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Author Topic: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood  (Read 6178 times)

dionysiandame

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Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« on: October 16, 2013, 12:37:10 pm »
What were some superstitions or folk practices you remember from growing up? For example, I was always told that if my palms itched it meant money was coming to me. For some reason, I turned this into my right palm itching when money is coming to me and my left palm itching when I was about to have to pay a big bill.

Hasn't failed me yet and generally occurs within a 3-4 day window.

Another one; never put your purse on the floor or you'll always be broke.

On another note; always have your money facing the same way in your wallet.

Never cut your hair during the new moon.

Always sweep from the back of the house to the front. (or in this case vacuum. My mother would twitch something fierce if I started anywhere but the very back room.)

I have NO explanation for any of these but some of them I still do subconsciously (the sweeping from the back to the front and never putting my purse on the floor.) What are some of yours?

What are some of yours?
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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2013, 02:57:24 pm »
Quote from: dionysiandame;125621
What were some superstitions or folk practices you remember from growing up?

 
I keep at least a penny in every empty purse and wallet, and never gift one without money inside it. I heard the money/palms one growing up, but never internalized it.

I know there are others but I cannot for the life of me think of them at the moment.
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Viv

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2013, 04:17:37 pm »
Quote from: dionysiandame;125621
What were some superstitions or folk practices you remember from growing up?

 
Well, off the top of my head:

If you dream about snakes someone close to you is plotting against you behind your back.

Do not open and drain a blister until after dark, otherwise it will simply close up and need to be drained again the next day.

Killing a ladybug will bring you bad luck.

Killing a cricket in your home will bring your whole household bad luck.

If a lady bug lands on your shirt, pants, skirt,...any article of clothing basically...you'll soon be getting a new one of whatever it is.

If a bird flies into your home via an open door or window, you will soon lose a loved one to death.

If you are pregnant and carrying low your baby will be a boy, if you're carrying high you'll be having a girl.

Heartburn during pregnancy means your baby will be born with a full head of hair.

If your right eye or eyebrow itches you'll soon be seeing an old friend.

Look upon the new moon with money in your hands and the amount you hold will soon double.

Never sweep under an unmarried person's feet, or they will never marry.

Geesh, my Appalachian grannies are really making a ruckus in my brain right now...all of 'em talking to me at once, LOL! I could probably come up with a ton more for you but I need to fix dinner sometime this evening :)
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Tana

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2013, 04:33:01 pm »
Quote from: dionysiandame;125621

If the left ear rings, someone is gossiping about you.
If the right ear rings, someone is commending you.

If your nose itches, money is about to come.

Always leave a penny in your wallet and you will never be out of money. (Which is obviously true, since you will always have still a penny in it.)

If you spill salt, toss some salt thrice over your left shoulder to avert bad luck.
(Yeah, extremely logical to avoid bad luck, caused by salt spilling, through the spilling of yet more salt.)

(The usual never pass under a ladder, black cat stuff.)

Ladybugs are good luck.
If a bird shits on you, it's good luck too.

Never light a cigarette on a candle or a sailor will die.
(I even know where this one is coming from.)

Shoes put under the bed will cause bad dreams.
Umbrellas openend in the house are bad luck.

Oh and I bet a ton more of rather silly superstitions.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2013, 04:34:10 pm by Tana »
\'You had to repay, good or bad. There was more than one type of obligation.
That’s what people never really understood.….Things had to balance.
You couldn’t set out to be a good witch or a bad witch. It never worked out for long.
All you could try to be was a witch, as hard as you could.\'
Terry Pratchett \'Lords and Ladies\'

Confuzzled and proud. :p

Schuyler

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2013, 04:36:56 pm »
Quote from: dionysiandame;125621
What were some superstitions or folk practices you remember from growing up?


If you hit an elder, you will develop a tremor in your hands.

If you touch a butterfly and then your eyes, you will go blind. (Eh... not sure about the wisdom in this one.)

If your feet itch, you will be traveling soon.


Quote from: windshadow;125656
Well, off the top of my head:
Killing a cricket in your home will bring your whole household bad luck.

 
Hehe... my grandmother (a superstitious Korean woman) takes this one a step further. She is something of a cricket hoarder, actually. Once she finds one in the house, it is not going anywhere!

Vale

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2013, 04:58:25 pm »
Quote from: Tana;125657
)

If you spill salt, toss some salt thrice over your left shoulder to avert bad luck.
(Yeah, extremely logical to avoid bad luck, caused by salt spilling, through the spilling of yet more salt.)



That is  because the devil sits on your left shoulder so you throw the salt in his eyes to stop him cursing you with the bad luck - or so said my Welsh grandmother

Another one from her - it is unlucky to wear green as it's the colour of the Tylwyth Teg  (Bendith y Mamau) or fairy folk. They don't like mortals wearing it.

Sophia C

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Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2013, 05:17:13 pm »
Quote from: dionysiandame;125621
What were some superstitions or folk practices you remember from growing up?

- bad luck to put shoes on the table or open an umbrella indoors
- spiders bring money - don't kill them
- leaving a candle in the window at Christmas
- if you give a purse/wallet or photo frame as a gift, they must contain money or a photo - it's bad luck for the recipient to leave them empty
- bad luck to pass someone on the stairs or walk under a ladder (this one has left me constantly freaked out about having anyone walk behind me on the stairs!)
- a few home remedies that my mother likes, such as aloe for burns and feverfew for headaches (along with some weirder ones - she believes aloe vera juice cures *everything*)
- We always had to have home-made cake in the house in case of unexpected visitors

Most of these come from my mother and her side of my family (from Ireland). My father, being from a Welsh Chapel family, shunned all superstition - at least in his younger years, before he went all New Age!
"We're all stories, in the end. Make it a good one, eh?"
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Tana

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2013, 05:50:56 pm »
Quote from: Vale;125668
That is  because the devil sits on your left shoulder so you throw the salt in his eyes to stop him cursing you with the bad luck - or so said my Welsh grandmother


*lol* I like that!


