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Superstitions around the world
Superstition (noun); excessively credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural
A widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such belief.
People often label superstitions as irrational due to the nature of the possible consequences they might encounter, and although they may not realise it, everyone has superstitions whether it’s a lucky item or an aversion to Friday the 13th.
Possibly the most widely known and used superstition is knocking on wood. The origins of this particular superstition are Indo-European and Celtic. Although the origins and meanings of the phrase are as varied as the cultures that use it, it often has a similar action. For example, commonly in Britain people say “touch wood” when they want something to be okay or for something good to happen, whereas in Italy, instead of wood they touch steel. In countries such as Poland and Russia, they also use wood but it must be unpainted.
The belief that knocking on wood brings us good luck comes from the Celtic belief that spirits good and bad resided in trees and that they could be called upon for protection or could be chased away by knocking on their homes. This practice is used by many people around the world and can also be linked to Christianity as they often link the idea of knocking on wood for luck to the magical power of the wooden crucifix.
Historians have attributed the practice of this superstition to a 19th century British children’s game called “tiggy touchwood” in which young players would claim immunity from being tagged by touching the nearest piece of wood, adults picked up on this habit and adopted the phase as their own, creating the most common and widely used superstition in the world today.
Possibly the second most common superstition across the world is throwing salt over your shoulder for good luck. This superstition also involves the idea of “warding off evil”, and in this case, the Devil himself. In Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, Jesus’ betrayer Judas is portrayed as having accidentally spilled salt and since he was associated with doing something bad, the argument goes that so was salt, and so throwing it over your shoulder would blind the Devil waiting there.
In older versions of this superstition “Old Scratch” was said to reside there and so salt was always thrown over the left shoulder because that is where the spirit would sit to try and tempt you. Some people say that the warding is due to the amount of salt that is thrown and not just which side it was thrown.
The origins of this superstition are largely European Christian and ancient Roman. This is down to the belief that you have the devil or some sort of malevolent force sitting on your shoulder tempting you to do things. In traditional lore, salt is used to ward off many different types of evil creatures such as ghosts and demons.
Many religions also believe that using Holy water is a good way to repel spirits and keep them from tempting you to do bad things. This particular belief stems from the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
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Ariel x
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