180 replies to this topic

[OwlGoddess]

offdahook4now, those are fascinating!

on the native american side of my family, owls are bad luck to all but those who are spirit-talkers.  i was designated as a spirit-talker at the age of four, and was given the animal of the owl by my great-grandfather.

however, owls are still seen as portends of death or misfortune, or simply an unwelcome visit from an evil magician.  hence, to make the owl go away, great-grandfather always said to tie a knot in your bedsheet to make the hooting owl go away, and to reverse your luck.  

this is cherokee folk magic - even though it's not really my superstition!

OwlGoddess

[offdahook4now]

lol... I'm not really superstitious either, but I lived with my grandparents for a few years as a kid and superstitions and silly things they said kinda rubbed off on you.

I've never heard the owl  superstition,( it's very interesting!) but I know probably your great-grandfather as well as my grandparents and generations before them believed all these superstitions as the truth.

Even though I'm not be superstitious, I'm going to pass these family superstitions down to my children.  It's a part of who our ancestors were. :-)

[OwlGoddess]

yes, offdahook4now, i agree that it is important to pass these things along, even if we don't necessarily believe in them personally.

i have used the "owl superstition" in a number of prints and paintings during my time at art school - i always felt that it was a way of communicating my culture to more people and making them aware of a rich and individual history.

incidentally, do you have more stories and superstitions that were passed down in your family?

O.G.

[offdahook4now]

I have lots of stories passed down to me, but they are more genealogy related.  I'll ask my 89 yr old grandpa next time I see him about the superstitions.  I know they had more, but they just aren't coming to me off the top of my head.

I do know they covered mirrors in the house after a loved one died, but I've heard that one before.

[offdahook4now]

Come to think of it, ( and I don't know why I didn't think of this before)  I was told my great-great grandmother on my dads side was a healer. She supposedly could put her hands on a sick person and take away the ailment.
She was a Hungarian immigrant, as my great grandmother and grandmother were.
I totally forgot about that until now, but I have no way to verify it either.

[secretsign]

The one I heard about healing thrush in babies was if a person married another person with the same last name but not related, could blow into the babies mouth and cure them.
Another one to get rid of warts steel a neighbor's dish towel and bury it under a rock. By the time the towel rotted the wart would be gone. Now,I bet that took a little time..hehe

[hawkerdriver]

I still to this day will NOT pick up a penny on the ground if it is tails-up!  

[WhyteWatcher]

Here's a couple of unusual ones:

An older lady friend of mine once told me (so convincingly that I had to try it) that if you lost something dear to you and you repeated the words "Jesus lost and found" three times that you would very soon find your lost item.
I lost a Celtic bracelet that meant a lot to me one day about 6 years ago.  I worked as a customer service rep for a cellular phone company at the time. After searching the entire building I remembered my old friend's advice and decided I had nothing to lose. I repeated the words while wishing fervently for my bracelet to be returned.  Two hours later I was leaving for lunch and there lay my bracelet right by the back door!  That door was also the entrance for all employees and butted up against the technician's bay, where customer's mobile phones were installed into their vehicles.  Dozens of people would have already gone in and out of that door, yet no one picked it up, even though it was in plain sight!
Mind over matter or superstition proven correct? Hmmmmm...

This was one I heard as a grade school student...when riding a school bus if the bus crosses railroad tracks, you must quickly lift your feet off the floor and find a screw to touch.  Otherwise it was very bad luck.

Here's some from my Southern Florida roots:

Rain water gathered from a hollow tree stump under a full moon is good for gout (makes me wonder how many old school wiccans the ol' family tree has )

If you heard whiperwills calling at night it meant something bad was going to happen to someone you knew.

Hearing an owl hoot outside your window three nights in a row meant death for someone close.

And of course the ever-famous upright horseshoe hung over the doorway for good luck.

[lone]

My mother in law who is Italian said that in there country it was believed if an owl landed on the roof of your house or a neighbors house there would be a death within the week.She also said that there was a few times that it did happen maybe by coincidence mabe not???

[Bridget]

I love this thread! My dad grew up in Southern Illinois where they used to say that someone could put a hex on you and send some demons to weave a ring out of feathers in your feather pillow. When the ring was completed you would die.
So he claims his aunt was very very sick, and his two other aunts tore her pillow apart, and lo and behold he swears there was a partially woven ring from the feathers. They ripped it up and she recovered.

Dad also used to do this pencil trick to see how many kids we would have. He would tie a pencil on a string, and hold it very steady over our wrist. If the pencil started going in circles, i meant you would have a girl, if it went straight back and forth, a boy and so on...

[hawkerdriver]

Has anyone here developed their own superstitions?

I have!

It seems that whenever a bird (doesn't matter what kind) flies into either my house, or window or whatever someone dies in my family.  I kid  you not.  That's how I know someone's going to bite it!  

When my Dad died, we had this bird who at the same time everyday, for a month, would fly into my bathroom window. After he died the bird quit.  There's several other bird stories with my mom, and grandfather and uncle.  But I need a beer so off I go!!!

[lone]

A person that I knew who grew up in England said that one night he and his family were at home and a picture fell off the wall then his father stood up and said I reckon that will be the end of me and he died within that week.

[softy-girl]

creepy

[secretsign]

Wow lone, that was creepy. :o

[Amirri]

This is really goofy but there was a period of about a year, that whenever I heard this one song I would get a boyfriend whithin a couple of days....lol

also here latly I have been seeing the same number over and over, its not like its good or bad, its just a number that sticks out.....69....seriously, thats it.

My husband pointed out something about the thirteenth floor. maybe they dont mark it, not because they're superstitous, but because the patrons might be superstitous. and that some buildings actually build the thirteenth floor but leave no access to it.

And at the rate that you are all going you will be afraid of the thirteenth and fourteenth floor, just to be sure...lol...