Superstitions

Tower · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:01 pm

Tael you're referring to La Llorana.

tarkata14 · **Joined:** Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:43 am **Posts:** 42

Zege wrote:

I'm superstitious about mirrors mostly, I keep expecting something to come out of them. >.>

Your avatar scares the living fuck out of me every time I scroll down to meet it. Is the mask in the image not like the ones used during the black plague to ward off the disease?

Anyhow, I don't have any superstitions whatsoever, or at least none that are conscious. I do, however, have a slight fear of mirrors, and I can't stand complete silence in the dark, (I sleep with my computer's fans running high, then it turns off after an hour). I don't believe in luck, but I do keep a few four-leafed clovers in my room. I do find it odd that I've found multiple books with these clovers in between several pages, (old and dried of course). I have never found one myself, however.
Other than that, nothing comes to mind. I do get extremely paranoid an awful lot, especially in cars and when I'm alone.

Guillotine · **Joined:** Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:06 am **Posts:** 11

I have a pretty weird one: Trimming your nails on friday... A relative might die.

Niri-niri · **Joined:** Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:17 pm **Posts:** 4

Bleak Outlook wrote:

Whenever there was a thunderstorm, my grandmother would cover every mirror in the house with sheets/blankets/towels. I never got a clear answer from her as to why (she spoke very little english), but it had something to do with the lightning.

I'm really late on this, but my grandma and my mom did that too when I was younger. My granny said it was because the lightning would be attracted to the mirror and come in your house or something. Cause a power surge or something of the sort. I don't really recall, but my mom's mom would say that if you looked at the reflection of the lighting, your mirror soul would get struck by it and you'd die.

Thornsmith · **Posted:** Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:34 pm

Here's some stuff, from my mother and grandmother:

1. Mirrors. Don't trust the fuckers. Cover them if there's been a death in the house. Don't put them where they can watch you sleep, or watch you while you aren't watching them - like, don't put them on the outside of the closet door next to your desk or whatever. Don't arrange two mirrors so they can stare at each other. Don't stand between two mirrors if you can possibly help it.

Weirdly, this only applies to small, hanging mirrors, not mirror walls like you find in ballet studios. The frame makes it a portal. Also, remember when cleansing, warding or blessing a domicile to hit up every fucking mirror in the place.

2. Computers. Don't sleep with the monitor up if it's a laptop, or uncovered if it's a desktop. They also need to be included in any cleansing, blessing, or warding because otherwise pedobear and slenderman will eat you in your sleep or something, idk.

3. If your animals are freaking out, pay attention. They see things we can't.

4. Always ask permission before taking something from a plant or a wild place, whether it's breaking the tip off your aloe plant because you burned your thumb or gathering pretty rocks and shells at the seashore.

rocketpants · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:10 am

Goddamnit, my bedroom has a mirror and my desktop computer. So much for sleeping tonight.

Tower · **Posted:** Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:07 pm

Here's a giant helping of the silly shit we do without reason.

http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html

CausticKisses · **Joined:** Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:39 pm **Posts:** 1238

[quote=www.corsinet.com]If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck . Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names.[/quote]

Um.. shit.

I have 13 letters in my name, but looking up devil's luck, I seem to just get "astonishingly good luck." Either way, those are some great people to have in the Devil's luck category. :ohdeer:

Archfeared · **Posted:** Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:59 am

It is bad luck to cut your fingernails on Friday or Sunday.
Fingernail cuttings should be saved, burned, or buried.

Dude... I usually chew on my fingernails (i.e. I rip them off and chew on the clipping) and NEVER cut them. Same for toenails, but I cut them.

It's gross, but... still.

Tower · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:58 pm

Sort of like saving them.

Videto · **Joined:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:11 pm **Posts:** 347

LMLYUT wrote:

Aha! The Cryptopedia has a whole section on superstition. I'll post a few excerpts.

- Carrying an acorn can bring good luck and ensure a long, happy life.
- Placing an acorn near your window during a thunderstorm can keep the lightning outside.
- Bringing an axe inside a house can be an omen of death for one of the family members.

