Which childhood superstitions/old wive’s tales so you still adhere to?

25 comments

1. Not really a superstition but my dad told me to eat more ginger when winter arrives to ward off colds, most likely a coincidence but I still do it now and rarely get sick.

2. I don’t go to sleep with my hair wet or go out with wet hair, in case I get a cold.

3. No new shoes on the table

4. The first thing my mum would say if I came home with new shoes would be “don’t put them on the table” which I still think about when opening up a parcel of new shoes.

5. If I can easily avoid walking over 3 drains I will, although I won’t go out of my way to do so.

6. When I see a lone magpie I say “Hello Mr Magpie, how is your wife?”. Also after I’ve cracked an egg I have to crush the shells up before putting them in the bin so witches can’t use them as boats. The only two superstitions I have or can remember my family having!

7. I don’t walk under ladders if I can help it. It’s an old wives tale but also common sense.

8. New shoes never go on the table.

   I say “good morning Mrs Magpie” and do a salute when I see a magpie.

9. I say greet individual magpies, or magpies in odd numbered groups.

   I never write someone’s name with red pen, and I don’t leave chopsticks or spoons sticking out of bowls of food.

10. never open an umbrella indoors.

11. I never walk under a black cat

12. Break bottom of empty egg shells

13. *Don’t tell a dream before breakfast or it’ll come true*

    I absolutely refuse to speak about certain dreams before breakfast for fear they’ll come true. I’m not entirely certain that it’s even a thing but I heard it once when I was a kid and have stuck to it since 😅😅

14. When me and my sister were little, my mum would regularly tell us that if we sneezed seven times in a row, we would suffocate and die. No idea why she thought that was a good idea. Even as an adult, I feel a flicker of panic when I have a sneezing fit and can’t help but count them

15. Tapping the top of a fizzy drink can.

16. Reading these comments has just made me realise how much I inconvenience myself due to superstitions or old wives tales 😭😂

17. Never kill a spider – “If you want to live and thrive, let that spider run alive!”

18. I throw salt over my left shoulder. Don’t even wait to spill it.
    I won’t take the third light.

19. I really like the look of opal jewellery but it’s not my birthstone so I won’t wear it *even though I hear how silly that sounds out loud!*

20. Taking off a coat inside otherwise “you won’t feel the benefit” when you go back outside.

    Not walking under ladders (though this is clearly just common sense!).

21. I totally do the 13 thing as well!

    I don’t think i has a parent teaching me it though… Maybe someone at school said or something because as far as I know no one else in my family does it.

22. I never put new shoes on the table. My mum would throw a fit if anybody did this and it’s ingrained in me.

23. I dislike crossing on the stairs (I will wait for whoever is coming up or down to do so, wherever practicable, before embarking on my own journey), or embracing at the threshold of a house, the number 13 doesn’t bother me but I won’t talk as I go past a monkey puzzle tree.

    My fiance is big into tarot cards and crystals and all of that stuff, so we regularly go to a crystal shop and she gets things. I let her do my tarot once but felt far, far less comfortable than I thought I would (given that I am, to all intents and purposes, an atheist/agnostic).

24. An old wives’ tale I know as a matter of fact to be 100% true and accurate and one I always use whenever I see it is:

    Pink sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning.
    (it’s going to rain heavily later, and be grey/overcast throughout the rest of the day)

    Pink sky at night, shepherd’s delight.
    (it’s going to be a clear and sunny day all throughout tomorrow)

25. 3 drains, saluting the lone magpie, throw salt over left shoulder.