Superstition

For other senses, see Superstition (disambiguation).

A superstition is the irrational belief that future events are influenced by specific behaviors, without having a causal relationship.

Examples

Hunting

• When a Dyak village goes out to hunt wild pigs in the jungle, the people who stay at home may not touch oil or water with their hands during the absence of their friend; for if they did so, the hunters would all be "butter-fingered" and the prey would slip through their hands.^[1]

• While a Gilyak hunter was pursuing game in the forests of ancient China, his children at home were forbidden to make drawings on wood or in sand; they feared that if the children did so, the paths in the forest would become as perplexed as the lines in the drawings and that the hunter might lose his way and never return.^[2]

Healing wounds

The belief that there is a magical bond between a wound and the weapon which caused it may be traced unaltered for thousands of years:

• If a Melanesian can obtain possession of the bow which caused his wound, he will keep it carefully in a cool place so as to reduce the inflammation of the wound. But if the bow was left in the enemy's possession, it will undoubtedly be hung up close to the fire so that the wound may become hot and inflamed.^[3]

• Roman officer and encyclopedist Pliny (in his Natural History, Book xxviii, Chapter 7) tells us that "if you have wounded a man and are sorry for it, you have only to spit on the hand that gave the wound, and the pain of the sufferer will be instantly alleviated."^[4]

• Francis Bacon (in his Sylva Sylvarum, X, 998) mentions that "it is constantly received and avouched that the anointing of the weapon that maketh the wound will heal the wound itself".^[5] This superstition was still in practice in eastern England in the 20th century: At Norwich in June 1902 a woman named Matilda Henry accidentally ran a nail into her foot. Without examining the wound, or even removing her stocking, she caused her daughter to grease the nail, saying that if this were done no harm would come of the hurt. A few days afterwards she died of lockjaw.^[6]

Other Superstitions

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• A single magpie is considered a sign of bad luck.^[7]
• A gambler may credit a winning streak in poker to a lucky rabbit's foot or to sitting in a certain chair, rather than to skill or to the law of averages.^{[citation needed]}
• Many believe that if all of the candles on a birthday cake are blown out with one breath, while making a silent wish, the wish will come true.^{[citation needed]}
• Tetraphobia is widespread in China, Japan, Korea, and Hawaii; the number's use is minimized or avoided where possible. This is because the Chinese word for 4, sì, sounds nearly the same same as the word for death, sǐ（死）. Mobile telephone numbers with 4 in them sell for less and some buildings even skip level four, labeling it the 5th floor instead. One of the Japanese words for 4, shi, is also homonymous with the kanji in the word for death, shi of shinu. (However, there is another word for four in Japan that does not sound like death: yon.) In Korea, number '4' is pronounced as sa(사 四) and is homonymous with 'death (사 死)'. Some, but not all, Korean buildings have the fourth floor written as 'F' floor.^{[citation needed]}
• Triskaidekaphobia--In many Western cultures the number 13 is perceived as unlucky; 12a is sometimes used as a subsitute^{[citation needed]} and some buildings skip floor 13 completely.
• Many believe that the United States two-dollar bill brings bad luck. Gamblers sometimes call it a "deuce", a term for two which also means "devil." To "undo", one of the bill's corners must be torn off, forming a triangle, an ancient symbol of life. If you receive a bill with no corners left, it must be torn all up.
• Spilling salt may cause a fight or argument during this day. There are several options to "undo" this which seem to relate to various ways of acknowledging the fact that salt was spilled with others present at the scene. One way to revert this is tossing some salt over one's left shoulder.
• Once leaving a residence it is bad luck to return if something was forgotten. If so, to "undo" the supersition, look in a mirror. Some people also believe smiling at oneself or showing one's tongue to oneself through a mirror is necessary.^{[citation needed]}
• When a black cat crosses one's path, something will happen if one crosses the line where the cat passed. To "undo" either wait for someone who didn't know about the black cat to cross the path or think of another route.
• At times, a horseshoe may be found above doorways. When positioned like a regular 'U' it supposedly collects luck. However, when it is positioned like an upside-down 'U' the luck supposedly drains.
• If someone leaves a residence, nothing can be cleaned until that person gets to the next immediate destination. If cleaning is done, something may happen on his/her way. There appears to be no way to "undo" this. Although very rare people believe in this.
• Breaking a mirror may bring bad luck for 7 years. To "undo" this, take the shards of glass and bury them underneath the moonlight. In ancient times, the mirror was said to be a window to the viewer's 'soul'. If that mirror were to break, it would take time (or 7 years) for that 'cracked' soul to heal as 'time heals all wounds'.
• If a penny is found heads up, it will grant good luck.

