Most absurd superstitious you’ve heard

[SunshineSetty]

And... do you believe in any?

I find shoes on the table an odd one. I don’t believe it but it makes me uncomfortable nonetheless I wonder where they come from

The classics don't open an umbrella indoors or black cat equals bad lack are quite daft. Poor black cats!
An elderly woman told me to cut scissors into something (so close them by snipping a piece of cardboard or paper scrap) so as to not close them shut (back to the original closed position) without having cut something OTHERWISE relationships will be tied or people cut off.
Have to say there may be some truth in this as I have cut out a few people and have had several transient and fair weather friendships.

relationships will break not will be tied

@SunshineSetty the new shoes on the table goes back to when people died they would be laid on a table in new shoes on the table just in case they should "wake" up. Or at least thats what I was told as a child.

Black cats are good luck, surely?

It's bad luck to be superstitious

That there is a magic man in the sky watching us and controlling everything. Lots of superstitions have some kind of sensible origin - a hygiene or safety rule and the god one was a way of controlling society.
Sadly despite knowing this is I am very superstitious! Always entering and leaving through the same door is sometimes a tricky one to do.

@cremuel

Black cats are good luck, surely?

Not in my culture. They are linked to the devil and seen as a bad omen. Utterly stupid.

If I see a single magpie I've been conditioned to say "Hello Mr. Magpie how's your wife today?" And then I have to turn around three times and spit. I live in central London, so it's often quite awkward to do this but I manage (I don't spit in the street though. Obvs.) I have NO idea why I do this or what would happen if I didn't - but I've taught my children to do the same just in case.

French grandmother still firmly believes that if a woman who has her period touches raw meat, it will go off. Mind-boggling. Otherwise, she's quite logical.

@HRHRomy

The classics don't open an umbrella indoors or black cat equals bad lack are quite daft. Poor black cats! An elderly woman told me to cut scissors into something (so close them by snipping a piece of cardboard or paper scrap) so as to not close them shut (back to the original closed position) without having cut something OTHERWISE relationships will be tied or people cut off. Have to say there may be some truth in this as I have cut out a few people and have had several transient and fair weather friendships.

There might be some truth in it?? Tell me you're joking - you think relationships ending is because of the way you close a pair of scissors??

Is not eating pork one? Always think its s ridiculous religious rule especially when UK pork is safe to eat.

We were always told that the shoes on the table was linked to infant mortality. I think, particularly with that type of superstition, that it gave people something to control in the face of that which is uncontrollable (well, pre-antibiotics/immunisation when infant death was so very common). DH would say that I'm irrational but I do several, mainly not crossing knives, blowing a kiss to magpies and not doing any washing on new year's day (so as not to wash my luck away).
Oddly compulsive things to do really but they give me that aforementioned sense of control in a weird way.

Step on a crack, break your mothers back!

Is not eating pork one? Always think its s ridiculous religious rule especially when UK pork is safe to eat.

Not sure religious instructions fall under superstition, however if you look at the region where that rule was made it tends to be rather hot, and pork goes off very quickly and badly in hot climates.

I don't really believe in superstitions, but I find myself touching wood, and yes, saluting Mr Magpie! One I remember from childhood was bringing a bit of elderflower blossom into my gran's kitchen, and she threw it back outside in horror, saying it was called "Mother-will-die"!

Someone I knew, if they dropped their keys they would ask someone to pick them up as it was bad luck to pick them up themselves.
Never heard it before or since.

My nan would always insist you went out the door you came in I.e if you arrived home from work through the back door and the needed to pop back out, you’d need to leave via the back door again and couldn’t go out the front. Was a total pain!

My ex's family would never pass salt directly to someone at the table. They would put it down and the other one would pick it up.

I thought the shoes on the table thing was to do with hanging. Not sure if it is only new shoes - the condemned person would have new clothes and shoes.

I always pick up pennies for luck, but then leave them somewhere for someone else to find, and never stir with a knife because of stir with a knife, stir up strife.

The Magpie one: I had a good friend who believed in this. We both went through a lot of IVF at the same time. I started to notice that the outcomes if that and the prevalence of single or double magpies I saw ('one for sorrow, two for joy') seemed to correlate. Its nonsense of course (what's the term for noticing something more when you are aware of it?). But I salute the buggers now. My kids think I'm mad. If only they knew ;)

If a knife fell on the floor, my Nan would always say 'knife on the floor. Man at the door'.

Nope. Me neither.

I know it's twaddle, but I do salute single magpies, I must confess.

My mother would refuse to do roast pork 'when there wasn't an R in the month', told me I shouldn't wash my hair or have a bath when I had a period and that tampons could only be used by married women.

And people wonder why I've always been a bit with her....

That if you find a white feather in your house it's a sign from your guardian angel. Fuck all to do with your duvet...

A robin in your garden is a sign from a loved one who has died...

Saying "white rabbits" 3 times at the start of a new month and it must be the first thing you say...

I must admit that although I think most superstition is a bit woo I never put new shoes on a table and nearly always leave by the same door I came in

That if you do any washing at all on new years day you will wash someone out of your life

I used to work in a boatyard. Boats can't be green and women are bad luck, one fisherman also had odd ideas about rabbits and pasties bringing bad luck. I wasn't allowed on his boat, which was difficult because it was my job, so I went on when he wasn't at the yard. 6 months later his boat sunk.