Did everyone refrain from washing clothes today? I don’t know if this is a common superstition. I honor it for my mother’s sake.
My well-educated and otherwise level-headed mother is the most superstitious person I know. Many years ago, in a fit of rationality, she washed some clothes on New Year’s Day and a week later she experienced a personal tragedy. This left a deep impression on her and she takes care to mention this anecdote to me every year.
Another superstition that usually shows up on Christmas Day is the one about borrowing a folding knife. When all the presents have been opened, and the kids are ready to extract new toys from their boxes, out come the mens’ pocket knives. If someone hands you a folded knife, you must return it to them folded. If they open the knife before handing it to you, then you must return it to them open. I had never heard of this superstition until I moved into this part of the state.
I throw out all my old socks and underwear on the 31st. every year. I open up all new stuff for the first of the year. Habit, not a superstition, but it ends up that I don’t have enough laundry to do on the first.
I also put together a bag of stuff for Goodwill, and mentioned that to a friend. She told me that next year, I should do that on New Year’s Eve, so that I’ll end the year with charity. By starting it with loss (wait, what happened to charity??), I’m condemned to a year of loss.
So far, no loss this year, just gain. In the form of a brand-new, less than 12 hours old niece. So maybe not so much with the superstitions.
Uh, I never thought of this as a superstition, more like “good manners”… if you’re loaning someone a folding knife, you open it yourself and then get it back open, but that’s simply because many people have problems doing that. I’ve seen a lot more people get cut during opening/folding a knife than once it was open.
Albacete is famous for its (folding) knives. There they have a superstition that you must never give something that cuts as a gift: it must be paid. The pay can be as little as 1c, but in any case, something that cuts must not be given as a gift or the relationship will be cut short. So if someone gives you a knife, a cuttlery set, scissors… you must give them money.
I washed laundry on the first. I’ve never heard of that superstition before.
You don’t wash your new underwear before wearing it for the first time? Wow, you just made my mother turn in her grave… and she’s not even dead. I can’t even contemplate putting on new, unwashed underwear thanks to Mum’s diligent training.
In some cultures - Chinese, for example - you’re not even supposed to wash your hair on the New Year Day as you’ll wash the luck away. I certainly have heard of the laundry superstition.
And cazzle, add me to the list of people who just open a pack of underwear and throw it in the drawer. I’ve never even thought to wash them straight out of the packet. Why would you need to?
Put me on the list as well for why no unwashed new undies. My brother will turn green at the idea of putting any new clothes on out of the package and hasn’t told me why.
He will run away from microwaved food as well, which can be handy but doesn’t explain why.
The only superstition I have about New Year’s Day is the eating of black-eyed peas and collard greens for good luck and money throughout the year. I have a need to feed them to the masses apparantly, as sixteen people (four more than I had originally planned on) ate peas and collard greens at the swampcave yesterday.
We ate corned beef and cabbage yesterday. Anything green and leafy is for money; so is round food. I never heard the one about laundry, but I don’t think we washed any.
I always eat ground hog (pork sausage) on Ground Hog Day, February 2nd.
My grandmother, who was born in the late 19th Century in Yorkshire and who lived here all her life, had exactly the same superstition. I’d always assumed it to be a local tradition, but apparently not.
A few years ago I was at a friend’s house and found a penny taped to a piece of paper. I asked her what it was for and she rolled her eyes and said that it came with a knife set that had been a gift. I’d never heard the superstition before, but this was in St. Louis, Missouri, so I guess it’s fairly widespread.
Bulgarians believe that drafts cause illness, so having doors and windows open at the same time is a big no-no. Also, don’t call it a superstition, it is a scientific fact that moving air can make you sick! At least, that’s according to my university-educated coworkers. Okay.
Mum’s explanation was something to do with chemicals/dyes that could still be in the material and could cause irritation/infection. Also, she cited hygiene reasons. Of course, my mother wouldn’t allow our friends to sit on our beds when we were kids for “hygiene reasons” so she might be a little more hysterical than most. Still, the underwear thing has stuck with me.
I wash my underwear before wearing for kind of the same reason. Since I can remember, I have gotten urinary tract infections with boring regularity, and avoid, under doctor’s orders, the following: bubble bath, anything but cotton panties, dryer sheets, certain detergents, and anything else you can think of that might slightly irritate my delicate urinary tract. The doctor has never specifically mentioned washing underwear before wearing, but I’d rather be safe than on yet another antibiotic. Mr. Stuff has no such considerations, and is exposed to brand new underwear without compuction or incident.
As for superstitions, I had a co-worker years ago who was victim to so many superstitions that she might as well have started her own religion. I can’t remember them all, but here are a few:
Never take a broom with you when you move. Buy a new broom, or you’ll take all the bad luck from the old house with you.
If a person gives you a plant (cut flowers don’t count) and the plant dies, your relationship with the person will die, too. (Her house is overrun with plants that she’s terrified to get rid of.)
If you are walking down the street with someone, and you approach a pole or something that would otherwise come between you while you walk, one of you must fall behind and pass on the same side of the pole as the other person, lest you be separated forever.
All the typical ones, too, like Friday the 13th, walking under ladders, black cats, and breaking mirrors.
The problem is that she followed all the rules of the superstitions that she heard (with the possible exception of “step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back”) and, whenever she heard a new one, started following it, too. I always tried not to mention any new superstitions to her, because it was just another thing for her to worry about. Poor girl.
Why would you need to?