The Strangest Global Superstitions
When the human mind poses a question and cannot find a scientific or realistic answer, it begins to invent strange creatures and phenomena that have nothing to do with reality, logic, or perception. This is a personal effort to answer the question. These inventions are called "superstitions" or "folk beliefs."
Superstitions can be sad, frightening, or related to luck.
It is said that superstitions begin when something strange happens to you and then something wonderful or terrible occurs immediately afterward. For example, in Russia, if a bird drops its droppings on you, it means good luck! The origin of this superstition is that someone was once dropped on by a bird and then something good happened to them, such as a job or money, etc.
The more ignorant a person is, the stranger and more astonishing or frightening these superstitions become!
Here is a tour of some of the most widespread superstitions among different peoples:
- The Stork and Babies
The stork is depicted in cartoons as a mail carrier that delivers babies wrapped in a white cloth to waiting couples. This image is due to the stork’s long historical association with marriage, family, and childbirth, as well as good luck, happiness, and love in the beliefs of various peoples, such as Scandinavian cultures.
Storks are highly revered for their commitment to family and parenting, building nests, incubating eggs, and caring for their chicks together. When the parents become old, their grown offspring take care of them.
Some people used to place sweets on their windowsills to encourage the stork to bring them a baby. If a stork builds its nest on a roof, it was believed that the household would be blessed with a child.
In Greek mythology, however, the stork was associated with stealing children and taking them away from their parents. Hera (the wife of Zeus) transformed her rival, the queen of the giants, Gerana, into a stork and abducted her son, Mobsus. Gerana repeatedly tried to retrieve her son but was constantly attacked by the giant community, who believed she was merely a stork. Thus, the stork became a symbol of child theft.
In ancient Egyptian superstitions, the stork was believed to be the spirit (Ba), and its arrival was considered the return of one of the spirits to its body.
- Black Cats
Black cats have been portrayed in films and series as harbingers of doom. They are associated with evil in various beliefs. Some cultures believed that black cats were demonic and only accompanied witches. Petting a black cat was thought to mean that the woman doing so was a witch and should be killed along with the cat.
In Europe and America, a black cat crossing your path means bad luck.
If a black cat sits on a sick person’s bed, it means death is imminent. If a black cat attends a family funeral, it means another family member will die.
In some East Asian countries, seeing a black cat in a dream is considered good luck.
- Getting Out of Bed on the Wrong Side
In Western countries, waking up on the wrong side of the bed or getting out of bed from the left side is believed to bring a bad mood and a bad day. This superstition originates from ancient Roman beliefs that anything starting from the left side of the body and limbs was bad and ominous.
It is said that Julius Caesar always made sure to start his day from the right side of the bed.
- Mirrors
Touching mirrors in any way was long considered to bring bad luck, misfortune, or even death. This belief dates back to the first time humans saw their reflection in water and thought that the reflection was their true soul. Destroying the reflection was seen as killing the reflected soul, and the same was believed for mirrors.
In ancient Europe, mirrors were thought to have magical powers because they were expensive and owned only by the wealthy. Also, ancient mirrors were of poor quality, which led to the belief that breaking a mirror brought seven years of bad luck, until the world was renewed after seven years.
To remove the curse, you could bury the shards under moonlight, throw them into running water, or leave them untouched for seven hours before picking them up quickly. Another method was to light seven candles the following night and extinguish them all at once.
You should also avoid placing a mirror in front of your bed. Some Chinese superstitions (Feng Shui) suggest that your soul, when leaving your body during sleep, may get confused and enter the mirror's reflection instead of your real body, leading to your death. Mirrors could also attract evil spirits that disturb your sleep.
Jewish families and others cover all mirrors in the house when a family member dies. The superstition holds that the soul may be trapped in the mirror, especially if the deceased was murdered, died in an accident, or was grieving a loved one, as their soul remains in the mirror waiting to possess someone for revenge.
If you want to see a deceased loved one, look into a mirror by candlelight.
Some superstitions say that looking into a dark bathroom mirror by candlelight shows you the evil spirits residing in your home.
If a single woman wants to know who her future partner will be, she should stand in front of the mirror, hold an apple, and comb her hair. Her future husband’s image will appear.
