigial beliefs held over from archaic religious or folk beliefs with some (often forgotten) basis in logic. (In fact, your number 4 goes against an actual superstition about not taking a piece of the earth from one place to another.) Your list sounds more like the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder.

For example: when I leave my house, drive halfway down the street, then turn around, go back to my house, unlock the door to my house and go back upstairs because I don't specifically recall looking at the empty electrical socket from which I unplugged the iron and therefore think I might have left it plugged in, that's not a superstition, that's a mental disorder.
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post #5 of 44
7/11/10 at 1:38pm
When I'm wheeling a load of laundry down the hall at Outpost #31, I always check to see if there are any mysteriously solemn-looking huskies around.
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post #6 of 44
7/11/10 at 2:20pm
That's not superstition Martin, that's plain clean living.
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post #7 of 44
7/12/10 at 5:34am
I cant seem to walk over three drains in a row on the pavement for some reason.

Also have a habit of waving and saying 'good morning' when I see one magpie outside.
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post #8 of 44
7/12/10 at 5:54am
whenever i spill salt i'll generally toss some over my left shoulder....feels weird if i don't
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post #9 of 44
7/12/10 at 10:04am
Where does the salt over shoulder thing come from, is it considered bad luck to knock the salt shaker over without then tossing some salt over your shoulder? Seems like I vaguely have heard this one but until now I had forgotten it.
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post #10 of 44
7/12/10 at 10:09am
A common belief is that it has something to do with spilling salt at the last supper, if I recall correctly? You throw the salt over your left shoulder cos that's where the devil is.

One superstition many of us follow without realising: saying "bless you" when someone sneezes.
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post #11 of 44
7/12/10 at 10:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby_Scriven View Post
Okay I'll bite. I'm not particularly superstitious, but it's fun to act like I am sometimes. Does that make sense?

I always pick up heads up pennies. I will never, EVER say bloody Mary five times into a mirror. I've thrown salt over my shoulder after spilling a shaker before. I also hold my breath when I go through tunnels.

Mostly this comes from my mom, who always warns me not to "jinx" things. We went to the Petrified Forest in Arizona when I was a kid and I took a rock when I wasn't supposed to, and she got mad because we'd been warned it was bad luck.
Perpetually hard wood? And you haven't connected the dots yet?
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post #12 of 44
7/12/10 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Kate, your list has very little actual superstition in it. Superstitions are vestigial beliefs held over from archaic religious or folk beliefs with some (often forgotten) basis in logic. (In fact, your number 4 goes against an actual superstition about not taking a piece of the earth from one place to another.) Your list sounds more like the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder.

For example: when I leave my house, drive halfway down the street, then turn around, go back to my house, unlock the door to my house and go back upstairs because I don't specifically recall looking at the empty electrical socket from which I unplugged the iron and therefore think I might have left it plugged in, that's not a superstition, that's a mental disorder.
Phil, what do you know? You only have one thread about you. Wiki has like thirty.
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post #13 of 44
7/12/10 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TzuDohNihm View Post
Perpetually hard wood? And you haven't connected the dots yet?
Wait, what? Are you implying an Oedipal thing?
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post #14 of 44
7/12/10 at 10:55am
Whenever I sleep near a crossroads I always do so between two pieces of iron so I'm protected from demons. Usually my sword and my shield. I must admit that I haven't seen any demons yet but who's to say that it's not because of the iron?
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post #15 of 44
7/12/10 at 11:06am
As far as the salt thing goes, what I have heard agrees that you're throwing salt in the devil's eye. But the reason the devil is behind you is because you've committed a pretty big sin. Salt used to be very precious and expensive, and spilling or wasting it was practically blasphemous. I must have heard that on some school field to my city's Custom House, or maybe it was Pioneer Village.
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post #16 of 44
7/12/10 at 11:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Kate, your list has very little actual superstition in it. Superstitions are vestigial beliefs held over from archaic religious or folk beliefs with some (often forgotten) basis in logic. (In fact, your number 4 goes against an actual superstition about not taking a piece of the earth from one place to another.) Your list sounds more like the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder.

