To ask what superstitions/wives tales do you follow or believe?

[Peanutbutterjelly1]

Mines magpies, 3 drains, no washing on new years day and having a peice of mistletoe hanging all year.

Not having Pram or cot set up until baby is born

There must be 20 or 30 Owl pieces in my house, mugs, jewellery, jars. I collect them!

Still salute magpies though, oh and no shoes on the table.!

This is all a bit OCD isn't it?
It reminds me of my brother who has certain rituals he has to do and he has been having therapy for it for years. He's much better than he was thankfully.

''Never leave your eggshells unbroken in the cup.
Think of us poor sailormen,and always smash them up.
'Cos witches come and find them,and sail away to sea,
and make a lot of misery for sailormen like me''

I learned that kids poem 40+ years ago. Knew it would be relevant one day.

Yes to loads here. If you drop a glove someone else has to pick it up for you. (Helps as well if you’re a lazy arse 😆)

After I've eaten them, I always smash a hole in the shells of soft boiled eggs, so that witches can't go to sea in them!

When I was a kid, we weren't allowed to cut our finger nails on a Friday or a Sunday because it was unlucky.

You're very welcome ski and midnight - I find this sort of stuff completely engrossing, and working out how superstitions evolve (or don't) is utterly fascinating. Right now I'm wearing a pendant with a symbol on it that's been used for protection for at least 4,000 years. My pendant's around 500 years old, but I could buy something similar and brand new tomorrow - except the purple crystal woo hippy I'd buy it from would tell me it meant something else entirely

Interestingly, superstitions seem to be dying out quite rapidly these days, and instead of doing things to prevent bad luck, we try to attract 'good' luck instead (lucky pants, making a wish when we chuck a coin into water, etc. rather than taking evasive action, such as creating burn marks on house timbers to 'prevent' the house catching fire) Perhaps because we have insurance/healthcare/less fear & more understanding of the world, so we generally feel safer. I dunno - it's just a pet theory of mine. But I love what it tells us about people and what they feel is important enough to create a superstition around!

Bloody magpies. If I see one I have to try and find another to make it to two. Bloody things.

When we were teenagers we always said about stepping on drains:
One for luck
Two for a f**k
and three for bad luck.

It has always stuck with me and I try never to stand on 3 in a row. I know it is ridiculous.

We also believed that if you did accidentally step on 3 drains then you should hold your elbow until you saw an ambulance.

Just magpies here - DH has never heard of saluting them so he thinks it's weird when I do it but I can't help myself 😂

So many already said here but also if you enter a house by one door you have to leave by the same door or it's bad luck. So no going in the front door and out the back or vice versa! Got that from my Granny; it drives my DH mad but I always have to go out the door I came in!

3 drains people, are you in North West England? I grew up there and people are fanatical about it.

I’ve found my people.

DH pisses himself when I’ve spilt salt (again) and I throw some over each shoulder as I don’t know which it is. Left it is!

I go mental over new shoes on table.

DH goes crazy if the kids try to put umbrellas up indoors, as do I.

I won’t stop till I find that second magpie!

I have to touch wood. But I usually end up touching Ikea furniture, which isn’t, so then I knock my head twice.

Taught the kids to spin a money spider 3 times around their head.

I hate the number 13. I won’t put 13 chicken dippers in the oven, or cut up 13 grapes etc. Always count them.

I think I’ll adopt some more from this thread

Squirrel, I am From London.

If I drop a Brussels sprout on the floor, I always put a frozen chip in my left ear, a cabbage leaf on my head and skip round the sprout flapping my arms and quacking to the tune of La Marseilleaise.

If I didn’t the FTSE 100 index would decrease by 17.473%.

BonnieF

Bonnie that just sounds like a very sensible precaution!

Not me but a friend - she was given a large bunch of lilac but refused to have them in the house as it is unlucky. I had never heard this one before, has anyone else? I am not superstitious at all, but shortly after I saw a beautiful sofa with a lilac print fabric and I mused on whether that too would be unlucky.

I mutter 'Good morning Mr Magpie' under my breath if I see one on its own.

Wouldn't put an umbrella up in the house.

See a pin, pick it up and all day you'll have good luck - not that your see many pins in the floor these days.

I wouldn't bring may blossom into the house.

I'm sure there's others I can't think of right now...

Oh - ladders of course, won't walk under them and I've been known to avoid stepping on cracks in paving stones.

Penny for the sweeper-upper - if you're tidying up and find a small-value coin, you may keep it.

Counting fruit stones in stewed plums etc. to determine who you will marry. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, theif...

I was told the counting magpies thing only worked if you were pregnant: one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy. Five for silver, six for gold and seven for a secret never to be told.

Rain before 7, dry by 11.

@Lucisky Lilac blossom because of it's strong scent was used to mask the smell of death in the days when bodies were kept at home prior to burial.

Over the years the white blossoms in particular became unlucky.

Yup. Pretty much all of these. (Although my magpie salutes tend to be disguised as an embarrassed scratch of my forehead so I won't look crazy)

Totally ridiculous. I'm a rabid atheist and don't believe in any woo, yet I would feel extremely uncomfortable if I hadn't greeted a random magpie just 'in case it might bring me bad luck.

Magpies... I always tug my 'forelock' when see them and say goodmorning/afternoon etc..
Salt.. chucked over shoulder..
Shoes ... never on table!!
Also I try to never sleep with feet facing the door..

My ExH would freak out if anyone cut thier nails on a Sunday!!

I will never forget a very dear Aunt of Ex... at the time it wasnt done for women to attend a funeral!! so I stayed in the house with Aunt... I shall never forget her telling me how it was bad luck to look at a funeral car through glass (hence curtains often closed near the church before a funeral).. So as she says this, she opens the window, leans out and watches the hearse leave the church through her binoculars!!! I didnt have the heart to say to her that bins were made of glass!!!