I wont say the d word or the h word, but I'll say the other ones

I knock on wood too. Lol I used to be superstitious but now I'm not so much that way. I had a chance to go Karaoke-ing with a friend recently on Friday, the 13th. Well, I was reluctant at first, but when we finally went out it was "da bomb." I had the most fun that I've had in a long time.........and nothing bad happened.

Okay, There are a couple on here I didn't see (I relate to all the obvious ones)

Never use the last match in the matchbook (I saw the third on a match was already posted)

Always walk in someones house and EXIT through that same door when you leave (not a different door)

and
Pink sky at night sailors DELIGHT; pink sky at morn sailors be warned. (weather related) - oh and yes upturned leaves is true!!

One other thing about being separated by a pole when walking as a couple: If you say "bread and butter" when you separate it reverses any bad luck. Jody

I think the OP was definitely in the right forum. Superstitions are perhaps the oldest form of urban legends. Many had good logical reasons in the first case, although as times and circumstances changed, these have become forgotten/separated from the superstition. I can't think of any that have not been covered by others.
My parents were very rational people and although we picked up awareness of the most common superstitions, we never gave any credence to them. I occasionaly say "knock on wood", but more to show others I am aware of the possibility of tempting fate with some utterance, than in any personal concern.
Number 13 is both my library card number (yes i did get in very early, and as indicated in other posts have been reading since the age of 2 or 3); and one of my favourite numbers, numerologically speaking. I find it fascinating that people will actually leave the 13th. floor, or a house number, out when numbering such things. This indicates a belief that the number itself can bring harm, because of course there still is a floor 13, or house 13, even if it is not called such.

Oh my loved the post Mr. W and it made me remember some more good ones:

If your nose itches you will kiss a fool
If your palms itch you will win some (or come upon) money
If your ears itch someone is speaking badly about you
If you drean of a snake someone is gossiping about you


Hee hee this is fun! Jody

If you have the hiccups someone is thinking about you.

I totally ahere to this. I can't believe I forgot it.


My nose itches all the time. I guess that explains my last two boyfriends.

Hi Mr. Walker...My address starts with 113, and so far it's bought only good luck...Knock on wood ...

Heres a few more:

A frog brings good luck to the house it enters. (Iwonder if getting warts when holding a frog is true)

Tying a knot in a handkerchief wards off evil.

It is bad luck to change a horse's name.

A superstition of mine is I'd jump over cracks... now I just drive over them.

I agree with not being under a ladder especially when a painter is on it. drip-drip.

As a baseball player, i've done a few. Pull the jersey, touch the helmut, adjust the crotch area, grab the meat of the bat(thickest part of the bat) before stepping in the batter's box.

Ive always been interested in these things. I know a freakin ton! but would have to think for a while to remember them all. Some that I follow are if someone hands you a knife open,its bad luck to hand it back closed. throwing salt over your shoulder ifyou spill some,and if your walking with a friend and yall walk opposite directions arouond somethibng like a tree or pole you should say "Bread and butter,come to supper. What goes up the chimney? Smoke. hope this friendship will never be broke."

Speaking about salt, a superstition I know of that most of my family usually applies to us is that whenever we pass salt container or anything the contains salt we must hand it to them and they must receive it by hand.

I have tons of superstitions.

One of course being the evil eye, this just naturally comes from my heritage. I'll hold my breath while driving past a cemetery and will not walk under a ladder. I freak out when I spill salt and throw damn near the entire container over my left shoulder. The whole bat in the house thing - as well as a bird in the house.

*thinks*

I don't put shoes on the table, one it's gross, two...my mother would scream it was bad luck.

I'm sure I'll remember more later.

lol...I forgot about the shoes on the table..Heres two more.

If you find a horseshoe, pick it up and put it over your door for good luck..

Two people grab the wishbone from the chicken, each with their pinkies and pull. If you end up with the big half of the wishbone, make a wish and it will come true. My brother and I used to do this, and I always wound up with the short end...

OH I LOVE this thread. It's so fun.

Bear: the Baseball one reminded me of my brother-in-law (we have a family softball co-ed team with our county) well he ALWAYS takes his cap off and places it over his face beore entering the batter's box...LMAO. Funny thing he was our top homerun hitter!! Hmmmmm. lol.

Goalienan: once again I forgot this one. Isn't the horseshoe supposed to be hung with the open side upwards as well? Good one!!

Distortedpandy: OH MY, I'm Italian and I forgot "male occhi!"....evil eye. ugh... the Italian "horn" you see some people wearing is apparently the belief to ward off evil thoughts


This is similar to the Turkish Eye:



Oh yea, the bird thing...if a bird flys into your house WINDOW and dies; someone you're related to will be dying shortly (hmmmm, morbid - sorry).