Quote from: Vale;125668

Another one from her - it is unlucky to wear green as it's the colour of the Tylwyth Teg  (Bendith y Mamau) or fairy folk. They don't like mortals wearing it.


Interesting. Haven't heard that yet.
\'You had to repay, good or bad. There was more than one type of obligation.
That’s what people never really understood.….Things had to balance.
You couldn’t set out to be a good witch or a bad witch. It never worked out for long.
All you could try to be was a witch, as hard as you could.\'
Terry Pratchett \'Lords and Ladies\'

Confuzzled and proud. :p

Baketamun

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2013, 05:55:02 pm »
Quote from: dionysiandame;125621
What were some superstitions or folk practices you remember from growing up?

What are some of yours?

 
Painting the door, doorsteps, and/or shutters of a house blue to ward off evil.

We had this family tradition that all new babies had to be taken to visit my great-grandparents, so that Pa John could perform a little ritual that involved gently turning the baby upside down and saying some kind of blessing. (Unfortunately, that's all I remember about it, but it was essential, according to that side of the family, for the baby's health/growth.) Pa was also a healer, collected his own herbal remedies from the woods (yellow root is the only one I remember), etc.

Baketamun

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #9 on: October 16, 2013, 05:57:36 pm »
Quote from: windshadow;125656
Well, off the top of my head:

If you dream about snakes someone close to you is plotting against you behind your back.

Do not open and drain a blister until after dark, otherwise it will simply close up and need to be drained again the next day.

Killing a ladybug will bring you bad luck.

Killing a cricket in your home will bring your whole household bad luck.

If a lady bug lands on your shirt, pants, skirt,...any article of clothing basically...you'll soon be getting a new one of whatever it is.

If a bird flies into your home via an open door or window, you will soon lose a loved one to death.

If you are pregnant and carrying low your baby will be a boy, if you're carrying high you'll be having a girl.

Heartburn during pregnancy means your baby will be born with a full head of hair.

If your right eye or eyebrow itches you'll soon be seeing an old friend.

Look upon the new moon with money in your hands and the amount you hold will soon double.

Never sweep under an unmarried person's feet, or they will never marry.

Geesh, my Appalachian grannies are really making a ruckus in my brain right now...all of 'em talking to me at once, LOL! I could probably come up with a ton more for you but I need to fix dinner sometime this evening :)


I've heard a lot of these, too. But then, my family is Appalachian, so... ;)

Allaya

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2013, 06:08:34 pm »
Quote from: Baketamun;125672
Painting the door, doorsteps, and/or shutters of a house blue to ward off evil.


Ah yes...haint blue.  We painted the porch ceiling and little draft lobby a most delightful shade of haint blue a couple of months ago. Due to renovations, my door wards are missing but I haven't had so much as a grumble.  

So apparently haint blue works even with Norwegian bumps-in-the-night.
Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.  — Shirley Chisholm
No doubt the truth can be unpleasant, but I am not sure that unpleasantness is the same as the truth.  — Roger Ebert
It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their livelihood depends upon them not understanding it. — Upton Sinclair (adapted)
People cannot be reasoned out of an opinion that they have not reasoned themselves into. — Fisher Ames (adapted)

Darkhawk

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2013, 06:21:19 pm »
Quote from: Tana;125657
If the right ear rings, someone is commending you.


DAMNIT UNIVERSE stop saying nice things about me for a bit THIS TINNITUS IS DRIVING ME SPARE also I would like to hear out of that ear again sometime.


All I can think of at the moment for a contribution is "When you go under a bridge with a train on it, make a wish" and "pick your feet up off the floor of the car when driving over train tracks for good luck".
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

Baketamun

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2013, 06:39:13 pm »
Quote from: Allaya;125674
Ah yes...haint blue.  We painted the porch ceiling and little draft lobby a most delightful shade of haint blue a couple of months ago. Due to renovations, my door wards are missing but I haven't had so much as a grumble.  

So apparently haint blue works even with Norwegian bumps-in-the-night.

 
Good to know. :)

I've been planning to paint my front door blue for some time, but the weather and my lack of spoons mean I keep putting it off.

dionysiandame

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2013, 07:22:34 pm »
Quote from: Schuyler;125660




 
Hehe... my grandmother (a superstitious Korean woman) takes this one a step further. She is something of a cricket hoarder, actually. Once she finds one in the house, it is not going anywhere!



I dated a Korean guy for four years and for the longest time he refused to sleep with the door closed if the ceiling fan was on because #fandeath. That was something that was just passed down to him and I guess I'd count it as folk wisdom of some sort.
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Become my latest obsession on Goodreads

He keeps me with all of his other pretty things for I am just another pretty thing in a long list of acquisitions.

Viv

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Re: Folk Wisdom from Your Childhood
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2013, 07:32:38 pm »
Quote from: Schuyler;125660
Hehe... my grandmother (a superstitious Korean woman) takes this one a step further. She is something of a cricket hoarder, actually. Once she finds one in the house, it is not going anywhere!

 
How does she keep the little boogers quiet so she can sleep? I've heard of cricket cages before...do they keep them quiet? I go nuts when we only have one chirping behind the couch at night. More than that and I'd be homicidal :)
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