(photo credit: Astronomy Photo of the Day: http://apod.nasa.gov)
Superstitions are a funny thing.
Being Chinese, I’ve grown up with a lifetime of old wives’ tales, drummed into me by my mother from a very young age.
One of mum’s firm beliefs is that if you point at the moon, the back of your ears will crack. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how this one ever came about, but I do know that it was so well ingrained into my psyche that when I was first dating Pete, I once nearly tore his arm off as he raised it towards the rising moon.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Don’t point at the moon, or the back of your ears will crack!”
Thankfully, he still married me, although that one incident all those years ago gave him an inkling of what he was getting himself into.
Today, nearly thirty years later, I can look back on all those old wives’ tales and laugh. A conversation at dinner tonight made me wonder how varied superstitions might be from country to country.
Did you grow up with any unusual old wives’ tales? Please share them with us – but please do keep it light – I’m going to play tough comments editor just this once and delete anything I deem too gruesome or scary. It’s a fun and humorous topic, so long as we don’t freak anyone out!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Good morning Celia, here’s mine. When you dream of something awful happening, you must eat something before telling anyone about it. Makes no sense at all but I never talk about my bad dreams on an empty stomach!
Offal is good for you as is spinach. A profound Scandinavian belief.
The stomach that doesn’t have room for its dinner, can’t have room for dessert. I never believed that one.
If you look at the sun, you’ll go blind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you swim less than three hours after eating anything, you will get cramp and drown and die. All those holidays when I didn’t eat during the day because I wanted to swim.
That’s about as gruesome as it gets. My mother hated old wives tales, so she edited them all out of the family folklore before they got to us.
We weren’t allowed to believe in luck or fortune or superstitions, but I made up one of my own “You always have room for dessert” This is one that should be encouraged!
If you say something unlucky, you must rap your knuckles against (raw, if possible) wood. I adhere firmly to this.
My father told me you must never light three cigarettes (or candles or whatever) off the same match or you’ll immediatly have very bad luck. I only did this once, got picked up for a driving violation within 15 minutes, and lost my license. Needless to say, I now blow the match out after lighting 2 things, and light a new match for the third item!
Straight from Brazil: you know how kids (particularly boys) sometimes like to play by crossing their eyes? Parents back home made it very clear that if a wind would blow right when you are crossing your eyes, they will never un-cross, and you’ll be like that forever… (I was scared to death of that one)
hope it’s not too gruesome, it’s all I could think, but I’m sure there’s more.
Never look at the full moon through a window – bad luck
Never put a pair of shoes on the table – bad luck
If you pulled an ugly face the wind would change and you would be stuck like that until you had done someone a good turn.
Oh these are all too funny!!
One more from my mum: if you eat uncut noodles on your birthday, you’ll have a long life. (Penne pasta obviously doesn’t count :))
My parents were not superstitious and didn’t really share stuff that wive’s tales are made of- but there were a lot of babushkas in our church who whispered little things in little girl’s ears… like if two people had the same dream, they would travel down the same road.
…or if you crossed your eyes at someone without praying first your face would freeze like that.
…and we played a bizarre little game about making sure you couldn’t be seen by the cars passing by the house. To this day, I hurry my steps when I see a car coming down the road in order to get into the house before they can see me.
I’m not sure if any of these fit the category- perhaps the one about stepping on a crack and breaking your mother’s back? I’d always try to step on at least one crack in the sidewalk and then watch her very intently.
Heidi, I love that one about two people sharing a dream and then a road together! :)
Glad to hear your mum’s back never cracked..hahaha
Lets see…
If you make that wierd face it would stick that way, if you play with your belly button your bottom would fall off, if you stick your tongue out when outside a birdie would drop a dropping on it, spill salt and throw it over your shoulder to stop bad luck.
Now if you are talking stories mom would tell or sayings that she would say to teach a lesson….
“Case of burnt Biscuits” meant, there was always something underneath you need to look at. (Her grandma would burn the biscuits or pancakes and turn them upside down so she wouldn’t see the burned parts)
“The piecrust” meant, don’t fib in the end someone will get the worst of the situation. (Her momma asked her how long she had been rolling the pie crust, and she said only a short while. The pie was taken to the neighbors and she told them her momma made it.)
She always had some story to tell us as we grew up, and most of them taught some sort of lesson.
How nice that your mum had her own set of parables, Joanne! :)
We lived in my Grandmother’s house when I was growing up and she had a million of em from her Irish background!
