Superstitions.

My Mum always told me to NEVER pick up a crows feather, and she wouldn't have a Peacock's feather in the house.

My grandmother would not have white flowers in the house or there would be a death.

My mother would never have images of birds in the house, either in paintings or ornaments, and certainly not as Christmas decorations such as robins on the tree.

Neither would she put portrait photos or paintings of living people on the walls, saying "you only put dead folk on walls"

My ambulance chant was "touch my head and touch my toes, hope never to go in one of those"

My American friends flew over from the US deliberately on a Friday 13th last year because all the flights that day were very cheap - the Americans are more superstitious than us it seems.

I can still never put new shoes on a table, I touch would all the time, and as for ladders - these have to be hired for a penny, never borrowed. But I'm not superstitious!

Hello.

Its been a very good thread this and I'm relieved to find out I'm not the only one who has superstitious tendancies.  One of the things I must admit to is trying to avoid walking under ladders.  I was on a site recently (sorry can't recall the name) and was amazed at the amout of superstitions and beliefs attached to birds and animals throughout the world.  Of course magpies were mentioned and another one I recall was a belief that sparrows are supposed to be reincarnations of deceased humans.  There are many others, some still relevant today and others probably resigned to history.

I'm somewhat surprised to read about the number 13 being conected to superstitions in Italy.  The reason for this is because there was an Itallian centre half who played for Celtic in the mid to late 1990s, called Rico Annoni.  This player choose to wear the number 13 jersey rather than avoid it, as opposed to the tradition in football of avoiding the number 13.  His reason was supposed to be linked to an Italian superstition that states that the number 13 is lucky and the number 17 is unlucky. 

As for the number 13 I remember reading in a horror novel about a house being built with a very small fourteenth step, in order to avoid the "evil number".  Although how much of that was part of the writer's plan to scare and how much was related to American superstition I can't tell.

Paul.

I seem to have shaken off most of my superstitions as I've got older. I went under the ladder a few times on Sunday (as well as up and down it) while I was pruning the wall climber. Friday 13th holds no fear for me. And  once you live with a lone magpie, you don't tend to bother with the saluting thing - you just offer an arm to land on. I suggest the rhyme be changed to "One for all your valued objects stolen" or "One for shredded wallpaper", or just "One's enough".

Karen F said:

or just "One's enough".

Lol Maisie!!

I'm not sure about Superstitions, I have none, I think! But I had a friend with a pet Magpie when I was a boy. Sorry when I was a small boy, somethings never change!! Anyhow what a clever bird, It was a real joy, a little noisy perhaps :-0 but a joy all the same.

One is enough, if there where more they would likely of evicted my friend and his family.

I claim not to have superstitions.  I am told that my refusal to have a green car is superstitious, but for me it is actually based on the fact that I know so many people whose only accident ever has been in or caused by a green car!

Hi OG

My sister had a lime green Hillman Imp as her first car (she got it really cheap - I wonder why!). We called it the "green bogey".  Everything that could have gone wrong with it, did!  One day on her way to a wedding, she went to turn right and the steering wheel came off in her hands!!  thankfully she stalled the car as soon as it happend and wasn't hurt just really shocked.  We got rid of it after that.