Polish Lucky Charms

Lister1 · 29-01-2007 9:16pm #1

Ok, not talking about the cereal before someone posts a pic!

Trying to help out the gf with a project shes doing for college. She needs to find out what people from Poland consider lucky. The same way we consider a rabbits foot, four leaf clovers etc. as giving good fortune. Any ideas? Great if one of our Polski visitors could help us out here.

KdjaCL · 29-01-2007 9:19pm

Lister1 wrote:

She needs to find out what people from Poland consider lucky.

More than 1 euro an hour?

kdjac

Lister1 · 29-01-2007 9:36pm

KdjaCL wrote:

More than 1 euro an hour?

kdjac

Hehe, will tell her that one!

Any legit ideas though?

randylonghorn · 29-01-2007 9:39pm

Just from knowing a few Polish people ...

... knocking on wood (much as some Irish people would do, to ward away bad luck or catastrophe)

... red, especially a knot tied in a red string or ribbon or whatever

... getting hit by bird droppings

(no, I'm not taking the mick, but I can't absolutely guarantee that he wasn't pulling my leg: he seemed serious, though)

Terry · 29-01-2007 9:45pm

KdjaCL wrote:

More than 1 euro an hour?

kdjac

Banned for making me laugh to hard.

randylonghorn wrote:

getting hit by bird droppings

there are plenty of Irish people who thing the same thing.

randylonghorn · 29-01-2007 9:50pm

julep wrote:

there are plenty of Irish people who thing the same thing.

Really? I've never heard it here. Can't say I feel lucky when I get splattered!

Terry · 29-01-2007 9:52pm

yep. had a bird crap on my head one day and was then told that it was lucky. didn't feel lucky.

anyway. check this out: http://www.warsawvoice.pl/archiwum.phtml/11684/

randylonghorn · 29-01-2007 10:04pm

Interesting, esp. this bit:

When greeting someone, you might suddenly be told not to do it over the threshold. There is a conviction that all border lines need special protection, as they separate secure indoor spaces from the chaos outside. Thus the custom to carry the bride over the threshold, practiced all over the world.

There's a similar old Irish superstition, but it more sees boundaries as sources of power as well as of danger, as far as I can remember. Lots of old sagas and tales have heros / heroines born on boundaries ... between territories, on the shore, even on door thresholds.

As far as I recall, St. Brigid's mother is supposed to have been seized with labour on the threshold of the house, and gave birth to Brigid there ... probably a bit of the legend of the old pagan Goddess which survived into the Christian story.

Someone did a study on children's burial grounds some years back, and found that the great majority of them were associated with boundaries of one sort or another.

Mossy Monk · 29-01-2007 10:32pm

KdjaCL wrote:

More than 1 euro an hour?

kdjac

i love it

Lister1 · 29-01-2007 11:41pm

Thanks for the link julep. Was just what I was looking for.

BlitzKrieg · 30-01-2007 1:02am

I dont know if its helpful...but I dated (briefly) a Polish girl at work last year and she told me that when a guy asks a girl out where she was from, for good luck the girl should let the guy ask her out on a date three times before accepting.

Dont know if she was yanking my chain though.