13 Common (But Silly) Superstitions - which do you believe/practice?

how does one "practice" beginner's luck

lose your virginity

so many but none on this list

i meant the knock on wood, umbrella, crossing fingers stuff etc

how does one "practice" beginner's luck

you can do it, but it only works the first time

for example?
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mostly verbal stuff: when talking about something good i say, 'bli ayin hara' compulsively, when discussing something that hasn't happened yet but that i hope to happen i say, 'b'sha'a tova,' i 'poo-poo' bad things and say, 'chas v'shalom' when saying a hypothetical that has negative connotations. lots of language/thought policing like that.

Only ladders, because there's a reasonable possibility of either the ladder falling on you, or someone on the ladder dropping something on you.

tfu tfu tfu
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otm

Voted for #5, but I'm careful with mirrors as well. Things I do that freak my wife out because they're supposedly bad luck: put my shoes on the bed; walk out of the house via one door and walk back in via a different door.

Find a penny, pick it up …
Don't walk under that ladder!
Knock on wood
Cross your fingers

Friday the 13th is my lucky day though.

Also if I spill salt i have to throw it over my shoulder. That's something my mom always did but I have no idea why tbh.

i'm embarrassed to say (and do) but i find myself knocking on wood sometimes.

ladders and mirrors, and I feel like a moron every time I worry about them

Spilled salt

"The Last Supper has given us two common superstitions: the first is that you should never seat 13 at dinner, and the second is that spilling salt brings bad luck.
If you look closely at Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, you can see that Judas has knocked the salt cellar over with his elbow. Thanks to Judas Iscariot, spilled salt is associated with treachery and lies. If you do spill salt, a pinch thrown over your left shoulder is supposed to blind the devil waiting there."

TAKE THAT, DEVIL!!!

what if you spill a jar of salt in the house?
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At work, I have left mirrors out for other people to throw in the dumpster.

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You just throw a pinch over your left shoulder, that's all.

oh, but maybe if it's in the house it's worse! oh no!

on the topic of fucking w/ satan, some jews blow the shofar every day of the month leading up to rosh hashana, except the day immediately before. bc then the satan gets all confused and thinks rosh hashana already passed so he takes a nap or some shit like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_83MEuLoz9Y

you'd think after the first year they tried it it would stop working but he keeps falling for it every year! xp

I'm not superstitious, but I knock on wood in front of my mom because she is superstitious and will panic if I do not. Also, like snoball, I generally don't walk under ladders because it's often actually dangerous.

I don't walk under ladders or open umbrellas inside the house -- but the umbrellas indoors is more I'm a clumsy ass and i'll probably knock something over

I'm not actually superstitious but I just do these things because I grew up doing them? I don't actually believe them.

Oh what about taking your feet off the floor of the car and touching the ceiling while you pass a cemetary?

... what?

huh

why should a normal person walk under a ladder when there are so many other options?

this is more for kids i guess.

also, some people believe hopping over a kid will make him short forever

As soon as I typed it I was like wait that sounds crazy but I just googled it and there are other people who do this!! Hang on, still researching.

i dont do any of these things, but im sure i have something equivalent

Oh what about taking your feet off the floor of the car and touching the ceiling while you pass a cemetary?

I have never heard of this!

"I have a memory of a ritual during car rides in the fifties: when we passed by a cemetery, we had to touch the car ceiling with both hands and lift our feet off the floor, or something."

it seems like a great way to crash if you're driving.

feet off the floor touching ceiling is something my wife used to do when she was a kid while crossing bridges, but i think ive heard of the cemetery thing as well

not a superstition but I have to shut the closet door before I go to bed why bcz monsters

I've tried sleeping with it open but it wigs me

Pick a penny off the ground, but that's because I like free money rather than any superstition. Only superstition I illogically practice is not putting shoes on a table.

oh shit, i won't step on sidewalk cracks! altho thats more something i did as a kid and now just do sort of unconsciously.

My childhood best friend and her family did that. I think it was so the spirits couldn't get in you or something. But it looks like there's at least one other person who did it too. idk either.

not a superstition but I have to shut the closet door before I go to bed why bcz monsters

this is a superstition!

I don't pick my feet up anymore but I'll absentmindedly touch the ceiling still.

