Good-Luck Charms, Superstitions, and Traditions

[SherLOCKED221]

Inserted by Carol the Dabbler:

The following discussion developed from an unrelated topic on another thread.

They say deaths come in three's.
Who "they" are I just don't know!

[aely]

Everything comes in threes - bad things, good things, deaths...

 

In actual fact it probably doesn't, but three is a very powerful number and is sacred in many religions including Christianity so people attach significance to it. I have to admit to always looking for the third thing whenever 2 things have gone wrong!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Everything comes in threes - bad things, good things, deaths...

... but third time's a charm! (which is two bad things and one good thing)

 

Odd how strong a hold these old beliefs have on us. I don't like to state my hopes aloud (for fear of jinxing them) -- or if I do, I'll knock on wood.

 

But those aren't superstitions, just traditions!

[SherLOCKED221]

I do love the number 3!

 

Watch "The Number 23" with Jim Carey; it’s a drama (pretty good one for Jim Carey!). It's basically a movie about the number 23 and how it grips the lives of a few select people controlling them and taking over their lives! Pretty interesting concept.

 

A lot of people have good luck charms, superstitions and traditions; yet mostly we don't even know where they come from.

An umbrella indoors was only unlucky because the badly made springs in their first designs were known to come off knocking down valuables in the process!

Yet even though I know this I still can't let myself open one inside!! It's so strange!!

 

What bizzare (if any) good luck charms, superstitions or traditions do you have?

[Undead Medic]

What bizzare (if any) good luck charms, superstitions or traditions do you have?

 

Perhaps that might make a good topic, if you wanted to start it?

[Carol the Dabbler]

And here we are!

 

My own personal superstition is that I dislike having my feet on the floor when I'm initiating a phone call, loading a forum page, and such -- anything that establishes communication, apparently. I have absolutely no idea where that came from, but I feel much more at ease if my feet are resting on the base of my chair (or just about anything other than the floor).

 

Now you know! I don't believe I've ever told anyone before.

[Undead Medic]

I still find myself hesitating to open an umbrella indoors. Or to place outdoor shoes on a dinner table, it's funny, I know it's nonsense but I can't help it.

I also have been known to throw spilt salt over my shoulder.

Oh and mirrors, I don't like broken mirrors!

 

[aely]

I don't like to see a magpie on its own - I'm always looking for another to negate the bad luck ("One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy" and so on).

 

The NHS has a particular thing (rather like using the words "The Scottish Play" for a certain Shakespearean drama. I suppose) - you never EVER use the word quiet to describe a day that is not busy. It's not even used to tell people not to say it, one says "Don't use the Q word!" and originally I thought it was just a northern thing, but turns out it's pretty widespread throughout mainland UK. Using the Q word is like tempting providence in the worst way - and seems to be the surest method to make all hell break loose.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't like broken mirrors, either -- but that's mostly because I know who gets to clean up those wicked little shards!

 

"Don't use the Q word" sounds like a special case of "don't jinx it." But what's the problem with saying -- I'm assuming -- "the M word"?

[aely]

It's not the word, it's just seeing a magpie on its own - one is classed as unlucky and other numbers aren't. Apparently magpies have been birds of ill omen since the 16th century in the UK but the rhyme dates from later than that according to wiki though I suppose it could have something to do with he perception of corvids in general as the group name is a 'murder of crows'.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, sorry! My knack for unintentional ambiguity has struck again (and/or I've gotten my Shakespeare all mixed up). I meant the M-play, not the M-bird. Maybe I should have tempted fate and just said it!

[itslikelectiveamnesia]

Watch "The Number 23" with Jim Carey; it’s a drama (pretty good one for Jim Carey!). It's basically a movie about the number 23 and how it grips the lives of a few select people controlling them and taking over their lives! Pretty interesting concept.

 

 

 

this is a great movie! i highly recommend it. one of my favorites

 

and hmmm..well i watch the nightmare before christmas nearly every year around this time. cant really think of anything else other than like weird ocd things haha.

[EvigMidnat]

I just take the 3 thing as a given, even before I picked up the Wiccan/Pagan broom as it were, my symbol has always been the Triskele, my fave tribe girls always seemed to have 3 tribal markings, ect.

 

Superstitions... not sure i've got any that i practise, but i'll admit i like winding my mother and her cousins up with the shoes on the table one when i get the chance, my god my village is still in the dark ages

 

good luck charms: this ones easy, my good luck charm for gigs is my Bullet For my Valentine necklace, wore it to every gig i can recall, and for conventions its either my Myfanwy Necklace (given to me by Aely) or my Retcon to F*** T-shirt which I printed based on a dare by Gareth David-Lloyd at my first convention.

 

 

speaking of Superstitions

i'm beggining to think this was just something he said to scare me, and if its not i'm not sure if it still holds but when I first picked up a Sherlock novel my grandad told me that among Sherlockians you never said "her" name, it was like bad luck or the mothers-die curse, I didn't know wtf he was on about till we met her, i was like 5/6 at the time and he'd been telling me Sherlock based stories for years, so I knew her shape, even now I don't like referring to her by name, so like Sherlock I just say the Woman, i've got better, i'll call her Adler every now and then

[Undead Medic]

Speaking of superstitions, any sign of the apocalypse yet?

