Superstition - A World of Make Believe?

Superstitions are portion of our heritage, transporting us to a distant past times that golf course with the roots of our culture. The ancient traditional knowledges of our sires are still very much alive, many having remained unchanged for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years.

Rational idea and the advance of scientific discipline together project uncertainty on the existent dangers involved yet many of us still experience we ought to be careful.

There are 100s of common day-to-day activities which are linked to superstition, each civilization having its variations. Even those of you who state "I'm not superstitious!" have got probably at some point tried to avoid walking under a ladder, stepping on cracks, knocked on wood, blessed a individual sneezing, or crossed your fingers. Just in case.

Here are some of the more than common superstitions and their meanings:

1. It's bad fortune to walk under a ladder.

A leaning ladder word forms a trigon with the wall and ground. Triangles stand for the Holy Place Trinity, and violating the Three by breaking it (walking through it) would set you in conference with the Satan himself. Considering what Christians did to those who were considered to be in conference with the devil, it's hardly surprising that leaning ladders were avoided at all cost.

2. Friday the Thirteenth

The thought that a this peculiar day of the month would convey bad fortune have its roots in both Scandinavian and Christian beliefs. The Scandinavians believed that the figure 13 was luckless owed to the mythological 12 supermen being joined by a 13th, an wicked one, who brought misfortune upon man.

Christ was said to have got been crucified on Friday and the figure of invitees at the the Last Supper was 13, with the 13th invitee being Judas, the traitor.

3. Supreme Being Bless You

The approval of those who sneezing started when the great blight took hold of Europe. Sufferers would sneezing violently, a mark that they would soon die. As a result, The Pope passed a law requiring people to bless the sneezer

At the same time it was expected that anybody sneezing would cover their oral cavity with a fabric or their hand. This was obviously to halt the spreading of the disease but many believed that it was to maintain the psyche intact. Sneeze 'into the air' would let the psyche to get away and decease would be imminent.

Until the blight struck things were very different. Those who sneezed were congratulated on expelling wicked from their bodies.

4. Black Cats

In ancient Egypt, the Goddess Bast was a black, female cat. Christians, wanting to free society of all traces of other religions, convinced the ignorant that black true cats were devils in disguise and should thus be destroyed. The kindly ladies who cared for the true cats were often destroyed in the process, being condemned as witches.

A devil black true cat crossing your way would make a barrier of evil, cutting you off from Supreme Being and blocking the entranceway to heaven.

5. Spilling Salt

During the center ages salt was a very expensive trade goods used mainly for medicinal purposes. Spillage was to be avoided at all costs. The thought that it is luckless to make so probably stems from the belief that Jude spilt salt during the last supper.

Throwing spilt salt over the left shoulder is linked to its medicinal use. If it could not be administered, the adjacent best thing was to throw it into the oculus of the wicked liquor that brought illness upon us. These liquor were believed to lurk behind a person's shoulder, waiting for an chance to strike.

6. Fingers Crossed

Probably the most widely used superstition these years and used by making the mark of the Christian religion with our fingers thus preventing wicked liquor destroying our opportunities of good fortune.

7. Knock on Wood

This travels back to the years before Christian Religion made its entrance. It was believed that good liquor lived in trees and that by knocking on anything made from wood we could name upon these liquor for protection against misfortune. There are many, many more than such as superstitions. Every civilization have them. Perhaps they have got survived in our world of scientific accounts owed to our desire to maintain the kid inside us alive. Through superstition, we are able to take portion in the world of do believe.

I couldn't possibly state that I still believe in Father Christmas, but I can state "God Bless You" when anybody sneezes. And just for the record, I don't like walking under ladders either. Who knows, a Sn of paint may just fall down and hit me!