For example: when I leave my house, drive halfway down the street, then turn around, go back to my house, unlock the door to my house and go back upstairs because I don't specifically recall looking at the empty electrical socket from which I unplugged the iron and therefore think I might have left it plugged in, that's not a superstition, that's a mental disorder.
Phil,

I'd have to disagree with you, I'm afraid. These are very much superstitions. My understanding of OCD is that it needs to be detrimental to your life on some level. The numbered superstitions I listed are things I do for my own amusement, for the most part. Because why not? It can't do any harm, and indeed there is comfort to be found in rituals. Long ago I had a little conversation with myself and decided to follow certain superstitions because it's better to be safe than sorry. I don't see anything wrong with that

My complex Graveyard breathing rules came about as a modification I invented on the traditional breath holding superstition. When I was little I discovered I couldn't always hold my breath, or that sometimes I'd forget to, and so the rules were invented because I think they allow me to stick as close to the spirit of the superstition as possible while still being practical about the whole thing

The banded stone one is something that dates back to kindergarten, when I first heard that such stones were lucky. I am a big fan of rocks in general, and collect all sorts of rocks for fun. However, I decided that if finding a banded stone and keeping it brings good luck, it logically follows that finding one and abandoning it to a lonely existence on the ground is therefore bad luck. Nothing wrong with that, IMHO

Things like setting my alarm to an even number, whats the problem with that? It's not like it makes me sleep deprived or anything. I just look at it as my way of ensuring I wake up on the right side of the bed, karmically.

And last but not least, the coins: nothing weird there. Plenty of people avoid face down coins. It's sanity by consensus!


PS I ALWAYS double and triple check the oven*, or get out of bed late at night to check it if I can't remember looking at the dials set to 'off'.. but this is because my house is a fire trap and I've been known to leave the stove top burners on or even the broiler. I've come down stairs to smoke pouring from the oven while a bagel burns inside. Therefore the double checking is a valid safety procedure and not a sign of OCD

* Though recently I've invented a method where I look at each dial on the oven one after another and count them off as I do. This provides me with a concrete memory to recall if I'm wondering if it's off or not
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post #17 of 44
7/12/10 at 12:00pm
My bad
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post #18 of 44
7/12/10 at 12:04pm
There is a pretty large overlap in the Venn diagram for superstitions and compulsions, Phil. It almost seems like it's just a question of volume.

A lot of athletes have their own peculiar superstitions--Wade Boggs eating chicken before every game, etc.--but then there are a couple of head cases like Turk Wendell, who would have to deal with dozens of them in a single game.

I only have a little bit of the "knock on wood" kind of superstition, i.e. some irrational fear that mentioning something bad helps will it into existence.
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post #19 of 44
7/12/10 at 12:04pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
My bad
No worries
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post #20 of 44
7/12/10 at 1:00pm
I'm a pretty superstitious dude. It's not that I believe anything either good or bad is necessarily going to transpire if I don't follow my little superstitions, but there ya go. Thus, I:

-throw salt over my left shoulder if I knock the cellar over.

-try not to step on cracks when I'm bopping down the sidewalk.

-pick up pennies when I find them laying face up.

-knock on wood when someone mentions something particularly fortuitous.

-say "bless you" when someone sneezes.

-make a wish on the first star I see at night.

-make sure to carry a piece of the Host, as well as a small vial of holy water, when I know I'll be in an area manifesting a lot of vampiric activity.

-avoid walking under ladders.

And so on and so forth.
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post #21 of 44
7/12/10 at 1:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Count Floyd View Post
There is a pretty large overlap in the Venn diagram for superstitions and compulsions, Phil. It almost seems like it's just a question of volume.

A lot of athletes have their own peculiar superstitions--Wade Boggs eating chicken before every game, etc.--but then there are a couple of head cases like Turk Wendell, who would have to deal with dozens of them in a single game.

I only have a little bit of the "knock on wood" kind of superstition, i.e. some irrational fear that mentioning something bad helps will it into existence.
There's also the whole "Don't mention the Perfect Game or No Hitter thing", which I subscribe to.
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post #22 of 44
7/12/10 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
I'm a pretty superstitious dude. It's not that I believe anything either good or bad is necessarily going to transpire if I don't follow my little superstitions, but there ya go. Thus, I:

-throw salt over my left shoulder if I knock the cellar over.
.
Never did this one, but what do you mean, knock your cellar over?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
-try not to step on cracks when I'm bopping down the sidewalk. .
Used to do this but I am clumsy enough to begin with and I once fell down while trying to avoid one and so I swore off the whole practice.

