We've had a few threads here on superstitions so thought I'd throw one in for the Holidays..Here's a few that I found...

The child born on Christmas Day will have a special fortune....

Snow on Christmas means Easter will be green.....

If you dream of white, you will have snow......

If you are under the mistletoe with someone of the opposite sex, you should be kissed...Otherwise you will both have bad luck....

Singing Christmas carols at any time other than during the festive season is unlucky.....

And for New Years: The first person to come into your house on New Years Day should be a man...Anything else is bad luck...

How interesting! The only one i,ve ever heard of is about the mistletoe!

We have one where I live (North-East Scotland) that the devil once stood on a hill on christmas eve (now called the doun hill) overlooking my home-town of Portsoy and said aloud to the wind "you are a' my kin portsoy, fan i' time comes al let yi' a' in" meaning that he owned the souls of the townsfolk. To this day, there are two circular patches on ground where grass refuses to grow, it is said they are his hoof prints.

Classy lol.

I think that is pretty neat...never heard of it, but I'm from the States

You guys get all the best urban legends. Alligators in the sewers, the killer in the backseat, the man with the hook in the car door. no fair! lol

Some more urban myths on Christmas, that are decidedly untrue:

- Jesus was born on December 25.
The idea of celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25 was first suggested early in the fourth century. This was a clever move on the part of Church fathers, who wished to eclipse the December 25 festivities of a rival pagan religion. The celebration of Christmas took permanent hold in the Western world in 337 with the Roman emperor Constantine. Christianity had become the official state religion in 313 AD.

- Angels Sang at Christmas
The Bible never says that the Angels sang! Read it closely!!

- The Bible tells of three wise men who travelled from afar on camels to visit the infant Jesus as he lay in the manger.
Matthew 2:1 tells us: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem . . . ". That is it. There is no mention of THREE wisemen and no mention of camel! Also, Matthew 2:11 states "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him . . . ". Note that it mentions a child in a house, rather than a baby in a manger... .)

All interesting stuff, though, I think 'house' means where the baby dwells at that time and is more due to differences in contex and expression and grammatical word use from 2000 years ago. Interesting nonetheless though.

lol..I just hit reply and didn't type anything...So here I go....That is all very interesting, and I am not a religious freak, but the three wise men, the camel, the manager are all about the nativity...We were even taught that an angel did sing....Now in my nativity, I have all this, plus Mary, Joseph, Baby, plus other animals and the angel sits on top of the manger....So who knows for sure....Writings, times, religion has all changed, and like I said before it's always interesting to read something new....

On New Years Eve at midnight, we open the door to let Baby New Year in. It is an old pagan tradition that is supposed to bring you good luck for the next year. It is really exciting for the kids, and when they feel a bit of a breeze coming into the house, they get all excited that Baby New Year accepted the invitation to come in.

There's a few old superstitions in Scotland for new year or ( Hogmanay) such as;

1. Cleaning the house before midnight comes from the superstition of clearing all your debts before "the bells". In days of coal fires they would take out the ashes.

2. The first footing - which has already been mentioned, was for good luck but it had to be a dark haired male and he would bring a lump of coal or whisky.

3. The fire ceremonies - torches made out of animal skin would be lit and the smoke from these was supposed to ward off evil spirits. Also the fire balling ( which still happens today) where locals walk up and down the streets swinging huge balls of fire, this again was traditionally seen as a cleansing act/ritual against evil entities.

I've heard of this, but only where the New Year can enter, but I like the thought of Baby New Year more...

Yeah, I have done this every year of my life. It just brings back so many happy memories.

Thanks Anvil....Those were new to me....


You could ensure yourself good fortune by draining the last dregs from a bottle drink on New Years....(I like that one)

Make as much noise at possible at midnight to scare away evil spirits....(My grandchildren love taking the pots and pans out and raising hell outside)

Black-Eye Peas...A tradition common to the Southern part of the United States says that eating of black-eyed peas on New Years Day will attract both general good luck and money in particular to the one doing the dining.

Children born on New Years Day bring great fortune and prosperity to all the household.

Yep, I could see where it would bring back those great memories...And hopefully your daughter will carry on the tradition when she is older.....

I guess I will be buying some black eyes peas, I need as much good fortune and prosperity as I can get! LOL!

And my daughter when she goes to her dad's for New Year's always makes him open the door so that they can let in Babyy New Year and then she will ask me if I let him in here, too! I guess I have her hooked!

Hehee, I remember my dad doing this - he had the coal and the whiskey! These superstitions are dying out, I doubt many young families would be aware of them nowadays.

for the first footing - I was always told it was a man - with coal and or whiskey and some say through the window , not a door [on reflection maybe they were just drunk.]. but I've seen it done only through a door.

and for New years as well , the first person you kiss is who you'll spend the year with.

It is really rather astounding that this fact concerning December 25 is not more widely known. The church never publically mentions or acknowledges it, but they know it too. They knew it long before independent research discovered and documented it.

Assigning the birth of Christ to this date was only a small part of a clever, if not brilliant move on the part of Constantine, who established a religion for political purposes which centered around mitigating the large-scale religious unrest in the Empire at the time--most of which was caused by the so-called "Church fathers--who were summoned to the council that the Emperor held in Nicaea in 325 c.e.-- due to their conflicting stories preached to a huge populus whose literacy rate was approximately 1/100% overall.

All the writings to be used were decided upon (everything else was banned from preaching under penalty of death), the structure of the religion, the holidays assigned, all of that came out of Nicaea. And the result was stability in the Empire. It was in fact a masterstroke of political acumen.

What would you do if someone else turns up at your house for New Year first? "No, sorry, we can't let you in. Come back with a dark haired man and a piece of coal, or perhaps some whiskey?"

I really love that one. Who wouldn't be happy for a dark haired man to turn up with a bit of booze?