Little superstitions

Pinch punch first of the month, I get really annoyed with myself if I forget to do this to someone.

Back luck to cut nails on a Friday and if you cut them on a Sunday, then you’ll have the devil on your back for the rest of the week.

I also don’t like crossing someone on the stairs .

I remember closed curtains in a house when someone died.
Don't know why as I was a child at the time.
Ne Scotland early 70s.

My Irish mum had lots of superstitions most of them mentioned already. But her umbrella one was don’t put an open umbrella over your head in the house eg a child playing with one. It was ok opened on the floor to dry.

Also, don’t look at a new moon through glass. That was a tricky one as you were usually looking through a window when you spotted it 🌙

Yes to the open window in the room of the recently deceased to allow their spirit to leave. But her family and neighbours in rural Ireland had another superstition after death. When the body was removed from the house to the church for the funeral all the kitchen chairs were upturned on the table so their spirit kept on their journey and didn’t return to their home. And a close neighbour remained on watch in the house while everyone else went to the funeral just to be sure.

I'm from Wiltshire, it was a very common superstition there.

Always greet a lone magpie. Also whistling. My mother is from South America and whistling is considered incredibly bad luck/bad omens. Every time I hear whistling it makes my skin crawl- it's like nails down a chalk board to me!

No new shoes on a table (boxed inc)
Not opening a brolly indoors.

Magpie greeting of course.

When my unwell brother needed help with putting on his shoes, he indignantly told me that as a cricketer he had to put on the left boot first.

This was about 30 years ago, and ever since I have been incapable of putting my right one first. Even skiing, if my skis came off I had to manoeuvre until I could snap on the left one.

I had a friend who carried that to extremes. She once put her knickers on sideways, went swimming later and put them back on the same way! She's from Glasgow, if that's relevant.

If my husband is not there I take a chance and pick up the glove myself and hope the bad luck doesn’t find me 😆

I have heard the superstition re entering a house by the same door and I'm Scottish.

Oh and never, ever do anything widdershins.

“Hi Mr Magpie, how’s your wife?”. When I’m very anxious ie on a phone call, I can’t step on cracks. I don’t like to turn completely around in a circle as then I have to turn the same way back around. I don’t do washing on New Year’s Day. I absolutely love opals though! I consider a black cat walking across my path as lucky, especially my little familiar! Bad things DO always come in threes. I do the same wishing thing on the first star I see. Feel off opening an umbrella in my tiled floor kitchen to drip dry but the cats love sitting under it. White feathers appear in the house/on pavements when I’m particularly stressed, they’re from my grandparents. I lucid dream and read that you should never look at yourself in a mirror. I did and I saw myself exactly as I am. So I cleared that hurdle 😂 I’ve had several people over the years message me to say they’ve just seen me when I’m sitting on the sofa at home, so my doppelgänger clearly gets about! I do walk under the ladder when I put it up into the loft, purely to jump and grab hold of the higher rungs and give my back a good clicky stretch! Breaking a mirror is anxiety central.

To clarify, does it have to have exactly four legs (for example, a cat) or can it have at least four legs (for example, spider)?

What about animals where two legs / four legs might be in dispute? I’m thinking a bear, for example.

Also, what about a four legged animal that is missing a limb? Would that still count?

This is totally irrational and ridiculous but if I see an ambulance I have to hold my collar until I see a 4 legged animal.
If the ambulance lights are off, it can be a poster, sign, statue etc. Lights on it has to be real

I smear myself with chicken’s blood with every new moon, or on the solstices. I then recite the Lord’s Prayer backwards and then do incantations in the back garden for around an hour, or twenty minutes if wet.

I don’t know if there is anything in it but I think this helps my fertility and helps my tulips come up in the Spring (they’re in quite a shady spot).

“Good morning Mr Magpie, how’s your lady wife today?” (Singsong voice, no idea why)

If you’re on Portland, you must never say the ‘r’ word. They’re called bunnies.

(Sorry for your loss OP 💐)

Sorry for your loss op 💐

Mine is don't cut your toe nails on a Sunday so my whole life my nails have never been cut on a Sunday. Sometimes I think do you know what am just going to cut them even though its Sunday and I just can't do it.

My family and some family friends always do the never exit a house you’re visiting by a different door one, but I associate that with being an East Anglian thing - I’ve never heard it elsewhere.

@Arlanymor (Enw neis!) Are there any local superstitions round you that you haven’t seen elsewhere?

I always touch wood just in case, but some other family superstitions are:

Never open the door unless you’re sure someone’s on the other side, otherwise you’re opening the door to death.

Never bring mayflower into the house, because the smell is the smell of death.

I wish I could remember more - my nan has tons of them! Most of them about not letting death in the house 🫣

Magpies
leaving by the same door
if you drop a knife stand on it - knife on the floor man at the door
first person through your door on New Year’s Day should be dark haired
lighting a candle on nye
bird in your house means a death
smelling flowers when none around means death
no new shoes on the table
don’t walk under a ladder
not having any baby stuff in your house until th baby is born.
if your ear is red and burning, pinch it and the person talking about you will bite their tongue
I’m sure I have more lol

Yes! I've never heard anyone else outside of my family do this!

Although we now send each other 🐇🐇🐇

Taking our old wives tales into the digital age 🤣

My husband was born in house numbered 13 in the street.It was a council house, his mother had waited for one for ages and took this one gladly because it had been refused by loads of people before her.
She must have been desperate to get a council house, she had Irish traveller ancestry and believed in all of the others.
The hospital I did my nurse training in had Ward 13 as the code word for the mortuary.We also never put red and white flowers together in the same vase or allowed white Madonna lilies into the ward.This was supposed to mean death.

I was taught that Opals were only unlucky for those not born in October…

No new shoes on tables; no black items on the bed (I didn’t have that second one until my ex partner told me it and it’s stuck with me!).

On a personal superstition level, I always wore my lucky knickers to Liverpool games. I forgot for the FA Cup final against West Ham and told the woman next to me that it would be my fault if we lost on penalties. She said it would be her fault as she had forgotten to put the tee-shirt on the dog’ 😂

My Mum had all of these, plus lots of cutlery related ones. Crossed knives on a table meant an argument,a dropped knife indicated a gentleman guest would call, a dropped fork a lady guest and a dropped spoon a visit from a baby or a fool!
crossing someone on a staircase meant a falling out with that person. Giving a present of gloves was a parting gift. A bird in the house foretold a death, as did a picture falling off a wall.

Edited for typo