Today I spied a bright new penny under the bench in the LA Fitness locker room. I picked it up and put it in my gym bag ‘for luck’. While doing so I thought about superstitions in general. Despite all of our 21st century smugness about being better than our ancestors, our superstitions still have us by the short hairs. Don’t think you are any different. Never far below the surface is the Archaic. Superstitions are quite indelible, and even the most refined have a hard time poo-pooing them as nonsense.
Other people’s superstitions are bewildering, while yours are ‘valid’. I have an acquaintance who went into hysterics when I stepped over him while he was sleeping on the ground. Apparently this brings horrible consequences. I have no anxiety towards black cats, spilled salt, or stepping on cracks. Yet the 5 Coins card in a Tarot reading gives me the heebie-geebies.
Here’ a few of mine….
Despite the effort, I stop to pick up any pennies I happen to spot on the floor. “See a penny pick it up and all the day you have good luck”. I suspect if I don’t something bad will happen.
I don’t like to waste water. If there is any liquid left over it must be released on to the ground or down a drain, not trapped in bottles in rubbish bins.
I drink scotch and bourbon as a preventative of toothache.*
The last word spoken /the first word spoken of the new year must be “Rabbit”. I learned this in my youth off a calendar ‘for good luck’. In contrast, Someone has to make and eat black-eyed peas.
I don’t smoke more than one cigar at a time**
Given some coincidence of playing some tunes on days that turned out badly, I have some songs I avoid playing before noon, lest they jinx the day.
I am curious to hear from Spo-fans if they have any quirky superstitions and what would happen if they are not honored. Do tell.
*I have never had the toothache, and I don’t ever intend on having it.
**I am very good with this one; it has prevented all sorts of great calamities I am certain.
29 comments
January 22, 2013 at 11:14 PM
David
My grandmother was very superstitious and believed that one should never start a project on a Friday if it could not be completed the very same day; otherwise one would not live to see the completion of the project. After their home burned down in 1925, my grandfather started cutting the timber for the new house on a Friday despite my grandmother begging him not to do so. He died in August that year in NC, and it was so cold the night he died, they needed a fire in their temporary quarters. Today, I will not start reading a book on a Friday.
At midnight on the first day of each month, I have to say “rabbit, rabbit” to Barry, including waking him up if necessary. Also we ALWAYS have black-eyed peas and greens (usually collards) on New Year’s day. My mother always had to have all evidence of Christmas put away by Dec. 31, so that we would not have bad luck in the new year.
January 23, 2013 at 12:36 AM
anne marie in philly
none for me; pure bunk.
spouse must have pork and sauerkraut on new year’s day.
January 23, 2013 at 1:59 AM
Cubby
No superstitions; just a lot of OCD. I won’t hang my coats and jackets on wire hangers only because in some movie a lifetime ago a crazy woman screamed, “No more wire hangers!” I never saw the movie, but that command was burned into my soul by everyone at school constantly going around saying it. Consequently I avoid them lest some crazed woman will scream at me.
January 23, 2013 at 3:04 AM
Frogdancer
LOL at Cubby.
January 23, 2013 at 5:46 AM
Laurent
Ah superstitions have a far stronger hold on us than we are ready to admit.
BTW it is -41C today in Ottawa can you send fur coats please, I prefer sable lined with mink. Thanks in advance.
January 23, 2013 at 6:12 AM
Urspo
what becomes a legend most? My coats are cat.
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January 23, 2013 at 5:49 AM
David
I never let my dog run between my legs – they my tie me up with some invisible string and trip me!
January 23, 2013 at 6:31 AM
John
Like Cubby, I think I’m more OCD than superstitious. You will find my post on the subject HERE
January 23, 2013 at 7:05 AM
Tony Davis
i am one of those people who is better than everyone else–i have no superstitions! ha! really. i let go of all of that when i became an atheist, realizing that they are just another way to comfort ourselves into thinking we have more control than we do. harmless, to be sure, but useless to me. i prefer the awareness of random chaos.
January 23, 2013 at 7:19 AM
Mike in LAS
How true. We’re all just a big chemical reaction.
January 23, 2013 at 7:37 AM
Urspo
hohoho I bet I could find one or two on ya !
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January 24, 2013 at 5:54 PM
Tony Davis
try your hardest, spo. you won’t find one!
January 23, 2013 at 8:26 AM
truthspew
I’m not a superstitious type – I had to laugh about scotch and bourbon though – the alcohol probably sterilizes your mouth.
January 23, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Urspo
Hey, if it worked for Samuel Clemens, it’s good for me! BTW, last night I had a ounce of my christmas gift of Jura Scotch Whisky. My teeth feel wonderful.
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January 23, 2013 at 8:33 AM
Jay
Rabbit, Rabbit on facebook and my Blog the first of every month. No reason and I don’t think it works but it is fun to find the rabbit pictures to go with it.
January 23, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Greg
When I was younger, I dreamed that I was wearing something purple and had to go to the hospital. Growing up, I always equated bad health issues with the color purple, so I avoided it at all costs. That has slowly changed as I’ve reached by 40s and own two purple shirts.
