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In honor of Friday the 13th (which has traditionally been a lucky day for me, oddly) I thought I'd ask about other superstitions. My Japanese friend told me about two from Japan - it's considered good luck to enter a building with the right foot instead of the left, and if you cut your nails at night, you will not be there when your parents die.
As a child, I avoided stepping on cracks, but wasn't especially obsessive about it, and I've always loved black cats, although orange tabbies are my favorite.
Anyone else have any superstitions to share?
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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My parents were married on a Friday the 13th so the day has always had an ironic happy glow about it when I was growing up.
Despite being pretty obsessive-compulsive, the only superstition I have is holding my breath while driving past cemetaries. Its really hard now that I live in Louisiana (there's alot of dead people here or something) with a cemetary just around the corner from my apartment at school. Its not something I do everything anymore, but I do it when I'm a passanger in someone's car. My boyfriend couldn't stop laughing when we drove past a really big cemetary in New Orleans last month and he didn't know what I was doing. He only saw my cheeks puffed up and shaking my head.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I tied a red ribbon on my baby's crib and stroller to keep away the evil eye. And if I or someone else gives a compliment, or says something good, I spit three times and say "Kaynehora" to keep away the evil eye. Like some other people knock wood. But knocking wood is just dumb -- it does not reliably repel the evil eye.
I don't put my shoes on my bed or a table, because that's just wrong. Or on the top shelf of a closet, because that's even worse.
And I always wear a seatbelt. Well, OK, not always, but whenever I'm traveling in a car. Although I'm not entirely convinced that this is a superstition. I think that there have been real scientific studies that have proven that wearing a seatbelt keeps away the evil eye.
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Tante, so many of your posts make me smile.
My daughter last night was bemoaning that she had to take a test on Friday the 13th. I said "Don't you take a spelling test every Friday?" and she says "Yeah, but this is the 13th!"
So I told her to grow up and quit being influenced by a silly superstition.
But now, after reading Tante's post, I find that I am superstitious too. I mean, I wear a seat belt all the time as well.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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In my medical school and residency there were superstitions about eating lunch. For example, no eating lunch with a red tray. Had to be a grey tray or that day or that night's call would be terrible. In fact, if a call team was eating lunch together nobody better pick a red tray or the rest of the team would be annoyed. Bad luck for the whole team.
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Theaca, my dad told me that when he was a resident, the women who came in in the middle of the night in matching fuzzy robes and slippers with severe abdominal pain, if they came in with blue slippers and robe, it was food poisoning, pink slippers and robe, it was appendicitis. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Theaca when you worked in the ER did you have the same type superstition the firefighters have - the one where you never, ever say the words "Wow, it's quiet tonight?"
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Oh, yeah, that's one all right. When I was in a crazy lightheaded giddy mood post call and about done with work I'd walk thru a nurses station or the ER and say, "man it's quiet in here," and then wander back out. I'd get so many glares. Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Never had a problem with 13. Or black cats. Or stepping on cracks.
Walking under ladders, yeah, but more because it's just a dumb thing to do.
On the other hand, I will never, ever put a bookmark in a book on a page with a number ending in 0. No idea why, but it freaks me out. And I must put on both socks then both shoes, never sock-shoe-sock-shoe.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:he fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavidekatriaphobia, a phobia of the number 13.
And here I always thought it was simply triskaidekaphobia too. Perhaps both are correct and triskaidekaphobia is just a more commonly used word becuz it's easier to day?
Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:And if I or someone else gives a compliment, or says something good, I spit three times and say "Kaynehora" to keep away the evil eye.
Really? ::wondering if Tante keeps a spitoon handy by computer::
I dont know about superstitions, but I've gotten into the habit of making a wish when all the numbers on a clock match. Like when it's 1:11. I dont know why I do it, but it's fun.
Posts: 499 | Registered: Mar 2004
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When I was a systems programmer, on call to baby the big mainframe of a major hospital, we had a superstition that if you went too close to the building at night or on the weekends, your beeper would go off. So I would give it about 10 blocks leeway if ever I went downtown while on call. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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There is another phenomenon to do with engineering and programming that I call "mystic fear" and that's when you don't understand why something bad or annoying (in your machine or program) is happening but sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't so instead of tackling it head on and trying to make it happen, so that you can truly understand it and know what you're doing, there's this insidious superstitious tendency to try to avoid the whole issue by doing various things that seem to maybe keep it from breaking. So like you'll quit naming the function with any underscores, or maybe combine a lot of smaller functions into a larger function, or other things that shouldn't really affect the outcome but somehow you start to convince yourself that they do. It's also known as "holding your mouth right" as in "the program crashed again", "Uh oh, you weren't holding your mouth right." Sometimes I would pat the monitor or stroke it under its chin when I was testing a new program change. Those last things are jokes but there's this real tendency toward mystic fear that you have to fight with courage and rationality.
Maybe that's why I'm so good at breaking programs now. I make a great beta tester because I can flat break a program, no matter how good the author was. Maybe that's because I've trained myself not to avoid any areas that are potentially iffy. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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One of my best friends has a fear of black cats--I was looking for a kitten to adopt from an animal shelter last year and she nearly freaked out when I considered a black one. (I ended up getting a pretty little siamese-mix queen named Zippy.) Ailurophobia is the fear of cats, I'm pretty sure, but I don't know what the fear of black cats is.
