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In the midst of all life’s fretting and planning and schlepping, don’t we all just want a time-out to focus on…our domestic neuroses? 
My roommate and I were recently glum because we couldn’t figure out why the full-length mirror in the living roomwas “haunted,” er, smeared, foggy, etc. Consulting the runes and the tarot was useless, but the Farmers’ Almanac finally proved a worthy oracle: “Foggy mirror? A blow-dryer will clear it!” Maybe a bit too meta of a chore, but hey, the almanac has been accruing domestic proverbs like this since 1818. For instance:
• You get twice the amount of orange juice from a orange, if you hold it under hot water before you squeeze.
• Frozen fish can be thawed in a small amount of milk in the refrigerator. This eliminates any fishy taste.
• Use vinegar and hot water to clean dried on insects off the windshield. Doesn’t leave any film.
And sure, these are all great suggestions. I think I was hoping for more far-out instructions–not that the Almanac staff are all gypsies, but their preoccupation with the night skies did rather lead me to think they’d be more likely to endorse, well, superstitions. Which got me to looking some up…There are so many skunks in my neighborhood that I wanted to cross-reference and make sure they weren’t projecting any weird juju onto my reservoir of luck. According to one packed database of superstitions, they aren’t bad luck, but here are some situations that are:
- Bad Luck: To give a pair of gloves to a friend unless you receive something in exchange.
- Bad Luck: To see the new moon for the first time through glass. Upon seeing the new moon you should turn whatever silver you have in your pockets or handbag, and thus ensure prosperity for amonth.
- Bad Luck: Red and white flowers together.
- Bad Luck: 3 butterflies together.
And if you’ve recently gifted gloves while walking through a trio of butterflies, here are some bad luck antidotes:
- Good Luck: An itch on the top of your head
- Good Luck: Cutting your hair during a storm
- Good Luck: Sneezing 3 times before breakfast
- Good Luck: To have one’s garments caught up by a bush or briar when out walking is a promise of good luck, involving monetary gain
Any you want to add (or–if you’re feeling it–author)?
I grew up with the superstition ‘bad luck to put new shoes on the table’ (does that mean old, nasty ones CAN go on the table? ;-)
posted by JaneM on 5-16-2007 at 3:12 pm
My grandmother, who just passed away a couple months ago at the age of 97, was adamant about entering and leaving through the same door. There was also a superstition against putting shoes on the bed, not the table. And I always forget which meant which, but when you’re hands itch, one means news and the other means money.
posted by Muffy on 5-16-2007 at 3:25 pm
Actually, upon seeing the new moon you should probably see a doctor (or perhaps a psychologist), since the new moon is the dark one, the opposite of the full moon. You’d have to be looking almost straight at the sun just to be in the right direction, but you’d also need a mighty powerful flashlight.
And sneezing three times before breakfast just means a bad allergy day…
My dad always considered it good luck if a gun jammed while facing you, but bad luck if it jammed while facing away. Go figure.
posted by Just Al on 5-16-2007 at 4:00 pm
I’ve heard it’s bad luck to be run over by a train. On the other hand it should only ever happen to you once.
posted by Bassman on 5-16-2007 at 4:41 pm
my grandma is full of superstitions and helpful hints. when u have the hic-cups, eat a cube of sugar. never put new shoes on the table. the umbrella/ mirror rules apply. plus an assortment of usless stuff. then again, im only 14 and these are just rubbish to me. i’m sure that i’ll pass them slong to my kids someday though… must be a english thing ;)
posted by ashley on 5-16-2007 at 5:39 pm
The only superstition I can think that my family abides is not to give a wallet or purse as a gift without money in it. It’s bad luck for the receiver (financially I presume)so we’ll usually put a dollar in it.
posted by Katie on 5-16-2007 at 7:37 pm
Never give or take a sharp object (knife, scissors, etc.) directly from one person’s hand to another’s. It severs the relationship. My grandmother had a ton of them, but this is the only one I practice…
posted by Barbara on 5-16-2007 at 10:44 pm
My grandmother (and to an extent, my mother) passed along a couple of superstitions to me - When I use salt I always make sure to throw a pinch over my left shoulder. I’m not even exactly sure why I need to do it, but it’s ingrained in me to keep the good luck juice flowing. The other “rule” that I adhere to is to break the bottom of the eggshell after eating a nice breakfasty soft-boiled egg. My Grandmother always had me do this as a child to prevent witches from using the eggshell to sail across the sea in. For some insane reason I still do this as an adult.
posted by Lulu_J on 5-16-2007 at 10:48 pm
Oh I forgot one-if you’re using someone else’s pocket knife, its bad luck to return it to them closed. Never close someone else’s knife.
posted by Katie on 5-17-2007 at 6:31 am
With the pocket knife, I’d heard that the borrower is to return the knife as it was given. i.e. if he gives it to you open, return it open. If he gives it to you closed, close it before you give it back.
posted by EV on 5-17-2007 at 7:08 am
I don’t believe in superstions because it’s bad luck to be superstious.
