‘Good morning/afternoon Mr Magpie’

[Sunrise6875]

Does anyone else HAVE to say this, whilst touching something black?

Where does it even come from?

If you know, you know

And when I was pregnant we counted the magpies in groups and tried to ascertain by the rhyme whether it would be a girl or boy etc.

Because I am quite mad and believe in all that stuff, or just because it was an interesting distraction.

Just like we don’t put shoes on the table (superstition, but pretty sensible if you think about it), carried a piece of coal in as kids on New Year (first-footing), give posh rock salt as part of a housewarming gift (may your life always have flavour) and look for the pit of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Its bad luck to salute a magpie after 12. Can only be done in the morning.

As recently as Victorian times, to see a single magpie was a portent of death. The association of death is thought by folklorists to come from the fact that magpies are carrion birds: "maggot-pie." The greeting ritual reverses the portent back onto the magpie. During the 20th century the death portent became 'just' bad luck instead.

No we didn’t do that but if we saw a single magpie we searched to see another.

@YouveGotMeWhosGotYou I did not know that! How do we dispel the evil of the solitary magpie after noon?!

Op yes, got this from my Grandmother, though not the touching something black part.

Does anyone waste time looking furiously for a second magpie, and then smugly nod your head when you spot one?

My mum does this, and a multitude of other superstitions. She is actually quite offended that I don't believe in it at all.

In my family it's 'good day Mr. Magpie, how's the wife and kids?'

Only for a single magpie though (multiple means that his wife and kids are with him!)

We also say the 1 for sorrow rhyme

I salute, blow a kiss and say "Good morning Mr.Magpie. How's your family?".
I say it to every magpie I see. If I saw four together I'd have to say it four times.
I often get funny looks if I'm on the bus.

I was raised with the dictionary of superstitions as the bible, it actually messed me up quite a bit. I was told if you see a single magpie you make a cross with your foot on the floor to cancel out the sorrow. But equally the sorrow gets cancelled if someone else sees the lone magpie. I was also taught it this way
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for a wish
Six for a kiss
Seven for something you mustn't miss
Eight for silver
Nine for gold
Ten for a secret never to be told.
As a child there was a superstition for everything including if you sneeze three times and nobody says bless you then the devil will put a curse on you, but you must not say thank you. Also it's bad luck if you knock one elbow but don't knock the other.

Seriously, it's superstitious nonsense and you are encouraging your children to behave as irrationally?

This kind of peevishness is why I love MN.

I do the one for sorrow rhyme, I do it with sneezes too.

I said it religiously to every magpie (and his wife and babies as appropriate) until moving to a house where we have magpies in the garden about 50% of the time. I say it when I am away from home now 😊

@3catsandcounting

Does anyone waste time looking furiously for a second magpie, and then smugly nod your head when you spot one?

Yes!

The Unthanks
Beautiful song by The Unthanks, featured in The Detectorists with a wonderful sequence of time passing, linked by the magpies.

I was taught by a primary school teacher that if you see a single magpie you should touch your collar, and I still do it.

Now seeing this thread of people saluting and greeting and spitting at magpies, and thinking of my rural primary school, I wonder if she made it up as a tactic to make single magpies less disruptive to a class of 30 children...

I also got into the rhyme when I got a bit anxious over lockdown and the postponement of our IVF. If I saw a single magpie I was convinced it meant the IVF would fail and two meant it would succeed. I’m still waiting for the IVF, but at least I’ve weaned myself off the magpie thing!

@maddening - thanks I didn’t know those lines! Will add them into my superstitious nonsense from now on.

And yes of course I look around for magpie number 2 and am relieved when I find it!

I don't do anything like this. I don't think I have any superstitions. I feel like they're a load of old wank. I don't judge people who do, though. Each to their own.

@RaspberryCoulis

My whole family did it as a child, and now I’ve taught my DH and DC too.

Why?

Seriously, it's superstitious nonsense and you are encouraging your children to behave as irrationally?

No we don't do it.

Well, it's a cheaper load of bollocks than Father Christmas or the tooth fairy and takes up less time than organised religion. I'd doubt anyone on this thread truly, truly believes it but sometimes it's nice to have traditions, irrational though they may be.

The words I learned (goodness knows where from) are "good evening your lordship, how is your ladyship?"
Weird.

"Good morning Mr Magpie, and how's your wife?"

Her ladyship, even.
So have never enquired about the kids. (Hence all my sorrow, I suppose!)

Yes, I always salute one magpie....Totally aware of how ridiculous it is, but I still do it when I'm out and just turn it into a weird head scratch thing if anyone notices 😬

The only person I know who salutes magpies is my 29yr old son. None of us do it. He did it while in my car I asked him why and he said "I just do". No idea where he got it from we're in Yorkshire.

I know it as, "Good morning Mr Magpie, and where is your mate?".

If I see a single Magpie, I always salute, and say "Good morning/afternoon/evening My Lord" its so weird. But I've done it for so long I can't stop!