Silly supersitions that you practice

In My Humble Opinion
21

I have a thing about “driving karma.” See, if I let someone in even though I’m under no obligation to do so, if I stop at a yellow light instead of speeding up slightly to make it, or if I follow a stupid traffic law at 3 AM that most people wouldn’t ever follow, I incur good driving karma.

There isn’t really bad driving karma, but rather an expenditure of good karma. For instance, if I were to be going 10 mph over the speed limit, see a cop, manage to get to only 7 mph above the limit when I pass him, and don’t get pulled over, that’s a major expenditure of good driving karma. I have to incur more in order to make things balance out.

If they don’t balance out, something happens–I get pulled over, I get in an accident, I lock my keys in the car, whatever. And I FIRMLY believe in this.

Yeah, I’m nuts.

22

I try not to step on cracks in the sidewalk. I also clink glasses when drinking with friends. The really weird one…I always whistle while passing a graveyard.

23

I often whistle when passing wind…:slight_smile:

24

I get the urge to knock on wood, but I resist, because I know that all superstition is bunk. I have successfully rid myself of all other superstitions (I come from a very superstitious family), but for some reason, I still feel funny talking about something that I hope will happen in case I jinx it.

25

Fools, the lot of them. Dice don’t roll the same all the time, it only makes sense to check right before you use them.

Come to think of it, I also knock on wood, but that has more to do with working as a sysadmin and software tester than superstition. I mean, anytime you say ‘OK, this is working, it will take me another hour or so and I’ll be done’ you end up in the office until 3AM pulling your hair out. Knocking on wood after saying something positive just makes you feel better about the inevitable breakage, no one thinks it actually stops the problem.

26

I have done a google search on it without much luck. (Guess I should have said ‘rabbit, rabbit, rabbit’ first;) )

All I was able to find out is that it appears to come from the UK, and that there are many variations in appropriate times, words used etc.

If anyone can find more, I’d be interested to hear…

27

I lift my feet whenever I drive over train tracks. I think I am keeping the universe in balance or something by doing this.

I use to hold my breath whenever I drove by a cemetary, now I honk and wave. It’s just more polite.

I really like the *rabbit, rabbit, rabbit * yarn. I think I will start that with my kids.

My husband’s cousin, nice girl in a major anal retentive uber cheapskate kind of way, will never give her boyfriend a pair of shoes because then he will *walk * away from her. It happened to her. :rolleyes:

And, this I learned at camp, whenever sitting around the campfire and smoke starts to blow in your face you must cover your face and say " I hate rabbits, I hate rabbits." I have no idea why.

28

I will under no circumstances use a white disposable lighter. If one comes into my possession, I will destroy it.

29

Is she Latin? My mom and I do this too. I’ll ask her specifically why but the way it was explained to me is that it has to do with not wanting to ruin the relationship with the person in question. Giving a gift represents the wishes one has for that person.

Something like: Sharps are used to cut. Gifts are representative of gift givers wishes for gift receiver. Giving sharps as a gift = wishing to sever ties.

30

Hmmm. Does it bother you if you can’t do those things? Because if it does, it might actually be OCD.

31

I continue to believe that if I keep posting on the SDMB long enough, and flirting with her, Guinistasia will eventually marry me.

I know, it’s just a foolish superstition…

32

I do the rabbit thing (when I remember), except I grew up only saying rabbit two times. Perhaps I have had less luck as a result?

My own parents are not at all superstitious, although my grandparents were. What really did me in, though, was my college roommate, who had superstitions for everything, and I picked up a lot from her. Most of them involved avoiding the evil eye in some way.

Don’t even give a boyfriend/girlfriend a watch as a gift. This “puts time” on the relationship, and you will part soon after.

Eye twitching – this one is easy to remember, because it’s Left for Love, and Right for Spite. If your left eye is twitching, someone is thinking about you with love, and if it is the right eye, someone is thinking about you spitefully.

Bread and butter – you say this when you are walking with another person, and something comes between you – a lamp post, street sign, another person, etc. If you don’t say Bread and Butter, you will have a fight.

Never give a purse or wallet as a gift without putting a coin in it. If you give someone an empty purse, you are cursing them to have money troubles.

When you toast, the glass must be in your right hand. Putting the glass back on the table without sipping from it after the toast is bad luck.

Lost objects – either go with St. Anthony (St. Anthony, St. Anthony, look around, something is lost that must be found), or you can try the spider. Say “spider, spider, spin your web” and (I was never really clear on this part, but according to my NaNa …) your household spider will then spin an invisible web, leading you to your car keys or glasses or whatever else you misplaced. If you say this, and then look in the first place that pops into your head, that’s where you’ll find the missing object.

For brides – you must tuck a tiny pair of nail scissors into your bridal bouquet. The scissors will “cut” the evil eye, should anyone try to cast it on you on your wedding day.

My own personal sports superstitions are myriad, but the most effective one is that I won’t watch the opening kick-off at a football game (I’ll leave the room or the stands or wherever I’m watching from for a few minutes). If I watch, we always lose. If I don’t watch, the team is on their own.

Do I believe in these? Not really (except for the football one, I’ve carried those Buffalo Bills through quite a few seasons with that), but I enjoy doing them because they’re rituals that I associate with my family and heritage.

33

I will not get out of bed in the morning unless the last two digits of the time are divisble by 5.
So if it’s 07:21, I’ll wait for 4 minutes, which means I nap for about 4 and half, which by then it’s 7:26, so another 4 minutes.

34

I have to look at this little green light on a telephone pole as I am driving to work every morning.
I think it has something to do with cable TV (the light, not the need to look at it).

35

Every Tuesday I walk on eggs. Figuratively, of course.

Tuesdays are bad, VERY bad.

Take a look at your week and see if anything went just a little wrong. It was probably a Tuesday.

I noticed this about 10 or 12 years ago and have every since walked with my head low and tried to avoid people or things that require interaction on Tuesdays.

Not that I think I can prevent anything bad from happening, I just want to fly under the radar.

BTW, September 11, 2001 - Tuesday!!!

36

I will not get out of bed in the morning unless the first two numbers are greater than 10:00 :smiley:

37

Nahhh, she’s French, but its not her fault…:wink:

38

My friends and I do this, and I was told that it was a Austrian tradition. Why, I leave to another more educated (or superstitious) poster.

39

StGermain gives us an explanation of the “Rabbits” thing in this thread

40

Skot, I do the “buying” the knives thingy too (I am French).
It would “cut” your friendship to be offered knives, so you give a coin so you actually buy them from the person.

I do the salt thing over the shoulder thing too, I heard that spilling the salt will call the devil, and throwing a pinch over the shoulder would blind it.

I also can’t have bread turned up-side down on the table… the bottom of the bread has to be … on the bottom…
I think it is from Medieval times when the executioner (sp?) had a special bread reserved for him at the table, turned up-side down, so nobody would take the very much feared executioner’s food.