This is more of a schoolyard thing, but if two people say the same thing at the same time, they should shout “Jynx!” The last person to say it has bad luck.
We also used to turn over our half-pints of milk at lunch. There was always a letter and a number impressed on the seal on the bottom (e.g. A5 or C2.) It was considered good luck if your letter or number matched with a friend’s.
Some Scots superstitions (remembered from my Granny, mainly), although some are probably universal:
Giving a knife as a gift will “cut the friendship,” unless the recipient gives you a token sum of money in return for the knife;
Wishing someone a “Happy New Year” (or Hogmanay) before midnight on Dec. 31st is very bad luck, as is turning over a calendar page before the new day/month begins; the first person through your door after midnight on New Year should be a black-haired man (ideally bearing coal, whisky and bread); a fair-haired man or a woman means bad luck for a year;
Praising a new infant’s beauty too highly will make the fairies jealous and the child will be cursed;
Magpies: "One for sorrow, two for mirth, Three a wedding, four a birth; five is heaven, six is hell
but seven’s the very Devil’s ain (own) sell.
Few Scottish sailors would dare to start a voyage on a Friday; fewer still if they had seen a pig;
And pigs (clearly an uncanny animal) could “see the wind;”
To rid a house of witchcraft (or the Evil Eye), a bough of Rowan (Mountain Ash) must be slowly burned in the fireplace, with the windows and doors open.
Kyomara: no I haven’t heard that explanation for why salt is considered special. Seems reasonable, though (well, as reasonable as any superstition can be).
Other sumo superstions: The dirt ring is rebuilt for each tournament. During the construction the following items are buried in the dirt: salt, chestnuts, torreya nuts, dried squid, washed rice and kelp. All of them are supposed to either purify the ring or bring good luck. This is done to ensure the wrestlers don’t have any accidents during the tournament.
When the wrestlers approch the ring before a match, they are given a dipper full of water which they drink, then spit onto the ground. The winner of the previous match hands water to one wrestler (the wrestlers approach the ring from different entrances, so there are two water stations), but the other entering wrestler takes his water from the ring announcer, not from the loser of the previous match. The reason is that it’s believed the previous wrestler’s bad luck will rub off.
And no, I’ve never seen any retired sumos working as subway ‘pushers’. Did Cecil make a mistake? :eek:
–sublight.
Superstitions from rural Florida:
Always roll down the windows on a car when driving over a bridge (supposedly rescue workers have found big scratch marks on the interior roofs of cars from frantic drivers/passengers scrambling to get out of cars that fell off the bridge into water. IMHO, it is an urban (or in this case, rural) legend.)
It is bad luck to kill a spider (if you had the mosquito problem we have, you would know why).
Don’t eat mushrooms gathered from a graveyard.
Finding a penny (small coin), heads up-- good luck, tails up-- bad luck, do not pick it up.
Sleeping outside under the full moon can be hazardous to your health.
Rural Alabama superstitions:
Lift your feet up when driving over a bridge or you’ll never be married.
If you’re walking along a road and pass through a hot place, you’ve passed through a ghost.
Bluejays are the devil’s messengers.
Every step you take with one shoe off and one shoe on means a year of tears.
A friend of mine became really upset with me for allowing a signpole to come between us while walking along the side walk. She said that you should never walk so that the two of you are split by something like that.
A few personal superstitions I have are: 1 to make as little noise as possible when going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so as not to wake up any ghosts, and not to look in the mirror in the middle of the night, which probably stems from that whole “Bloody Mary” thing that we, as children, would talk about on the playground, which still gives me the creeps thirteen years later.
I heard that if you find a tails up penny, you can get rid of the bad luck by giving the penny to someone else. Then you both have good luck.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Ammurit *
**A friend of mine became really upset with me for allowing a signpole to come between us while walking along the side walk. She said that you should never walk so that the two of you are split by something like that.
]
My Mom always told me that when that happens, you’re supposed to say “bread and butter.” Why, I am not sure, but probably something to do with the way those two things stick to eachother and go together.
“My Mom always told me that when that happens, you’re supposed to say “bread and butter.” Why, I am not sure, but probably something to do with the way those two things stick to eachother and go together.”
That makes sense, although my friend didn’t tell me about that part. She seemed to have only a vague idea of why it was bad. I had never even heard of that superstition before that. I had no qualms about walking on either side of signposts!
If you borrow a pocket knife and it is handed to you open, you must hand it back open and let the person who loaned it to you close it, or if it’s closed when you get it, close it before you give it back.
If I find a penny that’s tails up, I don’t pick it up. I kick it to try to turn it over so someone else can have good luck. 
Pearls at a wedding mean tears (but I’ve never been to a wedding where the bride didn’t have pearls somewhere, including my own wedding.)
Opals are bad luck unless they are your birthstone (October.)
Don’t walk under a ladder.
Don’t open an umbrella indoors.
It’s good luck to eat black-eyed peas and ham on New Year’s Day.
Tri-color cats are good luck. (I think that one comes from Japan, where I was born.)
If your initials spell a word, you’ll have good luck.
If your right palm itches, you’ll shake hands with a stranger; left palm means you’ll get money. OR, according to my co-worker, left hand means you’ll give away money and right means you’ll get it.
If you spill salt you must toss some over your left shoulder to ward off bad luck.
There’s more where these came from. If it matters, I live in rural central Florida. And just so’s ya know, I don’t believe any of them, but think they are fun to observe anyway, as long as you don’t get weird about them.
If your nose itches, it means you’re going to kiss a fool.
If you have hiccups, it means that someone is thinking about you.
If a broom falls, company is coming.
If you don’t get out of the bathroom and down the stairs before the flush has finished, the bog monster will get you… Seriously though, we have the black cats:good luck thing, don’t walk under ladders and the magpie song which goes a little something like this:
One for sorrow, two for mirth
Three for a wedding, four for a birth
Five for silver, six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told.
Another couple I’ve remembered - looking at the hearse in a funeral procession is bad luck, and counting the number of cars in the procession takes a year off of your life for each one you count.
(I’m with Ammurit on the mirror at night thing - I’ve never heard of the Bloody Mary stories - it just spooks me)
I’ll refrain from telling the stories, so as not to further spook anyone, including myself!
As far as walking under ladders is concerned, having had a hammer fall on my head while I was under a ladder, I am now a firm believer. Something bad will happen!
Some I remember from Hawaii-- normal ones: if you kill a spider it will rain (I think this is on the mainland as well), a black moth means someone will die.
Odder ones: never sleep with your feet pointing toward the door (that’s how corpses were taken out, and the dead might get the wrong idea and take you away-- I think some asian cultures might have the same idea about sleeping with your feet to the north?); if you see the Night Marchers (a sort of army of old warriors’ ghosts) lie on the ground with your face down-- if they see you notice them they’ll take you.
On the edge of Kilauea caldera there is a “scenic point” where there is a little shrine to Pele (old volcano goddess)-- locals leave offerings to her there, so there is this stack of full bottles of tequila, lying around unattended and NO ONE takes any of it. There is also a local variant of the Vanishing Hitchhiker UL, but it takes place on a particular road and it’s a red-haired Hawaiian lady that disappears (It’s Pele, of course).
I’ve heard that if one sweeps under a person’s feet, the sweepee will never be married. I think it probably started just because it’s so damned irritating to have one’s feet swept!