When I was little, I adhered to the "don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back", but that was more a case of having fun avoiding the cracks than actually being afraid my mother's spine would snap.
I've also thought of paraskavedekatriaphobia as "fear of Friday the 13th". Wikipedia says it can be called friggatriskaidekaphobia too. It lists triskaidekaphobia as simply the fear of the number 13, not specifically Friday.
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When my daughter was almost 2 we had some neighbors that were Vietnamese. The mother say my litte girls hair from the back, it went down to a point. She said that that ment that my daughter would have lots of brothers and sisters.
A lady from the Philippines saw my second daughter's hair from the back (it goes down in the same point). She said it meant that my next child will be a boy.
Posts: 747 | Registered: Aug 2004
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My Japanese grandparents taught me many superstitions when I was young. The "or else" part of it got kinda monotonous though. Examine:
Don't whistle at night, or else - ghosts. When camping, or otherwise peeing on the ground, apologize, or else - ghosts. Don't kill large moths; those are your ancestors, or else - ghosts. Don't kill geckos, or else - ghosts. Actually, this one could have been flies. I'll get back to you. Don't give things in groups of four, they're death omens, or else - a new ghost, who will be pissed at you.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I was told by a Cuban friend when it rained on our wedding day that that meant that one of us liked to taste from the pot when something was cooking. (Guilty as charged.)
I can see where that one came from, though: "Don't eat from that pot, wait until it's on the table!" "Why not, Mama? There's plenty!" "If you do... it's going to rain on your wedding day!"
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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My mother said that if it rains on your wedding day, it means that you are a nosher. There were snow flurries on my wedding day. Perhaps because I liked to nosh on ice cream.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Aha! Thus, the trend of June weddings is an effort to stop eating between meals! I see it all now. *rushes off in excitement*
Posts: 866 | Registered: Dec 2003
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See, I heard that if it rains on your wedding day, that means that condensation high in the air has precipitated back to earth in the form of small drops of water. Ironic, don'cha think?
quote:Ailurophobia is the fear of cats, I'm pretty sure, but I don't know what the fear of black cats is.
Racism?
Seriously, though, I'm pretty confident that I have no superstitions. Seat belts are not superstitions, they are specially designed safety devices. Saying that a horseshoe will protect you from harm is a superstition, unless you can somehow hit an attacker on the head with one.
I used to be an actor, too. I was in several plays back in high school. People say all actors are superstitious, but I never was. I whistled where I felt like it, I called "Macbeth" by name, and if someone said "Good luck" to me, I answered, "Thanks!"
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Verily the Younger: Seat belts are not superstitions, they are specially designed safety devices.
Yeah, they are. But what if you have the feeling that if you don't wear one, then you are just inviting an accident to come your way? That would be a superstition.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yes, it would. But that doesn't stop me from wearing them every time I go somewhere, because it's a proven fact that they protect you in the event that something does happen.
On any given trip, the likelihood of getting into an accident is small. But the likelihood is also there, and it would be foolish to refuse to use the seat belt on the grounds that nothing is likely to happen. Using one even for quick trips is not superstition, it's a simple safety precaution.
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Verily...actors might be superstitious, but baseball players have them beat by about a million miles.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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The only superstitious thing I do is in board games. Let's say I'm playing RISK and I only get one die, the unused die is going to be turned so that the six is facing up. I realize rationally that it doesn't in any way change the odds, but at the same time... Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote: Ailurophobia is the fear of cats, I'm pretty sure, but I don't know what the fear of black cats is.
Black cats are lucky in Britain, but if a robin flys into your window it means someone in the room is going to die. Magpies should always come in groups of two or more. When I was little, I got so good at not stepping on cracks that I don't even notice when I'm avoiding them now - it's a habit. I still look for four leaf clovers, and have found several.
But - I break mirrors all the time and wear opals although my birthday isn't in October, so I'd say I'm reasonably well adjusted. Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I imagine that regardless of what robins may do, everyone in any given room is going to die. Life does tend to end up that way.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:The only superstitious thing I do is in board games. Let's say I'm playing RISK and I only get one die, the unused die is going to be turned so that the six is facing up. I realize rationally that it doesn't in any way change the odds, but at the same time...
Woah! I do that too! And when I have two die in front of me and only need to roll one, I choose the one with the highest number.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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When we used to play Star Wars Monopoly, whoever was Princess Leia would win. It was weird. Pretty soon, even my brother was fighting to play as Princess Leia. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Wow, this is the only hit for "kaynehora" on all of google. what is the website for single google hits?
Oh, it was googlewhacking. But for some reason this doesn't qualify, even if I put it with spit. It still only has one hit. I guess I don't understand the google whacking rules. Besides, I wouldn't be able to come up with a puntastic alternate description.
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Didn't read the whole thread but just stopping by to say October holds a Friday the 13th... I made an appointment for a cleaning at the dentist (my dentist is about 850 miles from me but i love him and have been going to him for practically ever and can't really see myself going to anyone else) and the receptionist asked if I was sure I wanted an appointment on Friday the 13th!!! I was... ; )
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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