Old superstitions you've heard of/still use

Munstergirl854

Ones I've heard down through the years...
Never sign your name in red.Bad luck.
If giving a knife to someone include a penny as otherwise this will cut the friendship.
Being able to draw a perfect circle on paper is a sign of madness.
The colour lilac is bad luck to be found in a home(used to be put in coffins to mask the smell).
Peacock feathers-very bad luck in a home..

corner of hells

Munstergirl854 wrote: »

Ones I've heard down through the years...
Never sign your name in red.Bad luck.
If giving a knife to someone include a penny as otherwise this will cut the friendship.
Being able to draw a perfect circle on paper is a sign of madness.
The colour lilac is bad luck to be found in a home(used to be put in coffins to mask the smell).
Peacock feathers-very bad luck in a home..

Sure if you were in a coffin , you probably wouldn't be worried about the smell.

AllGunsBlazing

I remember being admonished for writing in red brio by a teacher. But it was considered bad form not bad luck.

I'd imagine the peacock feathers thing was worse luck for the peacock.

I have heard of the perfect circle one and recall it being said DaVinci could do it. But, likely impossible freehand more than anything.

Mollydog123

When you see a lone magpie always say 'Hello Mr. Magpie, and how is Mrs. Magpie'. Have tried it a few times but they all just flew away. Still dont know how Mrs. Magpie is after all these years.

Mollydog123

Mollydog123 wrote: »

When you see a lone magpie always say 'Hello Mr. Magpie, and how is Mrs. Magpie'. Have tried it a few times but they all just flew away. Still dont know how Mrs. Magpie is after all these years.

I still salute the fûcker. He never waves back, Josepha Madigan will sue me now in a minute for assuming the gender.

Capt'n Midnight

It's unlucky to be superstitious.

Hyperbollix

Very superstitious,
Writing's on the wall,
Very superstitious,
Ladders bout' to fall

Suckler

Munstergirl854 wrote: »

.
If giving a knife to someone include a penny as otherwise this will cut the friendship.

The person you gift the knife to gives you a coin in return.
(is my understanding)

McGinniesta

Superstition is the ultimate in feeble mindedness.

It beats religion and anything else you can think of.

zanador

Never buying a wallet for yourself, and putting a penny in one you buy for someone else. I don't believe it but I like it

fixXxer

The only one I still hold on to is I will always say hello to a magpie.

PsychoPete

I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious

Doctors room ghost

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I still salute the fûcker. He never waves back, Josepha Madigan will sue me now in a minute for assuming the gender.

Same as that Bertie

alchemist33

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I have heard of the perfect circle one and recall it being said DaVinci could do it. But, likely impossible freehand more than anything.

Giotto apparently did one in Renaissance times to impress a patron, and then got the gig

dan1895

Mollydog123 wrote: »

When you see a lone magpie always say 'Hello Mr. Magpie, and how is Mrs. Magpie'. Have tried it a few times but they all just flew away. Still dont know how Mrs. Magpie is after all these years.

My missus is forever waving at magpies

Gregor Samsa

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

I remember being admonished for writing in red brio by a teacher. But it was considered bad form not bad luck.

That’s because if you hand up something written in red, they’re afraid you won’t notice all their corrections and sarky comments, which teachers traditionally write in red pen.

I remember handing up an Irish essay written on an A4 page, but in a plastic sleeve. Teacher obviously couldn’t wait to rip into me and wrote all his comments (in red pen) on the plastic sleeve itself. The full page from top to bottom. Then he obviously realised his mistake and went back and wrote them all again on the actual page.

The reason I handed it up in the plastic sleeve was because the teacher had an awful habit of dribbling on your work (due to an illness he had), and you’d get it back with drops of drool all over it, smudging the writing.

Gregor Samsa

My only superstition is: if you’re in a desert and you see a Vulture, it’s bad luck to play dead.

theguzman

Never disturb a Lios, fairy fort, rath etc. I still continue the superstition out of respect for the old beliefs and from a historical and archaeological point of view I would like these ancient monuments to continue undisturbed into the future. Instead nowadays you have some thick farmer with a head on him like a kosangas cylinder and the IQ of a midge will come along and bulldoze it out because it is ruining his field of silage or whatever after that thing lasting for for thousands of years previously, protected by ancient pisheogs, curses and warnings of bad luck to let it alone. The old people had respect for the dead and ancients, they had absolutely nothing but never touched these places, today some moron with a 211 Toyota Lancruiser worth €90k will bulldoze these out of sheer greed for a few sq metres of topsoil.

theguzman

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

That’s because if you hand up something written in red, they’re afraid you won’t notice all their corrections and sarky comments, which teachers traditionally write in red pen.