Another, if you see a herd of cows lying down look for severe thunderstorms coming.

Ahhh, one I always LOVED: when you hear a bell ring; an angel just got their wings.

When someone is in a play or acting on stage; never say Good Luck... say "Break A Leg"!

Ahhhh for a Lucky Bride: Something old, Something new, Something borrowed, Something blue, And a sixpence In her shoe. ((lmao, I did it!))

Good Luck: A 4-leaf clover: To find a four-leaf clover means immense good luck, so keep it safe!

Okay that all for now. I'll think of more! Jody

Hey She-ra...Your probably right about the horseshoe....I just remember the part about it being hung over the door...If you hang it the wrong way it will probably fall and hit you on the head...

I'm Italian and i was raised on two superstitions....The first one was when we wanted to put a curse on someone, we would put our pointer, middle finger and ring finger, down and shake our thumb and pinky to give someone the "Malorky."

Also the big one in my husband family, was wearing the garlic around the neck to ward off evil and fight a cold...Every Sunday, when we went to Brooklyn for dinner, my husband's grandmother would be sitting at the table with a chain of garlic around her neck...Actually it smelled better then my mother in law's cooking...

When I lived in Edinburgh I always spat on the Heart for luck. It used to gross out the tourists though.

When you give a purse for a present you should put a coin in it so it will never be empty. (a coin purse not a handbag)

Women on a fishing boat are bad luck.

Okay, lesse...

Holding my feet up and touching the window over train tracks
Holding my breath driving past a cemetary
Knocking on wood
Throwing salt over my left shoulder if I spill it
Not answering any questions that pertain to something that might screw me over....For example: "How's your car running, is everything okay?"

- my reply "I'm sorry I just cannot answer that, if I do it'll only crash and burn tomorrow or the engine will die."

Using reverse psychology in certain situations, like when I played soccer. I would believe that if I told someone we were gonna lose, we'd actually ended up winning. We really did finish in 1st that year so you can imagine how long I carried that superstition on for...

haahahha! My ex-husband was a merchant marine when we got married... let me guess... you NEVER EVER ate split pea soup aboard a ship either? Split pea soup is supposedly VERY back luck and calls up killer storms. He also has the superstition about whistling on a ship too. Frankly, I'm not that fond of it either since I learned about that one when I sailed with an old schooner crew with Outward bound. There are tons of funny superstitions about boats and the sea... I'm not so sure I want to be the one to test out if they're true or not. haha.

You must have grown up with the same sort of family I did because this is another one we ahere to. Except my mother always said that if the cows are lying down it just means rain, but I suppose that a severe thunderstorm is rain (really really heavy rain).

As baseball players, we need our superstitions, Heck! the whole team would do the "Pee-Wee Herman dance" if we think it would help us win.

I have always heard that when cows are laying down that the fish are not biting.

I've heard the one about the cows lying down, meaning it will rain...We always say that a ring around a full moon means rain...Now i"m not sure if thats a fact, or if its a superstition...I'll go with the latter...it's more fun...

This is kinda funny cuz today I drove past a field of cows and they were lying down but nothing has happened. Maybe it will rain later lol.

Some of them I've heard.


White lighters are incredibly bad luck to most people, though if you can transfer the lighter to someone else, the luck will follow it.

Seeing white butterflied on midnight of a summer night means you're close to death.

Lighting three cigarettes off of one match will result in the third person dying before the other two.

This one was beat into my head as a child growing up in Massachusetts: if you're ever lost in the woods, NEVER ask blindly for help, and never say your name out loud.

If you ever find a wooden pole sticking up from the ground in the wilderness, do not pull it up.

Like that comedian once said, I got a million of 'em.

I Love this thread!
Very interesting superstitions, especially those involving sailors.

I've heard that, like horses, changing a ship's name is bad luck.
In the old days, sailors believed a woman on board ship was bad luck. This is probably because most ships carried only men, and the presence of a woman would cause turmoil.
My mother, who was from Belgium, always playfully chastized our cats if they washed behind their ears with their paw. It supposedly brings rain.
I had a girlfriend who was Native American. She didn't like owls; felt they brought death to a house.
A bird in the house means someone close will die soon. I've had three or four birds fly in my open door this summer! No one close died. I wonder if it's ME? Yikes!
Fishing is always good (or bad) during a full moon. Some claim a full moon makes the fish more active. My father believed a full moon ruined fishing. He claimed it made it easier for the fish to spot insects on the water, and get their fill. Once full, the fish ignored your lure or bait. Frankly, I've never noticed a difference either way, during a full moon.
if you leave the toilet seat up, some woman will get angry. Oh wait, that's not a superstition, that's real life!
Racers believe that green cars are unlucky.

