some american superstitions
There are
a countless numbers of american superstitions that the americans
believes and practices in their daily life. but in this section i will
mention only some of them because of
their enormous amount extracted from « 101 american
superstitions » by Harry Collis:
« If you sing before seven, you will cry before
eleven »
There is an old belief that
the morning is too early to be happy. Happiness has to be earned each day
otherwise, you are sure to have bad luck.
« Asking god’s blessing for a sneezer »
People once believed the soul
could escape from the body when a person sneezed. To stop this from happening,
people ask god to bless and so to protect the person who sneezes.
« Stopping hiccups »
It was once believed that a
person with hiccups was possessed by the devil. Many remedies are supposed to
supposed to stop hiccups. Such as scaring the person or having the person hold
her nose while drinking water.
« cover your
mouth when you yawm »
An old superstition says that
yawming is caused by the devil and that evil spirits enter the body when your
mouth is open wide. Covering your mouth stops them. Now, it is simply
considered rude not to cover your
mouth when you yawm.it is also believed that
watching someone else yawm will cause you to yawm too.
« An itchy nose predicts
a quarrel »
There are many superstitions
about itching. For example, an itchy nose means you are going to have a quarrel
with someone.
« Spitting on your hands
for strength »
Seeing animalslocking their
wounds caused people to believe that saliva had some magical healing power.
Even today the first thing someone does when they hurt their fingeris put it in
their mouth.nowadays, when we spit on our hands, we are asking for added
strength.
« Cross your fingers to make a wish come
true»
Those wishing for luck will often cross one finger
over another, a gesture that's said to date back to early Christianity. The
story goes that two people used to cross index fingers when making a wish, a
symbol of support from a friend to the person making the wish. (Anything
associated with the shape of the Christian cross was thought to be good
luck.) The tradition gradually became something people could do on their own;
these days, just saying "fingers crossed" is enough to get the
message, well, across.
« Black cats
crossing your path »
As companion animals
for humans for thousands of years, cats play all sorts of mythological roles.
In ancient Egypt, cats were revered; today, Americans collectively keep more
than 81 million cats as pets.
So why keep a black
cat out of your path? Most likely, this superstition arises from old beliefs in
witches and their animal familiars, which were often said to take the form of
domestic animals like cats.
« Knock on
wood »
This phrase is almost
like a verbal talisman, designed to ward off bad luck after tempting fate:
"Breaking that mirror didn't bring me any trouble, knock on wood."
The fixation on wood
may come from old myths about good spirits in trees or from an association with
the Christian cross.
Similar phrases abound in multiple languages, suggesting
that the desire not to upset a spiteful universe is very common
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