Idle Curiosity
I have no recollection of the thought process that led me to it, just that it was late and I couldn't sleep. Anyway, I was thinking about superstitions (I think I got there from "step on a crack, break your mother's back") and the fact that I used to worry about a lot more of them when I was younger than I do now. I do still follow (have? adhere to? hmmm ... ) a few lingering superstitions, though, and was trying to figure out where they came from ... anyway, it's not really a meme thing, I'm just curious about what other people are superstitious about, and why (if you actually know, that is - some of them just are, I know).
The 'it's bad luck to say the name of the Scottish play in a theatre' one is so indelibly etched upon my being that I'll very rarely say "Macbeth" aloud in any circumstances, and that's unlikely to change. The other ingrained theatre superstition I still have is that it's bad luck to whistle onstage (from the days when sailors - proficient as they were with ropes & rigging - operated the fly systems in the theatre, and communicated with each other by whistling; so a stray whistle could get a piece of scenery dropped on your head but quick.) Those clearly came from hanging around hoary old community theatre queens at a tender and impressionable age ... I throw spilled salt over my shoulder, but I have very little understanding of why I do that (something about the devil, right?) and I never remember which shoulder it's supposed to be, so I think I switch it up every time. Saying "knock on wood" irritates the crap out of me (and heaven help anyone who says it while knocking on their own or anyone else's head, because I will kill you), but I do actually knock on wood for good luck, without the commentary. Somewhere along the line I picked up the tidbit that it has to be an odd number of knocks, though - so if other people knock evenly, I have to add knocks to make it an odd number.
Also I won't put car keys down on a table that is eaten off of, as I'm under the impression that this causes car accidents. ballincollig, didn't I get this from your mom?
Okay, give me something to think about the next time I can't sleep ...
The 'it's bad luck to say the name of the Scottish play in a theatre' one is so indelibly etched upon my being that I'll very rarely say "Macbeth" aloud in any circumstances, and that's unlikely to change. The other ingrained theatre superstition I still have is that it's bad luck to whistle onstage (from the days when sailors - proficient as they were with ropes & rigging - operated the fly systems in the theatre, and communicated with each other by whistling; so a stray whistle could get a piece of scenery dropped on your head but quick.) Those clearly came from hanging around hoary old community theatre queens at a tender and impressionable age ... I throw spilled salt over my shoulder, but I have very little understanding of why I do that (something about the devil, right?) and I never remember which shoulder it's supposed to be, so I think I switch it up every time. Saying "knock on wood" irritates the crap out of me (and heaven help anyone who says it while knocking on their own or anyone else's head, because I will kill you), but I do actually knock on wood for good luck, without the commentary. Somewhere along the line I picked up the tidbit that it has to be an odd number of knocks, though - so if other people knock evenly, I have to add knocks to make it an odd number.
Also I won't put car keys down on a table that is eaten off of, as I'm under the impression that this causes car accidents. ballincollig, didn't I get this from your mom?
Okay, give me something to think about the next time I can't sleep ...