"Which Superstitions Are Based on Facts?" Topic

"Superstitions—passed down through generations, or developed spontaneously on certain online forums—gobble up thousands of productive hours yearly. But it would be wrong to say that all that time spent avoiding ladders or cracks in the sidewalk is wasted. For one thing, we'd probably just be spending that time on some equally useless activity, like working. For another, superstitions are essential binding agents between people, generations, and some vague notion of the Past, from which most of these superstitions sprang, and where, presumably, they made somewhat more sense. To learn more about which superstitions have some basis in fact, for this week's Giz Asks we reached out to a number of experts in the field.

Finding the real basis of superstitions is incredibly difficult because the majority date back many centuries. This means that their original meaning is a source of much debate and conjecture. Furthermore, in some instances the terms of reference/context change over time. For example, many scholars contend that bad luck associated with walking under ladders dates back to Egyptian times. This derives from the fact that a ladder resting against a wall creates the shape of triangle. The triangle was an important symbol in ancient Egyptian culture. One possible association being with the divine trinity. This connection supposes that breaking the triangle represents desecration of the gods…"

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Amicalement
Armand

You don't walk under a ladder primarily because (1) there may be someone working overhead who could drop something on you, and (2) you may bump the ladder and knock it over, injuring yourself and/or the person working above and/or anyone around you.

A ladder leaning against a building may be giving access to the roof or to a building entrance that you can't see from the ground (like a window), and while you're walking underneath, someone may get on the ladder overhead and drop something on you, or fall, etc.

Black cats, though, that's just superstition. They're the same as any other cats.

What about putting your hat on the bed?

My favorite superstition is there is an african tribe that belive they have a spell to cure infection. You have to eat grain that has been chewed by a cross eyed child and then left in a gourd shaped like a snake and hung from a particular type of tree for three days.

And it works!

Because if you leave moist grain hanging near a waterhole for three days it grows penicillin mold.

Robert

^^ Oh, that would kill me. :-(

Another true superstition is that you should never throw anything over your shoulder for good luck in a prison dining(?) area. Only bad things can happen from that…

Black cats, though, that's just superstition. They're the same as any other cats.

Cats, IMHO, are an evolutionary conundrum. At least domesticated cats are. They will step directly in front of you when you are walking. What the hell kind of survival behaviour is that? A black cat at night seems worse for this type of thing than a lighter colored one.

Black cats being unlucky stems from the undeniable fact that having cats in your house is unwise.

The overwhelming majority of superstition is taking fact out of context and believing in the alternate context. It's like discussing global warming today.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I believe the black cat superstition came from black cats supposedly being the familiars of witches.

That was certainly true in the TV show Sabrina, The Teenage Witch… ;-)

I'm not really one to be superstitions. But having served 10+ years in the Infantry in my long passed youth. Plus being both Parachute and Air Assault qualified. I'm not one for taking too many chances. In my old age …

Cats, that look in their eyes is not love or affection, they're just trying to figure out the easiest way to take you.

Ha!….

Amicalement
Armand

On this side of the Atlantic, black cats are considered lucky and often feature on Good Luck cards.

Well, I'm not so sure, Arthur: one recently moved in next door, since which my girlfriend's gone back to her ex.

Sorry to hear that, but perhaps it was lucky you discovered the truth about her sooner rather than later?

The old belief that bathing opened the body up to illness comes from the fact that the microbe hadnt been discovered and people didnt make the connection between bathing in the same water that they dumped their waste in which led to typhus.

This superstition against bathing is alive and well in gaming circles :P

Don't know how widely known this one is; it's considered unlucky to light three cigarettes from the one match (I don't know if this holds true for gas-lighters). The reason given, which I've heard several times, is that the time taken to do this would be sufficient for a sniper, at night, to see, aim at the light, and shoot one of the three soldiers. Folk-lorists take note; this superstition can be of no older date than the invention of matches. I believe it dates from the Great War. Apropos, the writer H Munro or "Saki" served as an NCO in that war and was killed in action. At night. His last words were, "Put out that bl--dy cigaret…".

Good Luck!

<}-;([]~