I remember handing up an Irish essay written on an A4 page, but in a plastic sleeve. Teacher obviously couldn’t wait to rip into me and wrote all his comments (in red pen) on the plastic sleeve itself. The full page from top to bottom. Then he obviously realised his mistake and went back and wrote them all again on the actual page.

The reason I handed it up in the plastic sleeve was because the teacher had an awful habit of dribbling on your work (due to an illness he had), and you’d get it back with drops of drool all over it, smudging the writing.

I had a jobsworth in the ESB refuse a wiring cert two years ago because the sparks wrote up the form in red ink.

Fils

You should always trust yourself if you have pulled off a ghostly. Checking with a wipe brings a dose of scour sooner or later.

Taeholic

Munstergirl854 wrote: »

Never sign your name in red.Bad luck.

My granny was very superstitious. She believed using a red pen to sign your name was signing a deal with the devil himself.

Sky King

Its like the old saying goes, if it takes two men four hours to dig half a hole, how long does it take a spider wearing boxing gloves to pull a thorn out of a frogs arse?

What was this thread about again?

monkeysnapper

Taeholic wrote: »

My granny was very superstitious. She believed using a red pen to sign your name was signing a deal with the devil himself.

Holly Jesus feck ....I work in a warehouse and always signing dockets with a red pen !!!!!

I'm in real trouble now

AllGunsBlazing

Opening umbrellas indoors?


Spilling salt is supposed to be another bad one.

tupenny

My gran went mad at me for putting new runners on the table. Ahh the 90s!
Bad luck apparently

Hamsterchops

Walking under a ladder brings you bad luck.

....so I don't, just in case.

AndyWhite1

Hold a breathe when entering a tunnel - if you make it, you are gonna be rich (c.) Granny

that kind of superstitions when people didnt have LONG tunnels, huh

but I tried when I was a kid

revelman

Munstergirl854 wrote: »

Ones I've heard down through the years...
Never sign your name in red.Bad luck.
If giving a knife to someone include a penny as otherwise this will cut the friendship.
Being able to draw a perfect circle on paper is a sign of madness.
The colour lilac is bad luck to be found in a home(used to be put in coffins to mask the smell).
Peacock feathers-very bad luck in a home..

Are these specific to an area of the country? I’ve never heard any of these.

Endaaaagh

Before I built my house, I planted 4 posts where the 4 corners of the house would be. This was an old way of checking to ensure you weren't blocking a fairy path with your house. If the posts remained upright, and weren't knocked then it was OK to build

fryup

what's the one that if you're selling a house to bury a statuette of st jude or someone similar in the back garden ??

whisky_galore

Going into a large building, taking part in a set of rituals that helps you get into heaven in an afterlife.

Taeholic

monkeysnapper wrote: »

Holly Jesus feck ....I work in a warehouse and always signing dockets with a red pen !!!!!

I'm in real trouble now

Lol you might want to get some holy water

Taeholic

tupenny wrote: »

My gran went mad at me for putting new runners on the table. Ahh the 90s!
Bad luck apparently

Same with mine, she would go absolutely mental. Not sure what the reasoning behind it was mind you.

Purple Mountain

People around my (rural) way still bless their home and land on the 30th of April each year as it's "May eve".
Supposedly it wards off puiseogs for the rest of the year.

Badly Drunk Boy

tupenny wrote: »

My gran went mad at me for putting new runners on the table. Ahh the 90s!
Bad luck apparently

Some people around here won't even allow shoes on their floors!!! :pac:

McGinniesta

McGinniesta wrote: »

Superstition is the ultimate in feeble mindedness.

It beats religion and anything else you can think of.

Oh I am not sure. There seems to be no reason at all to think there is a god.

But with _some_ superstitions at least they appear to have just been formed out of common sense.

For example the "bad luck to walk under ladders" is at least based on the notion that its pretty dumb to walk under ladders at the best of time. They can fall on you - or the people up them who are unsteady anyway can drop things like paint or paint cans on you.

There is also self fulfilling superstition. For example Friday 13th if I recall correctly genuinely does have more accidents and so forth statistically. Probably because people start acting weird and out of the norm on that day in deference to the superstition - and hence actually do cause bad things to happen.

So I think I would say a lot of superstition is higher on the rung - or at least on the same level - as much of religion. I can not really say one "beats" the other.

Endaaaagh

Endaaaagh wrote: »

Before I built my house, I planted 4 posts where the 4 corners of the house would be. This was an old way of checking to ensure you weren't blocking a fairy path with your house. If the posts remained upright, and weren't knocked then it was OK to build

That's a great one! Never heard of it before.. like applying to get planning permission from the spiritual realm. I wonder if they have civil servant spirits that process the thing and listen to objections from poltergeists et al.

