Old superstitions you've heard of/still use

14-06-2021 9:05pm

Hats on the bed! That's a good one. It's basically the same as murdering someone, apparently.

silliussoddius · 14-06-2021 9:07pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Ones from the current era, still referenced at home:

A hen laying an egg in the hedge (i.e. ditch) is bad luck. Prepare for the worst.

Don't let farmyard ducks swim in the river. They get a taste for travel, perhaps.

Stepping on cowshit: half-a-boot is good luck. A full boot? Call the doctor, you're done-for. Goodbye.

Luck Money. Everyone from a farm has probably heard of this, probably unknown in cities. If you sell an animal, especially a horse but anything really, you hand back 5% "for luck". Some say 10%, ignore that. 5% is sensible, 10% is superstition.

Another horse one. Burying a dead horse is bad luck. Burying all livestock is illegal, but when I was growing up (this was only the 1990s), you could illegaly bury bury cattle, never a horse.

I like these superstitions. Some of them really have logic behind them. Don't be letting your ducks go down the river.

Thought it was just one old pound. So do farmers just bump up the selling price to account for this?

biddyearley · 14-06-2021 9:08pm

Child playing banging a drum means someone will die.

C__MC · 14-06-2021 9:08pm

If a black cat crosses your path its good luck

chooseusername · 14-06-2021 9:10pm

Maybe not superstition , but when my wife is driving past a graveyard she'll bless herself-
taking her hand off the steering wheel to do so.

14-06-2021 9:10pm

silliussoddius wrote: »

Thought it was just one old pound. So do farmers just bump up the selling price to account for this?

Some cite pounds, some cite the guinea (related to an auctioneers' fee), not sure where it comes from.

But you'd be a fool not to pay luck money.

C__MC · 14-06-2021 9:10pm

Two spoons in a cup means marriage for the person

C__MC · 14-06-2021 9:11pm

Does people in rural Ireland still believe in curds etc burn or swollen ankle

Mam of 4 · 14-06-2021 9:13pm

chooseusername wrote: »

Maybe not superstition , but when my wife is driving past a graveyard she'll bless herself-
taking her hand off the steering wheel to do so.

She'd still have her other hand on the steering wheel though .

Wouldn't she ? :eek:

chooseusername · 14-06-2021 9:15pm

Mam of 4 wrote: »

She'd still have her other hand on the steering wheel though .

Wouldn't she ? :eek:

Nah, that's for the phone.

Mam of 4 · 14-06-2021 9:17pm

chooseusername wrote: »

Nah, that's for the phone.

Lol :pac:

An Ri rua · 14-06-2021 9:27pm

MeepMeep2021 wrote: »

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.

An Bord Spioràid Pleanála.

14-06-2021 9:29pm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

You’ll find that traditional country farmers will be the last to remove fairy forts/trees etc and it’s usually developers etc who remove them without a care. I live in the country and cycle around all the back country roads and there are countless stone rings, random fairy trees in the middle of fields which farmers leave and work around rather than remove.

So do, some don't. I personally wouldn't risk it, know a formerly healthy farmer who has nothing but bad health since he destroyed an old fairy fort on his land.

Zaph · 14-06-2021 9:31pm

C__MC wrote: »

If a black cat crosses your path its good luck

In parts of Europe it's considered bad luck. Which just goes to prove what a load of nonsensical bollocks superstitions are when people can't even agree on what they mean.

14-06-2021 9:31pm

An Ri rua wrote: »

An Bord Spioràid Pleanála.

:pac:

saabsaab · 14-06-2021 9:39pm

Interfering with a Fairy Fort is a well known one. Bad luck. One a heard is that a Green vehicle is unlucky.

Government buildings · 14-06-2021 9:44pm

Many years ago, I suffered from a terrible bodily itch.

I went to various doctors and consultants and the consensus was that it was due to some kind of food allergy

None of the medical people could help me, and this went on for a number of years.

I was told about an elderly man living in Carlow who could cure people of food allergies.

When I went to see him he had a load of old foolscap pages with the names of all kinds of fruit and vegetables and other food like bread milk etc written on them in old copperplate writing.

He held my hand in his hand, and with his other hand he had a pendulum with a bit of steel on a chain and hovered this chain over each of the foods listed.

Out of a list about twenty pages of various foods listed, the pendulum shook when he held it over about four of the foods.

I gave up eating these foods, and the itch was gone in a week.

14-06-2021 9:45pm

saabsaab wrote: »

Interfering with a Fairy Fort is a well known one. Bad luck. One a heard is that a Green vehicle is unlucky

Post vans bringing bills??

whisky_galore · 14-06-2021 9:49pm

saabsaab wrote: »

Interfering with a Fairy Fort is a well known one. Bad luck.

There's huge fines, 25k, for destroying one.

Youd want to be pretty dense to level one, they do call out to do field work on them and then you're caught by the short and curlys.

mrslancaster · 14-06-2021 9:51pm

exchange silver on Hansel monday (first Monday) every year. Its supposed to ensure good luck, health & money.
Deep cross in soda bread to let fairies out.
Itchy nose, argument. Itchy palms, money.
No open umbrellas inside.
Never give footwear as gift, person will walk away.
No gifts for baby until after the birth - big no-no. Always gift baby silver at christening.
Never buy yourself a purse or it will always be empty.
Never walk under a ladder
Broken mirror is seven years bad luck
All heard regularly from grandmother who was very superstitious.

saabsaab · 14-06-2021 10:15pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

There's huge fines, 25k, for destroying one.

