Superstitions are not just sayings, they’re a part of life.. You can believe in logic, yet you still knock on wood, or you can pass a church on the expressway and still make the sign of the cross, when you hear someone sneeze and telling them god bless or seeing a penny and picking it up. Some people were brought up believing in superstitions while others picked up them up from friends or teammates. . Superstitions are not just sayings, their apart of life. Whatever it maybe whether you’re a believer or not it’s hard not to get caught up in the folklore of superstitions.
There are a lot of superstitions we avoid on a daily basis if we know it or not. It doesn’t matter if we believe or not in superstitions we don’t take the risk of breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder, personally I don’t believe in superstitions, but I found them interesting, I try to avoid doing it, but I don’t get worried if they happen, for example breaking a mirror gives you 7 years of bad luck, this believe is because the mirror reflects your soul and it takes 7 years to rejuvenate the entire body, that’s why it’s said you’ll have 7 years of bad luck, other superstition is walking under a ladder, this is because it dorms a triangle and it’s said that walking through it you may bother demons, that’s why you’ll have bad luck, I think the most important superstition is saying “God bless you” after someone sneezes, it’s said that when you sneeze is because you’re spelling evil spirits, that’s why they started to say “god bless you” it was thought that when someone sneezes their dead was close, now a days we say it for us to be polite, but in fact this is another superstition.
There are many ways superstitions get pasted down; one way is by passing down by...
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...a beautiful child , it is custom that she touches the child’s head so that “Ojo” in this case nothing bad should happen to the child. When my fiancé and I are in the most random of places she occasionally gets asked by women strangers if they can touch her hair, when I think they ask this I think they ask who does their hair, but it’s a form of ojo superstations that the beauty of the hair doesn’t fall off.
You may think superstitions are different in some families, cultures, countries, but it doesn’t matter if your family believes or not, or if in your culture there are different superstitions, after knowing other people’s culture or superstitions you’ll get caught. Although you don’t believe in superstitions you’ll always prevent your bad or good luck by following superstitions, not breaking a mirror, not passing under a ladder, maybe with 4 leaf clover, etc.
Witchcraft started in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Superstition started when women were accused of acting strangely. These superstitions turned into trials, and later lead to mounds of hanged people. Most of the people accused were innocent, but the harsh judge rulings left them with nothing to live for. The only options for the tried, no matter if guilty or not, were to claim guilty, living the rest of their life in prison, or to plead not guilty and hang. Due to both consequences being equally as punishable, many people isolated themselves from society. Unfortunately, some people caused the uprising of the salem witch trials more than others did. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams single handedly attributed to the
Many cultures ascribe to some kind of superstition, magic, or faith. Merriam-Webster defines superstition as “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation” ("Superstition”). This definition makes superstition sound like it belongs in a lower developed country that lacks the ability to have scientific knowledge. However, magic and superstition are alive and well in developed countries, such as the United States. Sports are rife with superstitions. Many players use “ritual, taboos, and fetishes to manage the anxiety generated by unpredictable events that challenge human control” (Gmelch 266). Superstitions are entirely psychological; a way to create a reason for an event that has occurred. In his article “Baseball Magic,” George Gmelch examines the rituals, taboos, and fetishes of American baseball and how they compare to the magic of the Trobriand Islanders.
Puerto Rico has many similar superstitions as the United States, as well some that are not as common. Some of the superstitions that are shared with the United States include black cats and walking under ladders bringing bad luck. Another similar one is that the number 13 can bring bad luck as well. Most high rise buildings in Puerto Rico do not have a thirteenth floor. The floor numbers jump from twelve to fourteen. Also, Tuesday the 13th is the equivalent of the United States Friday the 13th, however many in Puerto Rico view both days as a day full of bad luck. Some other interesting superstitions begin on New Years. These superstitions begin with throwing a bucket of water out the front door at midnight. To many in Puerto Rico, this symbolizes throwing out the all of the bad events of the previous year and emptying out the past year for a fresh new year.