January 23, 2013 at 3:07 PM
jason
Not sure if it’s “superstitious” or not, per se, but I try to do things as “astrologically appropriate” as I can…or remember to do. (depending on what sign the moon is in or maybe what my horoscope tells me)
Just like Nancy Reagan! 🙂
January 23, 2013 at 3:15 PM
jefferyrn
Don’t bend over and pickup a penny in a locker room shower, or is that soap? I can only hope something would happen 😉
January 23, 2013 at 3:31 PM
D@vid
I throw spilled salt over my shoulder… and pick up pennies if they’re heads up only. I will also go out of my way to go around a ladder instead of underneath them… and if I see a black cat cross my path and I can turn off to avoid it, I do. Keep telling yourself that about the scotch. 😉
January 23, 2013 at 3:41 PM
Ron
I would like to think I’m not superstitious but I cannot not make my bed when I get up in the morning. I think if I leave it unmade something oriole will happen to me. I also have to have my shoes lined up and socks matched. I’m a mess.
January 23, 2013 at 5:16 PM
Jay M.
I figure they’re all hooey, but “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back”…and “my nose itches, we’re going to have company”…and I definitely see a penny and pick it up because that’s just free money in my pocket! That’s luck in and of itself! HAHAHAHA
Peace ❤
Jay
January 23, 2013 at 7:56 PM
Gary Webber
Spo, I have always heard: Find a penny and give it away, then it will be your lucky day!
January 23, 2013 at 9:06 PM
james of the woods
never pick up a penny unless it is heads up.
and of course, no velvet before labor day or after easter sunday and even then, never before sunset unless you are walking the red carpet at the oscars and that is only to allow for the broadcast delay to the east coast. to ignore this rule is fashion heresy.
be aware of when the moon is void of course.
fill a beautiful bowl with water before midnight on new years eve. then on new years day, very first thing, carry the bowl to the boundary of your homeplace and throw the water away from you and your home. it cleanses bad energy away from you and your home. an ancient puerto rican healer/seer told me to do this and i do so every year.
frequently smudge the house with sage, always in a clockwise direction starting and ending at your front door. after doing the inside, carry the burning smudgestick in a clockwise sacred circle around your dwelling.
what can i say, i live in california.
January 24, 2013 at 5:04 AM
Paul Brownsey
I grew up in the West of England with saying “rabbits” on the first of every month. I knew someone from the English Home Counties who said “White rabbits” on the first of each month. My Scottish partner never knew it in Scotland.
Incidentally, be careful about picking things up in locker rooms. You never know where he’s been.
January 24, 2013 at 2:23 PM
BearTalks
OK, here’s mine (and it’s really working for the last few years):
If I spend a great New Year’s Eve – then the whole next year will be good. If the New Year’s Eve is boring/lame/failure – than the whole year will be stupid!
Sounds crazy, but it’s proved 😉
January 24, 2013 at 4:00 PM
victorinvermont
Energy is tangible. Feng Shui, superstitions, whatever you call it, you have a natural imprint, a memory of how to rework or re-guide the flow of energy around you in a familiar and positive way. Sometimes it’s obvious, like don’t walk under a ladder (because a can of paint could fall on you) and sometimes it isn’t so obvious, like picking up a penny bringing luck (copper is a strong conductor and attracts light, of course that’s a positive thing.)
I don’t know if you’d call it a superstition or my own Feng Shui or what, but my thing is with clocks. Growing up my mother was always saying there’s no time, I ran out of time, I can’t find the time, I didn’t make time to do that, I don’t have time… So one day I got rid of all the clocks in our apartment. I set the VHS clock (yes this was that long ago) to be the correct time instead of just blinking zeros. I went out and bought pretty clocks that were nice to look at and easy to read and put them in convenient places. I’m sure it was just a mental exercise but it felt like the energy around “time” changed.
To this day I have a thing with clocks. All our clocks are set, and correct, pleasant to look at, and there’s one in every room in an easy to see space. If a clock stops or breaks or isn’t easy to read I have to correct or replace it. I don’t think it’ll be bad luck, but I can see that interpretation of it. I believe the energy around it will be off until I redirect it. Thermodynamics, baby. 😉
January 24, 2013 at 4:05 PM
victorinvermont
BTW Ur-spo the energy or waterflow is uber-important. It’s very cool that you have such a sensitivity to that.
January 24, 2013 at 8:03 PM
Sean R.
Hmm… We have a black cat. I’ve broken a mirror before. I’ve walked under ladders. I guess getting laid off in 2008 is bad luck, except that it put me on a path to the best job ever, with my family and I in much nicer living situation. OK, I’ve thought of one. I say “bless you” after people sneeze. (It’s just second nature.)
January 24, 2013 at 11:36 PM
Erik Rubright
Like Cubby, I’m just very OCD. I don’t believe in superstitions. Maybe OCD is the new superstition?