Youd want to be pretty dense to level one, they do call out to do field work on them and then you're caught by the short and curlys.

Many were leveled up and down the country. The wrath of the Fairies protected/protects many not fines.

14-06-2021 10:41pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

There's huge fines, 25k, for destroying one.

Youd want to be pretty dense to level one, they do call out to do field work on them and then you're caught by the short and curlys.

A developer levelled land by a bunch of megalithic tombs in Killarney recently, got fined 2k for 2 counts, iirc. Tbf, that's nothing on the cost of whatever profit he makes from the housing estate.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/potential-archaeological-site-in-co-kerry-damaged-by-development-company-1.4584629

saabsaab · 14-06-2021 10:58pm

Deleted User wrote: »

A developer levelled land by a bunch of megalithic tombs in Killarney recently, got fined 2k for 2 counts, iirc. Tbf, that's nothing on the cost of whatever profit he makes from the housing estate.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/potential-archaeological-site-in-co-kerry-damaged-by-development-company-1.4584629

Did it bring him bad luck?

14-06-2021 11:01pm

saabsaab wrote: »

Did it bring him bad luck?

the last time there was this much development happening it plunged the country into a recession, it brought us all bad luck...

But no, I've no idea, and it's against my nature to wish ill fortune on anyone, but certainly won't be crying for him if it does (as tbf, it's unlikely to do).

zanador · 14-06-2021 11:15pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Ones from the current era, still referenced at home:

A hen laying an egg in the hedge (i.e. ditch) is bad luck. Prepare for the worst.

Don't let farmyard ducks swim in the river. They get a taste for travel, perhaps.

Stepping on cowshit: half-a-boot is good luck. A full boot? Call the doctor, you're done-for. Goodbye.

Luck Money. Everyone from a farm has probably heard of this, probably unknown in cities. If you sell an animal, especially a horse but anything really, you hand back 5% "for luck". Some say 10%, ignore that. 5% is sensible, 10% is superstition.

Another horse one. Burying a dead horse is bad luck. Burying all livestock is illegal, but when I was growing up (this was only the 1990s), you could illegaly bury cattle, but never a horse.

I like these superstitions. Some of them really have logic behind them. Don't be letting your ducks go down the river.

With the luck money I've always done it when buying cars with cash. But have heard of it with livestock and horses

14-06-2021 11:34pm

Zaph wrote: »

In parts of Europe it's considered bad luck. Which just goes to prove what a load of nonsensical bollocks superstitions are when people can't even agree on what they mean.

Oh, this is really tiresome.

Nobody really believes, anymore, that black cats are bad luck or good luck. That misses the point. The question of symbolism (black cats, botany, farming) raises really cool questions about our history, much of which is not documented.

Everybody knows it isn't true that fairy forts or black cats imply any kind of relevance, but it is very interesting to explore why these symbols were relevant to our ancestors or to their communities - many of whom left no written records.

retalivity · 14-06-2021 11:43pm

C__MC wrote: »

If a black cat crosses your path its good luck

Errr no its the opposite in Donegal

buried · 14-06-2021 11:50pm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Everybody knows it isn't true that fairy forts or black cats imply any kind of relevance, but it is very interesting to explore why these symbols were relevant to our ancestors or to their communities - many of whom left no written records.

This is the crux of it, these symbols or symbols of the landscape were seriously relevant to those communities, relevant in a time when descriptions or events of local news was done by word of mouth. So, by that logic, local situations must have occurred time and time again where these local symbols were involved in serious real life events, time and time again. There is no other way the lore would have gotten such a stronghold over the culture and general folklore. The belief is so strong and so psychologically ingrained there can be no other explanation. It wasn't advertising or some other plastic form of news programming that we are used to in the modern age that can be easily discounted and forgotten. These stories were remembered for a reason.

Zaph · 15-06-2021 1:36am

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Oh, this is really tiresome.

Nobody really believes, anymore, that black cats are bad luck or good luck. That misses the point. The question of symbolism (black cats, botany, farming) raises really cool questions about our history, much of which is not documented.

Everybody knows it isn't true that fairy forts or black cats imply any kind of relevance, but it is very interesting to explore why these symbols were relevant to our ancestors or to their communities - many of whom left no written records.

And yet you still have people to this day greeting magpies, touching wood, throwing spilled salt over their shoulder and other such nonsense. There may have been relevance to these actions in the past, but a lot of people still perform them to this day, in some cases almost unconsciously because the superstition is so ingrained in them. While it may be interesting to explore how these superstitions came about, I'd be more interested in finding out why so many people today persist with such foolishness.

tupenny · 15-06-2021 1:54am

saabsaab wrote: »

Interfering with a Fairy Fort is a well known one. Bad luck. One a heard is that a Green vehicle is unlucky.

I think the green car 1 is down to it blending in more with the landscape making it more likely to be unseen and involved in a crash

Old superstitions you've heard of/still use

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