Superstitions

I don’t recall ever being superstitious. Although I still remember the childhood superstitions when taking a walk of “step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back, step on a line, you’ll break your mother’s spine”, I am not afraid of the numbers 7 and 13 in any form, be it the floor number in a tall building or a day of the week. I have no fear of a black cat crossing my path or bad luck for spilling salt. Though I’d probably prefer to walk around a ladder, I’m not concerned about walking under it. I recently broke a mirror, and though I’d joked about having 7 years of bad luck, I don’t really believe that I will. Although I don’t see a viable reason to do so, I am not afraid to open an umbrella inside.

I don’t believe in the ‘magic’ of a rabbit’s foot, a lucky penny or a 4-leaf clover. I don’t believe that making a wish before blowing out birthday candles is logical, any more than wishing on a falling star will make your wish come true. Nonetheless, I am occasionally guilty of acting out and saying, “knock on wood”.

Living in and around PA Dutch Country for all of my life, this area has a tradition about eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. It is believed that doing so will bring good luck for that year. I happen to enjoy pork and sauerkraut, and when I do make it, I make enough that I can freeze servings for future consumption. I’d had been hankering for pork and sauerkraut late last year but decided to wait until New Year’s Day to make it. I have NOT had this traditional meal many, many times on New Year’s Day, and I cannot say that my luck has been worse those years, any more than I can say that I have had better luck when I have consumed the meal on New Year’s Day.

There are different superstitions around the world, and superstitions are usually based on cultural traditions and/or personal experiences. While not any kind of mental health issue to be superstitious, people who are heavily invested in their superstitions may experience stress, anxiety and depression. I recently decided to try on the superstition of 7 years of bad luck for the mirror I broke, and I must admit that I could immediately feel some anxiety in my chest as I imagined 7 full years or waiting and wondering when the next bad thing was going to happen!

Though not a mental illness/disease, mental health professionals agree that the reason people have superstitions is because they need to believe a supernatural force has the ability to influence unpredictable factors and that belief has a way of resolving the uncertainty of what may happen next (or in the future).

Advice is given that, in order to stop being superstitious, one has to learn to disassociate any good luck or bad luck with a specific thought as to why it occurred. Life is life, and sometimes we get dealt a winning hand and sometimes we get dealt a losing hand. Or be like me and be somewhat pessimistic about your life in general. I’ve been heard to say, “Expect the worst, that way you’ll never be disappointed!”

I’d love to hear if you have any superstitions and how they affect your life, especially if they are rarer or unknown superstitions to most of us! And if this subject interests you, you will enjoy looking up and reading about other superstitions around the world!