I’ve never believed in superstitions, but I know a lot of people do. Especially sports figures.
What are yours and where did they start?
Sorry to go opposite of the OP, but I had to share. I was born on Friday the 13th. I’ve always figured there’d be something , really really wrong with me if I subscribed to superstitions.
Then again, whenever my friends learn that bit of trivia about me, they say it explains a lot. :dubious:
Badly misplaced commas aren’t necessarily proof of something being really wrong with me. You know, for the record.
I have a thing about touching wood which over the years turned into a tapping thing since there’s never any wood around when I need it. I also have a lucky number and like to do things in multiples of that number. So, say I think, “ew she has B.O.” I have to tap my arm this many times or else I think someone else will thing the same about me.
I always had bad luck with things turning around on me or coming back to me. For example, if I laugh at a kid who trips on the sidewalk, I’ll trip later that day. When I was in my teens I saw this happening constantly. Let’s face it, I was being silly. But I thought that way and started with the tapping. If I think an uncharitable thought, I always feel like I get punished for it and the tapping will fix that up somehow.
I know it sounds like OCD or something but it isn’t. It’s just superstition. It doesn’t cause me any problems or anything. I forget about it sometimes and I don’t flip out and have to go tap strangers on the eyebrow 47 times before I can feel okay again.
I also think numbers can be lucky and I have all these lucky numbers. When I was a kid I called them auspicious numbers. I used to count the bars of light on my digital clock at night and try to make sure the last time I looked at the clock was on an auspicious number of bars so that I would fall asleep (I had trouble sleeping.) That one really did drive me nuts beause I would accidentally look at the clock on an inauspicous number and then have to stay awake til a certain time for it to be right. Or I’d add up the digits in my head and try to make them come out to an auspicous number. I was eventually cured when my eyesight got bad enough that I couldn’t see the clock anymore.
Now as an adult I am always doing things in those numbers. It makes me feel safe. I never count things that way any more because I don’t want to become OCD, but I still think about my numbers a lot. The way I see it, I’m not religious so I need some little hobby in my head to make me feel like I have some control in this universe.
Oh and I also hate crows and think they are a bad omen. I got that one from the movies. Plus they are somehow very disgusting and make terrible noises.
I think windy days are unlucky and bad things will always happen when it’s windy.
I’ll never joke around or lie about something I’m afraid of happening to me. Like, I’ll never pretend to be sick with something like the flu or food poisoning, because I’m afraid that by lying about it, I’ll somehow bring it on myself.
I always knock on wood when necessary. If there’s no wood available, I’ll knock on paper. It seems like the closest thing.
My lucky number is 8, but I also have a thing for “double numbers” like 11, 22, 33, etc. Those are magic numbers.
I try not to wish ill on anyone. The last person I tried to mentally hex was later diagnosed with breast cancer :eek: That made me feel guiltier than you can imagine, so I try not to wish ill on anyone anymore.
I have this thing about the number 13. I was thirteenth on a waiting list to take a test once, so I went home and didn’t take the test.
If I look at a clock and see that it is the thirteenth minute of any hour, I take it as a sign that I am not supposed to do what I had planned to do that hour.
:eek:
I have a number of “tap” habits. If I walk down the hall in the office, I have to drum my fingers on each side counter three times as I pass through. Silly superstition, but it makes me uneasy to break it, like if I do I’ll have to monitor the juniors at the next rally. Oh, the Humanity! 
Nope. Just the Stevie Wonder record.
Does it count that I choose to believe the color blue really does ward off witches? I’ve never been attacked by a witch and/or witchcraft while wearing my lucky, blue teardrop necklace. Irrefutable proof of it’s efficacy.
If not, then I am superstition free.
I believe it’s bad luck to have superstitions.
I have something similar to Pokey. I have a single “lucky” number, and sometimes I just have to do things that number of times. Make sure I take that number of steps before I enter a door, and so forth. In my case, it probably is something like OCD, though, rather than superstition. I don’t believe anything will go wrong if I don’t do it, it doesn’t make me feel safe, I just… do it.
Apart from that, well, I do believe the laws of physics are out to get me. But that’s a thread of its own.
I pick up all money, even pennies. I don’t want the universe to think I have too much money and stop sending me some. 
Dunno how I started it.
No superstitions exactly, but some things I will simply not tolerate.
All guns are to be treated as loaded.
I was a juror recently, and a sheriff’s deputy was handling a piece of evidence, a rifle, improperly, and it occasionally pointed towards the jury box. When he finally set it down, it was pointing just over my right shoulder. Another degree or two to the left and I would have asked the bailiff to adjust it.
Not exactly superstitious, but I do believe in Murphy’s Law (and its many corollaries). It is absolutely true that if I fix one thing in my house, at least one other thing will break.
Also, if I come into extra money (such as my tax refund or yearly bonus), things will start breaking (the car, appliances) until all the money is gone.
I have a favorite number, and it makes me happy when that number shows up in my life. My address includes my favorite number; I didn’t do anything to make that happen, but I’m pleased about it.
Killing a spider is bad luck–I never do it.
I like to wish on the first star of the night too, sometimes they even come true.
That’s a superstition? Then count me in as being superstitious!
I never kill spiders, though in my case it has more to do with “they’re totally inoffensive” than fear of rain.
But I touch wood, and sometimes hold my breath passing a graveyard. And I also firmly believe that gourmet, well-prepared, delicious food has no calories.
Magpies.
I don’t know why, but a single magpie sends me into bad-luck-warding-off overkill.
First I salute (if you do it quickly it usually just looks like you’re adjusting your hair, and passing people don’t freak out).
Then I say “Hello Mr Magpie, how’s your wife?” three times under my breath.
Then, to top the whole thing off, I say THE RHYME.
You know:
“One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.”
I know, it’s crazy, but it’s inherited.
My dad salutes, my mother does the “Hello Mr Magpie” business and my grandmother does THE RHYME.
Believing that a single magpie is bad luck runs in my family, I just decided at some very young age that if one thing was good, all three had to be better and I’ve been doing them all ever since.
Fortunately Magpies are getting more common, and I rarely see only one at a time.
Whenever I see a penny, or any other kind of money, I pick it up, as per the old rhyme “Find a penny, pick it up.
Unless of course, it is stuck. Then of course, you are fucke-
I compulsively keep at least one Queen of Hearts in my wallet. If I remove them, horrible things will happen. After I got my driver’s license, the first time I removed them, someone slammed into the back of my Corolla and totalled it the next morning. The second time, my then-girlfriend broke up with me within a few hours (considering some of the things I learned eventually, it may have been good luck, but I liked her very much at the time, so I’ll count it).
The only time they’ve been out since is when I changed wallets last Christmas.