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.
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.
I just don't care anymore. I just don't do that sort of thing and would feel embarrassed if I did.
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?
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.
What's the superstition about a penny taped to a knife set? I've never heard that one.
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 that's just common sense and respecting safety of the beladdered.
My grandmothers both had many superstitions, my mother had some but not as many. I have none.
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.
I cross my fingers, I just do it without thinking!
I do the knock on woodand work at not spilling salt or breaking a mirror. Weird, never really thought about til ya posted it.
Dang... I don't have any...i know it's sad but I dont.
I sometimes knock on my own head as a silly parody to the silly superstition of knocking on wood.
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.
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.
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!