Especially if you start swinging the axe around violently, right?

palfydrium · **Joined:** Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:54 am **Posts:** 5

Sarah wrote:

1. (Malaysian) Don’t Talk Badly About People On Friday Morning/Thursday Night.

Apparently, talking trash about people at this particular time is like inviting a “visitor” to you. While I wasn’t told what exactly they DO to you, it doesn’t sound very fun. The story related to me was of when my coworker broke this golden rule, and was talking shit to a bunk mate of hers, who later woke up in the middle of the night to find a girl in a long white nightgown and loose black hair covering her face standing over the foot of my coworker’s bed. That’s fucked up.

2. (Indonesian/Singapore/…Malaysia?) Pontianaks are fucking BAD NEWS

There are several legends concerning this creature, who is described as anything from a stillborn child to a woman dying in child birth. Saying the name allowed is said to bring the ghost to you, and it’s said that the smell of a certain flower will mark it’s arrival. This is one ghost you DO NOT WANT to fuck around with. It’s way more violent than Korean ghosts, in that the stories I’ve heard involving it, it tends to rip people’s heads off, and drink their blood, etc. It’s extremely violent, and is something like a female vampire. The way to scare it away is apparently to expose your breasts to it if you’re a woman, as their breasts are on …their backs. If you’re a guy, you’re fucked. Sorry.

I’ve heard conflicting reports, but I believe it’s said to live in trees.

3. (Malaysia) Respect the Jungle/Forest/Woods or they will fuck you up

The woods are filled with spirits in Malaysia, and there are several rules you need to follow. If you need to pee in the woods, you need to ask permission first. If you’re on your period, you need to dispose of the blood properly, or else be haunted. Please and thank you seems to be the general rule.

Being a Malaysian myself, I heard that pontianaks live in banana trees, specifically near the 'heart' area. You could even make a pontianak do your bidding by pushing a nail into the heart of the banana tree and tying one end of a red string on the nail and the other at the foot of your bed. In the middle of the night you would hear the pontianak sobbing and pleading for you to remove the nail and you could tell it to do stuff for you in exchange.

Adding to the forest thing, you also have to watch your language when you're in a forest. Talking shit would sometimes make the spirits angry and they'd make you lose your way. Or sometimes you don't even have to be bad mannered; if you just plain interest them, they'd bring you into their 'villages' and keep you there for as long as it pleases them. Kind like the fey in western mythology me thinks.

rocketpants · **Posted:** Sat Jul 10, 2010 4:42 am

palfydrium wrote:

Being a Malaysian myself, I heard that pontianaks live in banana trees, specifically near the 'heart' area. You could even make a pontianak do your bidding by pushing a nail into the heart of the banana tree and tying one end of a red string on the nail and the other at the foot of your bed. In the middle of the night you would hear the pontianak sobbing and pleading for you to remove the nail and you could tell it to do stuff for you in exchange.

Something tells me that making something like that do your bidding is a very, very poor idea.

But thanks for sharing. Cool stuff.

Skull Thuggery · **Joined:** Mon Aug 03, 2009 12:58 am **Posts:** 43

palfydrium wrote:

Being a Malaysian myself, I heard that pontianaks live in banana trees, specifically near the 'heart' area. You could even make a pontianak do your bidding by pushing a nail into the heart of the banana tree and tying one end of a red string on the nail and the other at the foot of your bed. In the middle of the night you would hear the pontianak sobbing and pleading for you to remove the nail and you could tell it to do stuff for you in exchange.

I love how so many superstitions get so specific. Does it have to be a red string? If I used a blue string, would the pontianak not know what the fuck to do and just suffer in silence? What if I didn't put the other nail in the foot of my bed, but stuck it in another banana tree? Would I end up with two pontianaks begging each other to pull the nails out?

rocketpants wrote:

Something tells me that making something like that do your bidding is a very, very poor idea.

Yeah, I don't know what stops it from coming after you once it's done your dirty work. Maybe you're supposed to cut the tree down before he can get to you.

palfydrium · **Joined:** Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:54 am **Posts:** 5

Skull Thuggery wrote:

I love how so many superstitions get so specific. Does it have to be a red string? If I used a blue string, would the pontianak not know what the fuck to do and just suffer in silence? What if I didn't put the other nail in the foot of my bed, but stuck it in another banana tree? Would I end up with two pontianaks begging each other to pull the nails out?