Mickeroo

You should always leave a house through the same door you came in. Not one that was practiced in our house but one of our neighbours physically blocked my brother from leaving through the front door after he had came into the house through the back door.

Endaaaagh

Mickeroo wrote: »

You should always leave a house through the same door you came in. Not one that was practiced in our house but one of our neighbours physically blocked my brother from leaving through the front door after he had came into the house through the back door.

My mother still does this. Even if she came through the front door, through the hall, into the sitting room then onto the kitchen. She'll follow the same path back out, even if it's quicker if she went directly from the kitchen to the front door

Strumms

fryup wrote: »

what's the one that if you're selling a house to bury a statuette of st jude or someone similar in the back garden ??

I’m reading that it’s St Joseph for the house sale..

My grandmother always had a I think ‘devotion’ is the word to St Jude... she had a big statue of the fella in a glass case in the front room... the patron saint of lost causes..

Supposedly when my Uncle her son was very young about 12 he was involved in an accident where he was hit by a car while out cycling ..he was touch and go .. she said a rake of prayers and he made a total recovery...

She’d always say to anybody, if it was an exam you didn’t think you’d pass, a job interview you were nervous about, somebody sick in the family/circle of friends...that was the lad to pray to... even called her house after the saint, a small plaque with St. Jude...bedside the door... her daughters carry on the tradition...

I’m a bit skeptical but each to their own.

BrianBoru00

The child of prague in the garden to day before a wedding to ensure good weather...

cml387

The one about the sword seems to come from Churchill giving a gift of a sword to Stalin at the Tehran conference in 1943. I read that it had to be presented with a coin to avoid "cutting" the friendship between the two (ahem).

Water John

BrianBoru00 wrote: »

The child of prague in the garden to day before a wedding to ensure good weather...

Have a niece getting married in a few days, will check with her.
The women in my house use use a prayer to St. Anthony and a promise of money to find something lost. A strange mix of religion and paganism.

honeyjo

The 1st day of a new year in a new house, the 1st person to cross the threshold must be a dark haired person carrying a piece of coal.

A Saturday Flit is a short sit- Never move house or leave hospital on a Saturday

If salt is spilled throw a pinch over your left shoulder

rainbowtrout

tupenny wrote: »

My gran went mad at me for putting new runners on the table. Ahh the 90s!
Bad luck apparently

My mother used to do the same, so much so that the reaction is deeply ingrained at this stage.
Could walk in the door as a teenager with bag from Penneys and before I had got near the kitchen table I'd get 'No shoes on the table'. Most of the time I didn't have shoes in the bag.

If I buy new shoes the bag goes on the chair or the floor not the table automatically.

cml387

Redhaired women and fishermen.

Mind you such were the dangers associated with fishing back then you can't blame them for being superstitious

rainbowtrout

Purple Mountain wrote: »

People around my (rural) way still bless their home and land on the 30th of April each year as it's "May eve".
Supposedly it wards off puiseogs for the rest of the year.

Limerick?

We always had bonfire night in Limerick on May Eve. Still do. It was news to me when I moved to the north west years ago that this wasn't a thing, and that they had Bonfire Night in June.

Sgt Hartman

theguzman wrote: »

Never disturb a Lios, fairy fort, rath etc. I still continue the superstition out of respect for the old beliefs and from a historical and archaeological point of view I would like these ancient monuments to continue undisturbed into the future. Instead nowadays you have some thick farmer with a head on him like a kosangas cylinder and the IQ of a midge will come along and bulldoze it out because it is ruining his field of silage or whatever after that thing lasting for for thousands of years previously, protected by ancient pisheogs, curses and warnings of bad luck to let it alone. The old people had respect for the dead and ancients, they had absolutely nothing but never touched these places, today some moron with a 211 Toyota Lancruiser worth €90k will bulldoze these out of sheer greed for a few sq metres of topsoil.

I couldn't have put it better myself. It's nothing more than pig ignorance and greed. Btw I was laughing at your "head on him like a kosangas cylinder" comment

Purple Mountain

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Limerick?

We always had bonfire night in Limerick on May Eve. Still do. It was news to me when I moved to the north west years ago that this wasn't a thing, and that they had Bonfire Night in June.

Yup

silliussoddius

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Limerick?

We always had bonfire night in Limerick on May Eve. Still do. It was news to me when I moved to the north west years ago that this wasn't a thing, and that they had Bonfire Night in June.

There are two nights for bonfire night, toward the end of June and the other wrong one.