[aely]

The exhaust fell off my car earlier in the week, that was fairly apocalyptic. Otherwise, not a sausage.

 

As for the Scottish Play, it's a theatrical thing more than anything else - apparently saying the name M*****h inside a theatre will cause disaster unless you negate the bad luck (most actors have some strange anti-bad luck mechanisms that they make the person who has said the unfortunate name perform, including running around the theatre 3 times).

[SherLOCKED221]

My father hated to see knives and forks crossed and he's the one who started the blasted umbrella thing!

 

Most people are familiar with "God Bless You", yet most don't know why you say it. During the times when the flu could kill when someone sneezed it was thought to be a sign that they were going to catch the cold and die, saying "God Bless You" was/is a prayer to God that you won’t catch flu and die!!

 

As for the end of the world, many people and cultures have predicted it (including the Myans) and although I write this after the 21/12/12 the end could come at anytime from anywhere; I say leave the predictions for those who could do something to stop it. I for one know if the end did come there is very little I could do to prevent it so I have decided to "go with the flow" as it may and let "life go on" for as long as it goes on.

Why worry about something you cannot change?

[Carol the Dabbler]

The Mayans were presumably unaware that we'd eventually skip 11 days (in English-speaking countries) when switching to the Gregorian calendar -- so maybe they actually meant that the world would end this coming New Year's Day. (Yes, I realize that they didn't know about the Julian calendar either, but I've got a brilliant theory going, so please don't confuse me with facts.)

 

 

I still find myself hesitating to ... place outdoor shoes on a dinner table ....

... i like winding my mother and her cousins up with the shoes on the table one when i get the chance, my god my village is still in the dark ages

OK, that's two of you now. So what's this bit about shoes on the table? I know it's considered disgusting in Japan (since shoes -- and also socks, even if freshly laundered -- are considered intrinsically "dirty"), but I don't think that's what you're talking about.

 

 

As for the Scottish Play ... apparently saying the name M*****h inside a theatre will cause disaster unless you negate the bad luck....

If one cannot say M*****h inside a theater, how do they ever manage to perform the play?

[aely]

wiki says this about shoes on the table...

 

It is believed that the superstition originates from the fact that new shoes originally had the soles affixed by hob nails, and these would cause scratches on a new table if they had not already been worn down. Another belief common in the North of England is that the tradition relates to the coal mining industry. When a miner died in a colliery accident, his shoes were placed on the table as a sign of respect. By extension, doing so was seen as tempting fate or simply as bad taste.

The superstition may date back to medieval times.Some sources ascribe the origin to the fact that criminals were hanged while still wearing their shoes. Even among people who are not superstitious, shoes can be associated with contamination

As for the Scottish Play, I think it is just saying the name outside of the play itself.

[SherLOCKED221]

I also knew about the "skip 11 days" thing as well and I write this after new years so wrong again!

 

Its interesting to know about that shoe thing, although I never new it was bad luck! *laughs*

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'd never heard the shoe thing, either. Thanks for all the info, aely.

 

By the way, if y'all are looking for the language-related discussion ("not a sausage," etc.) that had developed here, I've moved it to "The Language Thread."

[EvigMidnat]

ok,

In England, putting shoes on the table is a portent of Death, or at least bad luck as it has echos of the days when people were hanged for the smallest crimes, i'm not sure why but new shoes seem to get a worse reaction,

if i remember this right my gran said once that putting shoes on the table is a sign that bad luck is gonna befal the people who sit down to eat there (the family who live there, from back when familys sat down together regularly)

[Carol the Dabbler]

You're talking about roughly Dickensian times? OK, then the shoe thing is starting to make sense to me. Back then, shoes must have been awfully expensive, compared to a typical person's income, so a dead person's shoes wouldn't be thrown away. Maybe they'd be set out on the table so whoever needed shoes would see them.

 

There are probably a lot of superstitions that derive from funeral customs. For example, in Japan, it's considered bad luck to leave your chopsticks stuck upright into your personal bowl of rice, because at a funeral, there's a bowl of rice for the dead person, with their chopsticks stuck into it.

 

It's also bad luck there to lap your kimono over the wrong way. What's kind of funny is that the "wrong" way is the same way that American (and I assume British) women traditionally lap their blouses (right over left) -- and I suspect it's for the same reason. Women's fashions have always been based on what the rich people were wearing, and rich ladies had maids who dressed them. Dead people are also dressed by someone else. Most people are right-handed. So what it amounts to is this -- blouses are designed for left-handed women, and shirts are designed for right-handed men. And American women will be snickered at when they try to wear a kimono in Japan.

[Undead Medic]

Could the worse reaction to new shoes be that often the only time when you would see new shoes on a person of humble origins was when they were laid out prior to their funeral?

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, still learning here. Shoes on the table are bad luck, but new shoes on the table are really bad luck? Do I have that straight?

[aely]

Sounds about right.