Sagan said “more than a third of American adults believe that on some level they’ve made contact with the dead” (151). This figure is not hard to believe when one thinks about our need to believe in something greater than ourselves. People believe in superstitions and horoscopes because they want to believe in that something that is greater than themselves is
If we looked at the incantation bowl not as an aspect of religion (as it transcended them) but as a superstition, it may seem to the modern science goer a ridiculous one. However, when measured against today’s still prevalent black cats, ladders, and water dowsing we can hardly begin to pass judgment.
rituals that go along with the lottery are fading into the past to be forgotten
Soldiers in the Vietnam War had to carry all of their belongings on their bodies with them over great distances of walking, earning Vietnam soldiers the nickname ‘Grunts’. Thus, they tried to limit their already grueling load as much as possible. In Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, he creates a detailed outline of the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam War, which were “largely determined by necessity” (2). While most were out of necessity, the soldiers in the text also had many things that were strictly for personal reasons. The soldiers were already weighed down tremendously by their gear and weapons that were necessities, yet they chose to carry around the extra weight of seemingly useless objects. Some people carried objects
Human beings have been known to become strung up on following tradition. In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the villagers demonstrate this fact. While following traditions has its benefits, doing what is customary can be hazardous.
An example of this would be the fortune telling hairball and the rattlesnake skin. Jim also states during the first few chapters that his body hair is a sign of his future wealth. The signs have no correlation to their meanings and seem ludicrous and silly to those reading about them. Another moment where superstitions became important would be after Jim and Huck Finn 's separation in the fog. When Huck Finn lies to Jim about their separation being a dream Jim begins to tell Huck his interpretation of the dream as a warning. It shows that to the superstitious, signs and meanings can be applied to everything and anything. Later on in the book, while helping Jim to escape, Tom and Huck Finn lie to Nat about odd occurrences caused by their plans. Because Nat is superstitious he is quick to blame witches and believes Tom and Huck Finn 's lies. This allows Tom 's overly complicated plans to take off without a
The first aspect of superstition impacting our lives we’ll explore is the idea of superstitions causing us to spend money. According to the financial firm Forbes, “Superstition is a billion dollar industry. Every year, Americans spend a substantial amount of their disposable income on superstitious items such as 4 leaf
Urban legends are the supernatural folklore of our modern society. From one generation to the next, they orally travel throughout the world, constantly changing from one region to the next. Although cultural variations exist, the core of all these urban legends remains the same, to unveil the universally known individual and societal fears. “The Graveyard Wager” is a timeless urban legend told again and again, and the one of which I will explore more in depth.
Macbeth: Superstitions & nbsp; & nbsp; The tragedy of Macbeth was written by Shakespeare in 1606 and produced in 1610. Macbeth is the most concentrated of Shakespeare's tragedies. The action gushes forward with great speed from the beginning to the end. The main characters in the play are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, who are very noble, but their evil. ambition ultimately causes their downfall and death.
For example, a slave that Huckleberry and Tom talk to on their adventure, rather than used his problem solving skills to figure out that Huckleberry and Tom already knew, he automatically assumed it was witches. "Oh, it's de dad-blame' witches, sah..."(Twain, 237). If he had not believed in his superstition then, he would have figured out that something suspicious was up. Another time is when the slave is oblivious to what is going on when Huckleberry and Tom forgot to fasten the door and the dogs ended up getting into the house. “Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool but if I din't b'lieve I see most a million dogs er devils, er some'n…”(Twain, 250). Once again, the slave blames it on the witches. Instead of thinking through the
Why is it that a certain custom is loosely passed down from previous generations? We, as human beings, all have a specific routine or ritual that is dearly valued to us, but the reasoning to others is far misunderstood. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” she exhilarates how admirable, modest people can execute such a cruel, immoral action due to the blind acceptance of traditions. Jackson brilliantly illustrates the use of an abundant amount of literary devices to fabricate such an unforgettable story.
Having read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (1948) several times now; the biggest thing I've learned is that just because something is tradition, that doesn't make it right. In our lives it's easy to get in the habit of doing things because that's how our parent's or grandparent's did it. It is important to make sure we are in God's word, examining our actions to make sure that they line up with what God wants of us.