PS I'm curious about the origins of this one, "step on a crack, break your mothers back". Did this have some long ago basis in reality?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
-knock on wood when someone mentions something particularly fortuitous. .
I think this is one of the most widely held superstitions, but oddly enough I never got into it
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
-say "bless you" when someone sneezes. .
I say this, but just to be polite. My understanding is that people used to think that a sneeze meant that your death could be imminent (back in the black plague days)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
-make a wish on the first star I see at night.
.
I wish on shooting stars, and I actually credit this with perhaps changing the whole course of my life (for the better) after I wished on two in a row one night in late 2008

In general I'm like you, Mattioli, I don't fear that some great misfortune will befall me if I don't follow them, but I do it because there can't be any harm in following them
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post #23 of 44
7/12/10 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Princess Kate View Post
Never did this one, but what do you mean, knock your cellar over?
This

is often referred to as a "salt cellar".
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post #24 of 44
7/12/10 at 1:46pm
I'm not a very superstitious person but my Grandmother is the all time champ of Irish Catholic ones.

She's always made a point of going to the beach and putting her feet in the Ocean on the date of Mary's Assumption.

She always has to make sure to exit a building through the same door she entered.

Despite us having a very large family (my Dad's one of nine and I have almost 30 cousins) she would never let us take a full family picture and has outright protested any attempts to do so because she believes that one of us would die withing a year of the picture being taken if we did.
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post #25 of 44
7/12/10 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post

-avoid walking under ladders.
After working on building sites with butter fingered workmen for a number of years I'd say this is more common sense than superstition. Oh and if you ever see scafflolders putting up a job on the street make sure you cross over the road and stay as far away as possible, steel pipes and unguarded heads are not a nice mix, ugh.

I guess the only superstition I indulge in is saying bless you after a sneeze.
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post #26 of 44
7/12/10 at 4:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Savage View Post
I guess the only superstition I indulge in is saying bless you after a sneeze.
For a lot of people, I think this has become more of a courtesy move than superstition. Granted, this is coming from someone who always really liked that line of Bridget Fonda's from Singles about wanting a guy who says "God bless you" when she sneezes.
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post #27 of 44
7/12/10 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Bear View Post
For a lot of people, I think this has become more of a courtesy move than superstition. Granted, this is coming from someone who always really liked that line of Bridget Fonda's from Singles about wanting a guy who says "God bless you" when she sneezes.
My ex and her mother were extremely non-religious whereas I grew up in a Catholic household (hint: look at my name). When they'd sneeze, I'd say "God Bless You" only to receive an incredulous stare in return. Conversely, I'd sneeze and then wait in expectant silence for someone to say "Bless you". Good times. How else was I gonna cram my soul back down my throat?
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post #28 of 44
7/12/10 at 4:46pm
I had a friend that would get really pissed at me because I'd say "SATAN SATAN SATAN" after he sneezed. I don't really talk to him anymore.
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post #29 of 44
7/12/10 at 4:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Bear View Post
For a lot of people, I think this has become more of a courtesy move than superstition. Granted, this is coming from someone who always really liked that line of Bridget Fonda's from Singles about wanting a guy who says "God bless you" when she sneezes.
Yeah, I suppose so. I think Larry David covered the whole "bless you!" thing very well in Curb.
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post #30 of 44
7/12/10 at 4:59pm
I'm of the firm belief that any time the Green Bay Packers lose, it is a direct result of something I either did or did not do. The real key is figuring out what that "thing" is before the end of the game.
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post #31 of 44
7/12/10 at 5:02pm
I say the Bless You more as a learned manner, like Please and Thank You and Excuse My Growth.
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post #32 of 44
7/12/10 at 5:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Savage View Post
I guess the only superstition I indulge in is saying bless you after a sneeze.
I say "Sancho" to Spanish speakers if they sneeze and "You're sooooo good looking" to anyone else.
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post #33 of 44
7/13/10 at 6:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lloyd Dobler View Post
I cant seem to walk over three drains in a row on the pavement for some reason.

Also have a habit of waving and saying 'good morning' when I see one magpie outside.
Yeah my mother does this one as well, she says something like "Hello Mr Magpie and how is your wife?" apparantly one Magpie is unlucky but the plural is ok. All I know is we have gypsy in our family tree (real ones not new age travellers) so there are all sorts of weird superstions she follows.