Pfffft--there's a thought. I don't think it really matters what kind of string you use. Red's probably the more dramatic colour of choice though, especially for the Chinese community.

rocketpants wrote:

Something tells me that making something like that do your bidding is a very, very poor idea.

Haha, it is. One story goes was that a woman got so caught up with the pontianak that she added more and more strings and nails. The day after she took them out, they found her dead on the banana tree, pinned by the nails she had once used.

perfectcircle35 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:03 pm

xowgax wrote:

Anyone got the one where it's something along the lines of
a cold sweat/chill down your spine /hair on your neck standing
means someone in a ??ft radius had a thought about seriously hurting you?

I've never heard of that one, but I have heard that every time you get a shiver down your spine, someone is walking over your future grave.

nomurtastypasta · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:29 am

I don't really give merit to superstitions except for one place: the theater. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this one, but it's bad luck to ever say Macbeth in a theater. The reason behind this is that Shakespeare apparently used real witch spells in the play and they carry a curse.

I've got a bunch of stories of how someone saying Macbeth has fucked over a production, but I'll use a more recent example.

Over the summer, the acting company I'm involved in put on A Midsummer Night's Dream. We decided to put the play on outside in an amphitheater at my college because the weather was warm and it was free. Well, one day, one of the actors thought it would be funny to say Macbeth three or four times. We scolded him, but it was too late.

The next day, the actress who played Puck got into a car accident, and then the actress playing Titania got into a separate car accident. They weren't injured, but we had to delay the show a good half hour. Then, the ladies' changing room (ie their bathroom) was not unlocked, so we had to take turns using the men's room, which made getting into costume a bitch. Last but not least, the actor who played Bottom got a horrible case of diarrhea and spent all of intermission in the bathroom.

This, of course, gave my director the idea to put on Macbeth for Fall. We'll see how that one turns out.

chairmansteve · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:30 pm

here are 2, well one, (the other may be a tic) that ive learned from my soon to be ex (if she doesnt cut out the insane adherence to superstition)...

Apparently, it is bad luck for two people to make a bed...

When driving a car, she will kiss her hand then slap the roof of the car with the hand that was kissed. This is done every so often throughout the trip. Maybe at intersections or maybe when running red lights, or maybe at rail road tracks.

I never noticed it until she gave me the yell-down war hell ride for trying to help make the bed, which is when I realized she was superstitious.
If anyone can explain that car thing, that'd be dandy.

Zeroh · **Joined:** Wed Jul 28, 2010 1:28 pm **Posts:** 8

Sorry to derail the thread for a minute, but...

tarkata14 wrote:

Zege wrote:

I'm superstitious about mirrors mostly, I keep expecting something to come out of them. >.>

Your avatar scares the living fuck out of me every time I scroll down to meet it. Is the mask in the image not like the ones used during the black plague to ward off the disease?

Do you mean the masks employed by plague doctors?

Here is an engraving from 1656, showing the suit and mask.

There's some info on Wikipedia, and there's more on the internets.

From memory the screenshot's from The Poughkeepsie Tapes, but I might be wrong. Either way it's a vastly under appreciated film and deserves way more praise than it typically gets. Here is a teaser!

Kaz · **Joined:** Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:21 pm **Posts:** 2

I have Pakistani/Afghan roots so here are a few from those cultures:

For kids - don't let anyone walk over your head or you'll stop growing

If you measure the front of a possessed person, it will measure too short when you measure the rear.

When people bury a deceased one, a creature called Bidgu Baavra goes to that fresh grave and digs the grave, then the Bidgu Baavra somehow enchants the dead body causing it to follow the Bidgu and then the Bidgu Baavra takes the dead person with him and eats the dead person.
This is why many people light fires at night near the fresh grave for a certain amount of days - to keep the Bidgu Baavra away.

If you bite your tongue, someone is badmouthing you.

I'll try and get a few more from members of my family who are more in touch with the culture. ;)

MONOLITH

Superstitions

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