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Silly Superstitions

What silly superstitions do you find yourself doing/following even though you know they are just silly superstitions?

I have three.
I say "knock on wood" or "wish me luck" even when I know luck has nothing to do with it.

I won't flip a calendar early. I know it won't cause anything bad to happen but I still won't do it.

Sports superstitions. If my team wins, I have to wear the same outfit the next time. I know it has nothing to do with it but I must have my "lucky" earrings on for every game.

Crimson67 8 Feb 1
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34 comments

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13

Don't wear the same pair of underwear 2 weeks in a row; unless you turn them inside out after a week? No, wait, that comes under hygeine.

Sage advice.

LOL

🤧 x10

11

I consider "knock on wood" and other such expressions to be little more than a turn of phrase for most people — roughly meaning "I'm hoping for the best" — not truly a superstition. I might follow up the statement with a quick rap, rap, rap on my head in jest, but I don't take it seriously. I can't think of any actual superstitious habits I have, though. When I was a kid, I believed in the power of prayers and religious talismans (e.g., rosaries, scapulars, and other blessed items), but I haven't held those beliefs for a long, long time.

I tend to knock on stuff when I make a hope-full statement.

I'm a rap, rap, rap on my head too person. A lot of stuff I did purposefully just to spit in the eyes of believers.

7

I just don't care anymore. I just don't do that sort of thing and would feel embarrassed if I did.

7

When golfing never 'talk on someone's knuckles' which means don't talk when they're lining up a shot.

Watching a hockey game and the PBP Announcer starts saying how great a player has been doing, especially the goalie. It's the kiss of death and almost guarantees him having 3 or more goals scored against him in the next minute.

Isn't the golf thing just common courtesy?

@Condor5 I suppose it is, but my dad used to say even whispering would 'jinx' him, he wanted complete silence. Then he would shoot into the woods or water. 😀

@Paul628 I used to play pool with my buddy, and we'd smoke a little ganja and drink a bit of hooch. Well, I get reeeeeal chatty under those conditions, and I could tell it drove him up a wall sometimes, but I just couldn't help myself. ????

7

I had to think for awhile. I don't have any.

7

I think luck has a lot to play in what happens in our lives. Luck is simply random event happenings that is outside our control. (IMHO)

7

Too many to mention...
And if you tell me more, I'll probably add them to my list... lol

6

Nice question 🙂 Here are mine:

I feel reluctant to open umbrellas inside.

I always have to say bless you or gesundheit after ANYONE sneezes.

I avoid picking up coins that are face-down.

5

Walking under a ladder. Knocking on wood. Making a wish on a falling star. Gifting a knife set with a penny taped to it. I can't think of more.

Betty Level 8 Feb 1, 2018

What's the superstition about a penny taped to a knife set? I've never heard that one.

@resserts

According to one superstition, a knife presented as a gift will sever the friendship between the giver and the recipient. The only way around this unfortunate outcome is to tape a penny to the knife. The coin must be promptly removed and returned to the giver as a form of symbolic payment.

If there is someone on a ladder holding an open can of paint, I won't walk under it.

@Coffeo

Neither will I. 🙂

@Coffeo that's just common sense and respecting safety of the beladdered.

5

My grandmothers both had many superstitions, my mother had some but not as many. I have none.

4

Take a picture of the opposing team's coach, moisten it, and stick it in the freezer. (Not me, a friend.)

That's not a superstition. That's straight-up voodoo.

4

I cross my fingers, I just do it without thinking!

4

Has getting into my car before I start the engine also something to do with superstition? I never realized that.

Gert Level 7 Feb 1, 2018

LOL

4

I have been the beneficiary of a fortunate coincidental concurrence of things on more than a few occasions. But, I have no lucky rituals.

3

Less and less as time has gone by.

3

My grandmother would go into a tizzy if am owl hooted three times, she thought someone was going to die. my ex sister in law, would lose her sanity if a bird was in the house, my caged parakeet included. Crazy!

3

I do the knock on woodand work at not spilling salt or breaking a mirror. Weird, never really thought about til ya posted it.

3

Dang... I don't have any...i know it's sad but I dont.

3

I won't put a hat on a bed. An old Russian superstition that means a death in the family. Silly, but I won't do it.

3

Isn't wearing the same outfit during two games smelly? (Of course, not if it's on the same day.)

Gert Level 7 Feb 1, 2018

@witchymom Really? 😀 So that means that I'm right.

2

I sometimes knock on my own head as a silly parody to the silly superstition of knocking on wood.

2

I say, "Good luck" to people ahead of many things, surgery, competition etc. I feel silly every time, I guess it may be appropriate if they are buying a lottery ticket? Wont improve their chances though.

2

I'm say "Knock on wood, "wish me luck" etc. but I don't feel like it's about the superstition, I know that's the origin. I also say "bless you" when people sneeze, I see it as being along the lines of please and thank you. I'm anti triskaidekaphobia, my birthday being on a 13th. I double down on thirteen.

2

I’m not aware if I do. I guess I wet the toothbrush prior to toothpaste application, but I don’t think any superstition is involved. Idiosyncratic? Maybe, but not superstitious. The term ‘luck’ is probably shorthand for the phrase ‘random events’, at least when I use the term. “Hey, Generic Human X, good random events today!” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Yo, good luck, dude”. If I told my friend the latter, I really meant the former. As far as a ritual to influence the outcome of events to be encountered in the future, unless you count smoking a blunt before everything I do as superstition, I say no. However, smoking does make things bearable. I can say that not because of the misclassification of perceived cause and effect, but because of the physical, observable, and testable attributes inherent to the physical nature of the process.

2
I have the weirdest most terrifying fear of Hats on Beds... It is so bad that literally every time I put something down my mind asks "Could this be used as a hat? Could that be used a a bed?" It comes from watching Drugstore Cowboy as a teenager. Matt Dillon's character has this fear and one scene his beautiful girlfriend puts a hat on a bed and he freaks out. That night she overdoses and they have to stuff her body in the crawlspace of the hotel and leave her there. I guess since I was 13 at the time and wanted a really hot girlfriend and didn't want her to die I could never let a hat onto a bed. Funny (not funny) story is that a couple years ago the girl I was dating gave me a hat, she threw it on the bed and I freaked out. The next night she almost died. I took her to the emergency room and they found out her intestines had spilled out and she had only a 30% chance of survival... 30% chance she would live but have colostomy bag for the rest of her life and a 30% of recovery. She survived but had to spend a month recovering in my apartment and use a walker and a had all these tubes coming out of her... I won't even tell the part about the CIA and Seal Team 4 connection... it's all true. NO HATS ON BEDS! 
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