The only one that has ever rubbed off on me is the Touch wood saying if I don't want to jinx something. Although I do touch my own head if i can't find wood, I can't remember if thats part of the supersition or just some random joke I've forgotton the origin of.
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post #34 of 44
7/13/10 at 9:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
How else was I gonna cram my soul back down my throat?
Oddly enough, I'd never actually heard that part of the tradition until Milhouse referenced it way back (seeing the word "cram" just reminded me of that line.) Until that point, I'd always operated under the assumption it was just a common courtesy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kernel View Post
I'm of the firm belief that any time the Green Bay Packers lose, it is a direct result of something I either did or did not do. The real key is figuring out what that "thing" is before the end of the game.
Someone very close to me refuses to wear a team's football shirt if he's gonna watch a match of theirs on TV. I don't know if this carries over to actually going to one of their games, but it's definitely a no-go when Sky Sports and the like are involved. On at least one occasion I've seen this person try to break the habit, only for them to change tactics as soon as the opposition score.
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post #35 of 44
7/13/10 at 9:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Bear View Post
Someone very close to me refuses to wear a team's football shirt if he's gonna watch a match of theirs on TV.
"You're wearing the shirt of the team you're going to see? Don't be that guy."
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post #36 of 44
7/13/10 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Blank View Post
"You're wearing the shirt of the team you're going to see? Don't be that guy."
STYLE THREAD FLASHBACK!
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post #37 of 44
7/13/10 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
I say the Bless You more as a learned manner, like Please and Thank You and Excuse My Growth.
Weird. I usually say "Choke and die".

I'm also pro beheading and ripping out the hearts of people who committed suicide or died unbaptized. We can ill afford another vampire epidemic.
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post #38 of 44
7/13/10 at 10:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelios View Post
We can ill afford another vampire epidemic.
Michael Ian Black makes a strong case to the contrary in his now classic essay, "Vampires - Good for the Economy", from his now classic book of essays, "My Custom Van: 50 Mind Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face".
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post #39 of 44
7/13/10 at 10:36am
Vampires are worse for the economy than even poor people. They sleep around all day instead of working like proper people and when they go at night who are they feeding on? Not poor people. They're asleep in their beds tired from making babies so they can collect government handouts. It's the well off, the true motivators of the economy out and about enjoying the fruits of their labor than get feasted on. Considering the vampires' ties to the old, degenerate European aristocracy it makes sense. They're eliminating their competition so in the end it will be just them and the lazy, unintelligent poor as their vassals.

For all we know Michael Ian Black is a vampire himself. Don't buy into his rhetoric.
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post #40 of 44
7/13/10 at 10:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelios View Post
For all we know Michael Ian Black is a vampire himself.
Well, now my mind's been blown back INTO my face.
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post #41 of 44
7/13/10 at 11:29am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
This

is often referred to as a "salt cellar".
Fascinating, I'd never heard that one before. Must be a regional thing, like "hogie", "grinder" and sub. In Massachusetts I've always heard them called "Shakers" (perhaps something to do with the real shakers? There is a Shaker Village about 20 minutes from my house)
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post #42 of 44
7/13/10 at 11:33am
Heh. I have a sports related superstition of sorts. A friend of mine is a huuuuuuge hockey fan. Granted, he's Swedish. So his team was having a losing streak and I wanted to cheer him up, so I made an offhanded remark about writing the name of the team on the waistband of the panties I was wearing.

Well, I did so, and they have been having a substantially better luck. Now whenever there is a game, he calls me up to tell me to put my Timraa panties on.
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post #43 of 44
7/13/10 at 11:36am
Big Packers fan. During the 1996 season, I had my GB hat that was signed by a few players that I used to wear to watch every game. They won the Superbowl that year. I wore it the next season too, and the day before the Superbowl, my dog got ahold of my hat, and tore it to threads. They ended up lossing the Superbowl. Being only 15 at the time, I felt like I was responsible for them lossing the game.
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post #44 of 44
7/13/10 at 11:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott View Post
I had a friend that would get really pissed at me because I'd say "SATAN SATAN SATAN" after he sneezed. I don't really talk to him anymore.
I don't think I'd talk to you either (no offense). I understand your joke, and I don't even believe in Satan, but all the same sneezing is not always fun and it's often uncomfortable. It's nice having someone acknowledge your sneeze in some way, and your "satan" technique feels like your using their sneeze as an opportunity for political commentary, which is not what I'd want to hear if I'd just ejected the contents of my lungs through my nose and mouth at 100 MPH
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