The widespread belief about mirrors is that many cultures thought mirrors reflected reality and had magical powers, capable of capturing unseen souls.
In Chinese culture, mirrors are considered to repel evil spirits from the home because ghosts flee upon seeing their hideous appearance in the mirror.
- Walking Under Ladders
In Western cultures, walking under a ladder leaning against a wall is believed to bring misfortune, bad luck, and terrible accidents. One origin of this belief is that early Christians thought the shape of a ladder leaning against a wall looked like a triangle, which symbolized the Holy Trinity (the Father, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary). Passing through the triangle was seen as a violation of Christian faith.
Another origin is from Egyptian beliefs that looking up while crossing under a ladder would allow you to see gods ascending and descending the ladder, making it sacred and not to be violated.
There is also a belief that a ladder leaning against a scaffold where an executioner was positioned could bring about your own hanging if you walked under it.
You can break this curse by walking backward through the same spot.
- Whistling in the Evening
Personally, I grew up with this superstition: whistling in the evening is considered very bad and brings misfortune in many cultures, such as Turkish culture. Some believe it attracts evil spirits and demons, while others think it attracts snakes and poisonous creatures to the home or leads to poverty or even a fire.
A girl once wrote in her blog that when she was young, she couldn’t resist the urge to whistle in the evening, defying her grandmother’s warning. The next morning, she heard her terrified grandmother talking about a mysterious figure whistling from her window the previous night!
- Stepping on Cracks
"Step on a crack, and you’ll break your mother’s back" is a phrase children in Western countries used to chant. Its origin dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries, where the saying was, "Step on a crack, and your mother will have a black baby" or "Your mother will turn into a black woman," reflecting prevalent racism and discontent towards black people.
Similar superstitions say that stepping on cracks will attract wild bears or open a gateway to the underworld, where demons live.
These sayings were also used to scare children into avoiding cracks and getting hurt.
- Placing Shoes on the Table
In English culture, placing a shoe or hat on the table is considered a bad omen. In the past, English households would place a shoe or hat on the table if someone died.
Actors and performers also believe that placing a shoe on the table is bad luck.
The origin is that condemned criminals were executed while wearing shoes, so the shoes would end up on the execution table.
- Eye Twitching and Hand Itching
Many people, especially the elderly, believe that twitching in the left eye means something bad will happen, such as someone speaking ill of you or betraying you. Twitching in the right eye signifies good luck, like seeing someone you haven’t seen in a while or thinking about someone dear.
Similarly, itching in the right hand means good luck, such as receiving money, while itching in the left hand signifies losing money.
- Garlic and Vampires
This belief dates back to ancient times, specifically the Egyptian era, where garlic was considered to have great healing powers. It then spread to other regions, gaining more reputation and power. Garlic was believed to protect against plague and supernatural evil.
In Slavic European regions, Christians believed garlic could protect you from demonic entities and witches. In Slavic and Romanian regions, garlic was used to detect and kill vampires. In the 1970s, the Romanian church forced its followers to eat garlic to determine if someone was a vampire.
To protect the dead from turning into vampires, some people would place garlic cloves in the deceased's nose and rub garlic on their eyes.
If a vampire was killed and beheaded, garlic was placed in its mouth to prevent it from returning to life.
In China and Malaysia, parents would rub garlic on their children’s foreheads to protect them from vampire bites.
In the Philippines, garlic was rubbed under the armpits to ward off vampires.
Other beliefs simply involve placing a bunch of garlic on the doorstep to protect against vampires.
The true reason is that vampires have a strong sense of smell, and garlic has a very strong and unpleasant odor.
- Pumpkins and Halloween
The Halloween pumpkin is known as "Jack-o’-lantern" in Western cultures. The origin is that an Irish man named Jack was an evil, deceptive man who could not enter heaven or hell after his death.
Jack was forced to wander the Earth with a burning coal inside a turnip lantern, seeking a place to stay. The Irish carved turnips and placed burning coals inside them to ward off Jack’s spirit. When the Irish emigrated to the United States, pumpkins were used instead of turnips, and the practice continued. Halloween is celebrated on October 31st to commemorate the spirits of the dead.