Oh, wait. There is one, never wash a (karate) belt because to do so will wash away the knowlage it represents
posted by Alex R Thomas on 5-17-2007 at 7:21 am
As for knives, I’ve heard that it is an insult to hand it blade first, or to hand it opened at all. Always hand it over closed.
When do superstitions become OCDs? When I was little and got stressed about something, I would have to take either only one or some even number of steps on a tile before moving to another…couldn’t step on any lines or cracks, had to repeat anything done with one hand with the other, same goes for foot movements while sitting, eye blinks, etc. There was just something necessary about things being even and, as I saw it, balanced and something horribly wrong with anything asymmetrical. Thank God I grew up and dropped all that! (Well, mostly…unless the stress in my life is really torturous.)
posted by Kathy on 5-17-2007 at 7:35 am
My dad says that if your left palm itches you’ll get money and if your right palm itches you’ll meet someone new. Also if you come in the front door of someones house and leave out the backdoor you’ll bring them more company. There are lots more but I can’t remember exactly how they go…
posted by Sarah on 5-17-2007 at 7:54 am
To Lulu_J, re: salt…
When I was a kid, my grandma told me that if you spilled salt (which for millenia has been valuable trade goods and inspired more than a few wars over its control), you took a pinch of it and tossed it over your left shoulder. The purpose of this was to blind The Devil, who was always watching you from there, to your sinful wastefulness…
As an interesting aside, you will notice that this superstition continues to this day. Check any Warner Brothers’ cartoon or contemporary TV ads - the Angel good guy on your shoulder is on the right (Dexter), the bad guy Devil is on the left (Sinister). These are terms from medieval heraldry - see Bend Sinister, the heraldic symbol for bastardy.
In the U.S. many buildings do not have a 13th floor. In Asia it’s the 7th.
TTFN
posted by Doc Stuart on 5-17-2007 at 9:05 am
Wouldn’t you want your fish to have a fishy taste?
My family has this wierd superstition of cats. Black cats are supposed to be good spirits and your supposed to keep one if it crosses your path in a new home. Red and white cats are very bad omens (though I have yet to see any that are that color). My great-grandmother had this wierd thing of living the room when a cat started to clean itself. I think she feared that when the cat looked up from cleaning the first person it looked at would be the first to die.
posted by Abby on 5-17-2007 at 9:13 am
for some reason, when I was little (and even now I find myself doing this sometimes) I had a thing for stepping on cracks, like I wanted to step on them, and I don’t know why… Now I await a ton of bad luck…
posted by The Tay on 5-17-2007 at 9:15 am
Having spent many years in the theatre, I still cannot say the name of a certain Shakespearean play. I throw salt over my left shoulder if I spill it. And, much to my boyfriend’s amusement, I have to get out of bed on the same side that I got in it.
The thing is, I don’t really believe in recieving bad luck or good luck from doing or not doing something… but I still can’t help myself on these.
posted by Tru on 5-17-2007 at 10:56 am
I’ve long held the belief that driving behind a cement truck is bad luck.
posted by Johnny Cat on 5-17-2007 at 11:01 am
I am totally OCD about saying “Bread & Butter” if my husband & I walk on opposite sides of an obstacle, like a light post (supposed to keep our relationship from going separate ways or something).
My mother’s side of the family has always insisted that you must not give something sharp (scissors, knives, hedge trimmers, etc.) as a gift to someone you love, or it will cut your love in two. Get around that by “purchasing” the item (usually for a penny per blade).
Grandma also said it was bad luck for 2 people to make a bed together, but Mom later told me she thought Grandma had made that up to keep her “helpful” granddaughters out of her hair while she was trying to tidy up. I still use it to get out of helping my husband change the sheets, though!
posted by Detritus on 5-17-2007 at 3:48 pm
It’s bad luck not to hang my Dallas Cowboys flag on game days. Unfortunately, hanging it does not appear to produce good luck.
posted by dw on 5-22-2007 at 2:34 pm
The theatre does seem to have an interesting number of superstitions. There’s the issue with “The Scottish Play” as Tru mentioned, saying “Break a Leg” because “Good Luck” is bad luck, and any number of others.
posted by Sara on 5-28-2007 at 1:25 pm
Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth!!