I accidently broke a mirror when I was about 10 and got into terrible trouble for bringing down 7 years bad luck on us all.
Cutlery – if any of us dropped cutlery onto the floor it indicated impending visitors. A knife meant a male visitor, a fork for a woman and a spoon for a child.
Spilled salt had to be thrown over the left shoulder to avert bad luck, spilled sugar meant joy.
If the wind changed while you were crossing your eyes then they would stay crossed.
Weird, huh?!
Amanda, I love the cutlery one!! Adore old wives’ tales that seem to have absolutely no sense behind them at all! ;-)
Oh I think I need to find some that I like for my Monkeys. I don’t think I grew up with any…
I like your moon one though Celia.
One more from my mum, B – if you jiggle your legs under the table, you’ll shake all your money away (and be broke). ;-)
Shoes on the table = bad luck
Finding a penny = good luck
Hat on the bed =bad luck
Putting a red thread on a baby’s head cures hiccups.
Knock on wood = good luck
Salt over the shoulder = goes in the devil’s eye
That’s all I can think of for now.
Maz
A red thread to cure hiccups? That’s a new one to me! ;-)
I had a think today and I do recall reading somewhere that you should always look at the new moon over your shoulder for good luck, but nothing about ear cracking…
I’d forgotten ladders too, apallingly bad luck should you walk under a ladder, much better to step into the traffic.
I think I was regularly warned against sitting on cold steps in wet bathing suits and also against sitting on hot radiators, but I can’t remember what was supposed to happen if you did.
stepping on a crack = bad luck
walking under a ladder = bad luck
black cat crossing your path = bad luck
hang a horseshoe over you door point side up so the luck doesn’t fall out, but one of my grans said that would make a swing for a witch, so what do you do :p
cows lying down in the fields = rain
kill a spider in doors = rain
left palm itching means money in your pocket
right palm itching means money out of your pocket
seeing an ambulance is unlucky unless you pinch your nose hold your breath until you see a brown or black dog and you had to say a rhyme – can’t remember it off hand.
lol, if you did all that and didn’t see a dog you would need the ambulance
Jo, oh you should hear what Chinese mothers have to say about sitting around with wet bathing suits, or wet hair, or sitting too close to something hot! ;-)
Gillian, sounds like you grew up in an interesting house.. :)
See, an ambulance is an interesting old wives’ tale, since they haven’t been around for hundreds of years. Unless the superstition arose during times of horse-drawn ambulances? Curious..thank you for sharing all of these! :)
Oh we had a million as kids. To this day I still (silently) recite “Step on a crack and break your mother’s back” as I step around sidewalk cracks.
And my Chinese grandmother ingrained in me that if you had a tummy ache, you should ONLY ever rub your tummy in clockwise circles. Counter clockwise circles would mix up your insides. I laughed at her, but to this day I still only rub anything in clockwise circles…just to be sure!
These are so fun to read. Here’re two more:
Never open an umbrella indoors = bad luck
There’s (a pot of) gold at the end of a rainbow. (I haven’t found any yet!)
KK, that’s a new Chinese one for me! My grandmother had so many of them – wish I could still remember them!
Manuela, I’ve never found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow either! ;-)
Step on a crack, break your grandmother’s back.
There must be thousands of old wives’ tales in Italy, Deb! ;-)
LOL ok you need to worry if Big Boy or Small Man tell their friends that! :P
Barbara, I heard that the reason for not lighting 3 cigarettes from one match came about during war. It was because when the men in the trenches used the same match for 3, it gave the enemy snipers time to get a sight on them and the 3rd one was the target.
We had lots of these when I was young, including most of the ones given above.
You throw spilt salt in the devil’s eye, where he sits on your left shoulder.
Find a pin and pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck.
If you have an itchy nose, you will be kissed by a fool.
If your ear is itchy, someone is talking about you.
If your foot itches you must be going somewhere soon.
Lorraine, my boys have never heard it, so no danger of them thinking it! ;-)
Kerrie, I love the itchy nose, kissed by a fool one!
My brother’s wife was Chinese on her father’s side and Mexican on her mother’s side. She had SO many wonderful “old wives tales” but the one I remember most was when I was pregnant with my first child and craving grapefruit. She was SURE that I was carrying a girl because the tradition was sweet for boys and bitter for girls. I ate tons of grapefruit with both my pregnancies and have two wonderful boys. The other one was – never hand someone salt, just pass it in their direction otherwise you are giving them your bad luck.