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area51newmexico
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Location: East Yorkshire, England
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 Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:44 pm Post subject: Superstitions |
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As today is FRIDAY THE 13TH, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to ask if anyone had any supersitions or if they had any little rituals they did.
Throwing salt over your shoulder, something to do with black cats, mirrors, touching wood etc.
I don't have any superstitiions.
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Lamiaceae
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:03 pm Post subject: Re: Superstitions |
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| area51newmexico wrote: |
touching wood
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Tee hee 
| Quote: |
Jack Crow: Can I ask ya somethin, Padre? When I was kickin your ass back there... you get a little wood?
Father Adam Guiteau: What?
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No I don't have any superstitions but I do enjoy doing the opposite to what you're supposed to do.
For example, I walk under ladders for the fun of it.
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aalpha
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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I don't throw salt over my shoulder because I'm the one who has to clean it up, but I do knock on wood as we call it. You knock lightly 3 times and in the absence of wood you tap your knuckles on your head.
That's about it.
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Lamiaceae
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pickle
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Minty wrote: | | It appears actually that we've had 3 Friday the 13ths this year, and this event only happens once every 11 years. |
Yupp I mention this on the last one! Not the 11 years though just that there was 3.
See http://wwwarea51newmex.easyphpbb.com/viewtopic.php?t=5699
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area51newmexico
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| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 11:34 am Post subject: |
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Shame it's not every 13 years then people would be getting spooked!
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Rach
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| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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If I say something that might jinx my luck, then I touch wood (stop sniggering minty...) to stop it from jinxing it. Not sure I believe in it, but its something my grandmother always done, so I picked it up.
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area51newmexico
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:34 am Post subject: |
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| Rach wrote: | | If I say something that might jinx my luck, then I touch wood (stop sniggering minty...) to stop it from jinxing it. Not sure I believe in it, but its something my grandmother always done, so I picked it up. |
| Quote: | To touch wood or knock on wood is a superstition action to ward off any evil consequences or bad luck, perhaps because of some recent action you’ve taken or untimely boasting about your good fortune (“I’ve never been in danger of drowning, touch wood”); it can also be a charm to bring good luck.
The origin is unknown, though some writers have pointed to pre-Christian rituals involving the spirits of sacred trees such as the oak, ash, holly or hawthorn. There is, I’m told, an old Irish belief that you should knock on wood to let the little people know that you are thanking them for a bit of good luck. There’s also a belief that the knocking sound prevents the Devil from hearing your unwise comments. Others have sought a meaning in which the wood symbolises the timber of the cross, but this may be a Christianisation of an older ritual. It wasn’t always wood that was lucky: in older days, iron was also thought to have magical properties, and to touch iron was an equivalent preventative against ill-fortune.
The phrase itself is relatively modern, as the oldest citation for the British version of the phrase, touch wood, that I can find dates only from 1899. The American equivalent knock on wood is roughly contemporary, with my first example from 1905. |
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tou1.htm
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