That superstition only applies when one is actually in a theatre luckily. There a complicated antidote for the bad luck if one happens to slip up though. An actor is also not supposed to say the last line of the play in rehearsal.
posted by Heather on 6-18-2008 at 6:08 am
Wow, is my family just strange? I can’t think of one superstition that we had growing up, not even from my WWII era grandparents.
posted by nutmeag on 6-18-2008 at 7:41 am
I am the least superstitious person EVER. Seriously, I think they’re all silly :) I’ve broken mirrors, opened umbrellas indoors, spilled salt, passed knives back and forth from hand to hand and all of the rest.. I don’t have any worse luck that anyone else. In fact, I think I am rather lucky in comparison!
BUT just for ‘good manners’ I was taught to only hand back a knife as it was given to me. If I feel OCD I wont step on cracks, but I’m playing more of a ‘mini game’ with myself than being superstitious… cuz it’s fun :)
posted by Kelly on 6-18-2008 at 8:55 am
My mom used to say if your nose itches, you will kiss a fool.
posted by walker on 6-18-2008 at 10:00 am
Having grown up in an Indian household, I pretty much hit the motherload of superstitions.
- If you have one brother, it is bad luck for him if you wash your hair on Thursdays or Saturdays.
- If you look particularly enviable, a black line of kohl behind your ear will protect you from the Evil Eye.
- Odd numbers of sneezes are omens of bad things. Even numbers of sneezes are okay as they cancel each other out.
- When giving money, always give an odd amount. Don’t know why.
- When a loved one is going to a new place or traveling a long distance, do not comb your hair until they arrive to insure their safety.
- Never step over a baby as it will stunt its growth.
There are tons more, but since I spent the majority of my childhood repressing such memories, I can’t recall them now.
posted by Darcy on 6-18-2008 at 11:11 am
I like to think that its good luck to put on a shirt or pants and find a dryer sheet stuck in them.
posted by Patrick on 6-18-2008 at 11:20 am
My grandma and great aunt believed that if the Christmas tree fell someone in the family was going to die in the new year. The weird thing is, ours fell twice and both times someone in the family did die in the new year.
posted by Elizabeth on 6-18-2008 at 12:20 pm
Okay, has anyone else heard this one??? My sister’s husband would freak out if she put her hand in a pickle jar during “her time of the month” as he was told it would make the pickles spoil. I am not making this up.
posted by CalGal on 6-18-2008 at 3:41 pm
CalGal- I heard of an Italian family that wouldn’t let any of their daughters work in the kitchen during their “time of the month” for fear of spoiling the food.
In Russia there are a lot of superstitions:
-Don’t greet someone across a threshold. Wait for them to come in first.
-Don’t wish someone “Happy Birthday” before the day-it brings bad luck.
-Travelers sit on their suitcases before a trip (I don’t know why).
-Don’t look into a mirror for 40 days after a loved one dies (while their spirit is still on the earth-presumably) or they may decide to stay and haunt you.
And my favorite:
-If your bowl of soup contains a bay leaf, then you will receive a special letter soon.
posted by Andrea on 6-18-2008 at 4:39 pm
Asians have a couple of interesting ones, especially when it comes to food:
- Don’t stick your chopsticks in your bowl of rice (I think it’s because it resembles the incense at funerals).
- Don’t pass food from chopstick to chopstick (meaning, using your chopsticks to pass someone food, and having them take the food with their chopsticks).
- Your rice shouldn’t make a mound in the ricebowl, it should be flat (I think because it resembles a fresh grave).
(Regarding etiquette, it’s good manners to slurp your soup.)
Another good one is, Don’t give someone who is sick a potted plant, as the illness may then “take root.”
posted by Colin on 6-18-2008 at 5:52 pm
I think alot of superstitions start from basic common sense… or what people used to consider as common sense back in the day when the devil was watching over your left shoulder.
Breaking a mirror is 7 years bad luck - more likely you’re going to be finding shards of glass for ages so be careful with your mirror! Don’t pass sharp objects because it increases the risk of you or the receiver being cut vs them picking it up themselves, or always hand a knife handle first - well of course, it’s the safest thing. Bad luck to walk under a ladder: things are more likely to fall on you because if a ladder is there there’s likely a trades person up there with a bucket of paint or some tools. Umbrellas opened inside are likely to knock things over. They’re tales used to scare children into obeying with punishments like bad luck, marrying a rat or similar. Really it’s to keep them out of trouble.
Conversly, there is one that says that a bird pooping on your head is good luck. Like the rain on your wedding day being good luck, I think that the ‘good luck’ promise is more to calm down the frantic bride or the person with poop on their head than a prediction of luck coming their way.
Don’t know about the ones from other cultures though, I guess I’ve only had practise rationalising the european ones :)
posted by Marie on 6-19-2008 at 12:56 am
I noticed a couple of lines about stepping on cracks and bad luck, but didn’t read the obvious consequence of said stepping - Breaking your mother’s back!.
Some people wouldn’t consider that bad luck, (excl. me of course, Mom).
I’m just sayin.
posted by shane on 6-25-2008 at 11:27 am