Same here! and the number 3.

Yeah, same here...I tried on purpose to walk under them too, just to show nothing will happen.

I grew up in MA. and I never heard of that...what does it even mean? haha

I have just heard of it to be thrown over your left shoulder for luck.

But horses don't have hands hahahaha

How will we know what they are or why then? hahahaha

Because of what?????????

Okay here is one when your right palm itches it means that you'll be getting money soon.

And this other one is called Ojo. It is the evil eye. They say if someone stare at you in envy of your looks or your hair, etc. And they don't touch what they are in envy of (like your hair) that night you will get a fever for no reason, and nothing will get rid of it. So you have to have someone rub a raw egg on you in the sign of the cross while saying a prayer all over your body. Then Crack he egg in a bowl and put it under the bed you sleep in. And if you indeed have Ojo, the egg will be slightly cooked the next morning.

Yeah I know weird. It's a hispanic thing.

Actually the Evil Eye is found in many different cultures.

Anyway, I was actually going to ask if anyone has superstitions about how to call snow/how to tell if it's going to snow/or just about snow in general. Because I WANT SNOW!!!

You and me both...Our winters have been crazy here in Jersey, and I love the snow...Now i"m off to check on any superstitions that will help us both....

Here's one that doesn't make sense, but it's a superstition...You have to dream of the color white and it will snow in the summer

That's interesting, I dont know to much about Spanish superstitions so thanks...

What's funny is that I was walking in the mall the other day and saw a t shirt that said "I'm okay my grandma rubbed an egg on me". I lmao.

Last winter where my mom lives, the most snow they got was under a centimeter!!! And that's in Southern Virginia!! When I lived there years back I remember getting at least a foot of snow. Now I'm living in the Blue Ridge, so hopefully I'll see snow here. But I'm gonna try every snow superstition out there to add just a little extra luck. I know it won't be snow like the Alps, but I still want to see snow.

Oh and about the dreaming of white and snow. Does that mean dreaming of something white or just dreaming and there is white there?

We used to get great storms in Jersey, but last year we got very little, sigh...About 5 years ago, our bay in town froze, and for 2 weeks the kids, adults, all got to go ice skating, pull sleds, play ice hockey...It was great.....Back to the dream, It said you had to dream of white, so I guess anything that is white will do...Ill leave it up to you...I seldom dream...lol

So I will dream of paper. White paper. Think white paper. Think white paper. Think white paper.

my mom has got one seemingly for everything you do.... "oooo don't cut your nails on a sunday", "don't put new shoes on a table" - some really bizarre ones too, but they're not springing to mind because they're so obscure and she's in australia on holiday!

Do you know I still do that with shoes, both old and new...Some things stay with you forever....

Click to view attachment


Here are some Halloween superstitions....

A burning candle inside a Jack O' Lantern on Halloween keeps evil spirits and demons at bay.

Gazing into a flame of a candle on Halloween night will enable you to peer into the future.

A person born on Halloween can both see and talk to spirits.

If you see a spider on Halloween it could be the spirit of a loved one who is watching you...

man i have heaps of superstitions. it drives my partner nuts ha ha

duck head when going under a bridge
hold breathe and make a wish when going over a bridge with water
lift feet over train tracks
dont cut the air with scissors.. only use them for cutting paper/material
dont walk under a ladder
dont flip hair over face and brush it like so at night
dont blow out candles. wet fingers and pinch out the wick
dont put new shoes on a table


although some i dont believe is breaking a mirror equates seven years bad luck.. seven is a lucky number supposedly, although i still wont be breaking mirrors (except on purpose when i make things)

a black cat is only bad luck when it crosses your path twice ie.. walks in front of you = good luck, doubles back and goes the way it came = bad luck

rant over

Not to be raciest but my friend is black and he says that if you sweep his feet with a broom he could wind up in jail,go figure?

I have a best friend who holds her breath going over bridges. We once crossed a causeway over to an island. The bridge was about two miles long. She almost turned blue in the face. Literally! And she also holds her feet up over railroad tracks.

But the ones I don't get are not cutting the air with scissors, not flipping your hair over, and not blowing out candles. Are they just bad luck or what?

My superstition is belief in god

I don't believe in superstitions but my mum does. She never puts keys or shoes on the table and she hates Friday the 13th.