Hello

Leigh, I am in the UK and while I am not superstitious my family were. Some of the things I can tell you are general and others seem to have been more common in the London area.

Basically it was bad luck to put up an umbrella indoors, put new shoes on the table, look at a New Moon through glass, give scissors as a present. Give a purse as a present without putting a coin in it. Seat 13 people at the Dinner table. Bring May Flower or Lilac Flowers indoors. To have two knives crossed at a meal was bad luck too, as was singing at the dinner table.
Crying on your Birthday was supposed to mean you would cry all the year round.

Marrying someone whose surname began with the same letter as yours was also unlucky"Change the name and not the letter, change for worse and not for better"
There are also superstitions about the month you marry in, I believe June is supposed to be the best. There is a rhyme about it which I will try to find for you.
Sweeping your house and putting the dust out of the front door on New Years Day was meant to make you lose a good friend.

You should make a wish the first time you eat Strawberries each year, not very relevant now we get them all the time.

Pearls were thought to be unlucky, "Pearls for tears" and many people also felt that way about Opal.
If you put your clothes on Inside out it was supposed to be lucky, but not if you then corrected them.
Black cats and Chimney sweeps are both supposed to symbolise Luck. Some people would even give Black Cat charms to a Bride or hire a Chimney Sweep to turn up at the Wedding!

I hope this has given you something to start you off!
X Lola

from the Philippines

Leigh, I am not superstitious person.But gee here in our country there are lots of it depending on what province . Some of the things I can tell you are general and others seem to have been more common.
say:
1. If you were lost reverse your clothes to get back on the right direction.
2. A black cat cross your way, be extra careful it is a sign of bad luck.
3. Turn your plate around if your eating when somebody wants to leave your area.
4. Number 13 indicates a bad luck that's why you wont see any construction site showing the 13th floor.
5. When designing the stair, be careful in numbering or counting the steps it should not be divisible by 3 or else you'll end up in death. (gold-silver-death).
6. During new-year: Wear polka-dots dress, put coins on pocket,have 12/13 different kind of round fruits on table, open all windows and doors,have a loud bang (any thing that will create loud noise) to have a lucky year ahead.
7. Jump as high as you can (if you're a kid) on new years eve to gain more height.
8. For pregnant woman: Do not eat egg plant, Do not look for unpleasant things / person / creature.
9. If a spoon dropped it means you'll have a female visitor then if fork means male.
10. If it happens that a picture of you have (in-picture-frame) that person in picture would be in-danger.
11. Good luck if you put a coin under your shoes during contest.
12. Bad luck if you sweep the floor at night.
13. Good luck if you prepare and eat noodles during your birthday.
14. If you offer a dozen of egg to a patron / saint before any occassion/ festival you prevent rain to ruin the occasion.
15. Put some eye catcher ( most common is a red dot) on the forehead of a baby to avoid uncontrollable tantrums.

there are lot more.... but hoping listed above will help....
it's only a hearsay and a superstitious that the olds always believed
:tuttut: dors

Trying hard to remember because so many have already been covered. So far:


If you break a mirror you'll get 7 years bad luck.

There's the old children's rhyme - 'if you stand on a nick you'll marry a stick and a beetle will come to your wedding'.

If you spill salt your are to throw someover your left shoulder with your right hand to prevent bad luck. Think that's the correct shoulder, anyway.

As children we were told it was also bad luck to pick Elder flowers as well as not bringing May flowers or Lilac into the house. I suppose this was to ensure there were some Elderberries to harvest.

Horse shoes are lucky so long as they are displayed the correct way up - upside down and the luck 'falls out', or is bad luck, so you hang them 'u'-shaped.

A lot of people remain superstitious about Magpies and if they see only one will spend time trying to see a second. The rhyme re. magpies in the north is '1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for a girl and 4 for a boy.

My grandma's old superstition was never to get egg white on your hands because it would give you warts!

I feel it is a true superstition that it is bad luck to walk under a ladder!

As children we truly believed that if we sat in front of a mirror and said repeatedly 'I believe in Ann Bolyn' (like you do???) this was bad luck becasue she would suddenly appear in the mirror behind you. None of us ever got very far trying this out before we became hysterical with fear. And I am still not prepared to experiment to let you know whether or not it is 'true'.

Getting the sixpence in your Christmas pud was very lucky. This is a real winner because you were surely lucky not to choke on the thing.

If you and your friend started to say the same thing at the same time this was lucky so long as you immediately stopped talking, linked little fingers, closed your eyes, made a wish AND THEN manged to shout 'BLACK CAT' at the same time. Your wish was sure to come true if you really managed this little feat in unison.

If a buttercup held under your chin reflects golden light on your skin ... you like butter. Beats me!

My own favourite, made up by me, is that it is bad luck to give somebody your last Rolo, so I never, ever do it.

If I remember more better ones I will add later.

Good luck. It would be interesting to see which come up over and over in different countries, and their possible origins.