Best BFF kisses her and and touches the car ceiling when going through yellows that might turn red. Apparently that's a thing too.

oh shit, i won't step on sidewalk cracks! altho thats more something i did as a kid and now just do sort of unconsciously.

i'm pretty sure this is just ocd

the cemetery/bridge thing sounds like an especially dangerous variant of the padiddle game

Fucking nearly all of these. My parents both managed to instil ridiculous superstitious nonsense in my head as a young child and now I instinctively touch wood about 5 times a day.

sweet i've finally got ocd xxpost

uh xpost

also I remember those disappointed days of old when I was a kid angry at my mom for not letting me do something, stomping on every sidewalk crack I could find

isn't it a lot of work to never step on a crack? requires constant + total attentiveness to the sidewalk

its kind of a fun rhythm game really, in a weird way i really enjoy it

I do the thing where when you're a passenger in a car going over a narrow, rickety bridge, you kick the driver in the head repeatedly until you reach the other side

dog latin's post is throwing me into a terrible joke tailspin, help

xp: tbh in most cities should be paying attention to the sidewalk anyway to avoid trash/puke/dogshit/etc so I don't see how adding in cracks would make it worse

http://rlv.zcache.com/do_you_respect_wood_card-p137468303531599733bh2r3_400.jpg

I thought touching too much wood was how you went blind

"DO YOU RESPECT WOOD" is worthy of a death grips album cover

no thats masturbating too much
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I held my breath past cemeteries and over bridges?!

I am v superstitious!

find a penny
never set your purse on the floor
knock on wood
salt tossing
try not to step on a crack

one time my roommates were chasing me through our apartment (playfully) and i slammed a door, broke a mirror, and got a sliver of the mirror stuck inside my finger. it stayed there for over TWO YEARS until one day i was doing laundry and the piece of mirror had migrated to a different part of my finger and it came shooting out. super gross.

that is a microstep away from having a useless superpower

not a superstition but I have to shut the closet door before I go to bed why bcz monsters
umm yeah its generally a good idea to close up poltergeist portals before going to bed.

holy shit

i always knew ENBBs cemetery thing as 'if you pass a funeral procession you must hold your bellybutton until you see a bird'

but what if you're an innie?

then you die

Knocking on wood and crossing my fingers while hailing a single Magpie.

2 grates = good luck
3 grates = bad luck

I have been known to earnestly cross my fingers while waiting for code to compile

See a penny: the poll

none.

If I find a penny, I pick it up but that's mainly because I'm cheap. I don't think I'll have good luck, though maybe if I accumulate enough wealth from found change on the ground...?

• i would make a wish on a wishbone, but haven't encountered one in decades
• i don't use umbrellas inside because it's not raining there
• if '66' refers to mario lemieux then yes i am a fan
• i have occasionally tossed a coin in a fountain and made a wish
• a friend gave me one of those notre dame 'play like a champion today' signs, which i do touch most days but only because it's goofy. i don't even like notre dame

I don't walk under a ladder, but that's just common sense not a superstition. Not sure whether I should click it or not.

I think I knock on wood (usually my head in self-derision) as much for my interlocutor as much as for myself but not walking under ladders just seems like common sense.

i used to collect lucky pennies and even keep them in my jeans pocket away from other change. then i got mugged and (among other things) they actually took the lucky pennies (there were like 10?). so i don't do that anymore

Not very lucky, were they?

the thieves or the pennies?

afaik those pennies were the only thing of value they got from me, so both i guess?

I knock on wood occasionally if im talking about smthing really important I dont want to jinx.
I do the pinch of salt over the shoulder
I have my own personal ones too:
- left shoe on first, always, or I'll have bad luck all day.
- never walk in time with music if Im walking along and some is playing somewhere. It feels wrong somehow and I purposefully try and fall out of step with the beat

I keep kosher

^^^ftw

salt over the shoulder
knock wood
genuflect pretty much constantly
"bread and butter" under my breath
cover mouth when yawning even when alone to avoid devil jumping up and down throat
small cross on windshield if I go through a yellow light
if partner falls asleep before I do after sex, draw pentagram on his/her forehead with eyeliner
pick up any pennies that're heads-up, leave lay if tails down

you're a good man

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