Academic and cultural viewpoints

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Superstition and the study of folklore

In the academic discipline of folkloristics the term "superstition" is used to denote any folk belief expressed in if/then (with an optional "unless" clause) format. If you break a mirror, then you will have seven years of bad luck unless you throw all of the pieces into a body of running water. In this usage, the term is not pejorative.

Superstitions are based on general, culturally variable beliefs in a supernatural "reality". Depending on a given culture's belief set, its superstitions may relate to things that are not fully understood or known, such as cemeteries, animals, demons, a devil, deceased ancestors, the weather, ripping one's sock, gambling, sports, food, holidays, occupations, excessive scrupulosity, death, luck, and/or spirits. Urban legends are also sometimes classed as superstition, especially if the moral of the legend is to justify fears about socially alien people or conditions.

In Western folklore, traditional superstitions associated with bad luck include Friday the 13th, walking under a ladder, and black cats.

Superstition and religion

Religious etymology

Superstition, as of today's understanding, is thought to derive from the both meanings of Latin 'superstes' composed on super (over, beyond), -sto (to stand):

• one who attends, can witness
• one who survives

The 'superstitio' was the gift of narrating events as if one had attended and survived them, such as the Hadith in Islam. This capability of the 'superstitious' was associated with divination, which when not performed by a regular augur, was held in contempt as charlatanism. As a result, the superstition became synonymous with "despicable religious beliefs", as antithetic with 'religio', the accepted official or traditional religion.^{[citation needed]} Thus, the English word "superstition," as understood from its original Latin meaning, implies a religion-like belief that stands outside the bounds of clerical religion.

In modern English, the term "superstition" is also used to refer to folkloric belief systems, often with the intention of deriding another culture's concept of the spiritual world.

Many superstitions arose before and during the time of the Black Plague that swept over Europe. During the time of the Black Plague, the Pope passed a law that requiring people to say "God Bless You" when somebody sneezed; this was said to prevent the spread of the disease and to cure whoever already had it.^{[citation needed]}

Religious competition

In keeping with the Latin etymology of the word, religious believers have often seen other religions as superstition. Likewise, atheists, agnostics, deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition. (Edmund Burke, the Irish orator, once said, "Superstition is the religion of weak minds".) From the broadest perspective, all religion is a form of superstition.

Religious practices are most likely to be labelled "superstitious" by outsiders when they include belief in extraordinary events, supernatural interventions, apparitions or the efficacy of charms, incantations, the meaningfulness of omens, and prognostications.

Greek and Roman pagans, who modeled their relations with the gods on political and social terms scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods, as a slave feared a cruel and capricious master. "Such fear of the gods (deisidaimonia) was what the Romans meant by 'superstition' (Veyne 1987, p 211). For Christians just such fears might be worn proudly as a name: Desdemona.

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110).

The Catechism clearly dispels commonly held preconceptions or misunderstandings about Catholic doctrine relating to superstitious practices:

Superstition is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16-22 (para. #2111)

Superstition and magic

Superstitions differ from magic spells in that the former are generally passive if/then constructs while the latter contain formulae, recipes, petitions, prayers, and love songs for effecting future outcomes by means of symbolic, and perhaps non-causal activities.

People who otherwise accept scientific de-mystification of the supernal world and do not consider themselves to be occultists or practitioners of magic, still may consider that it is "better to be safe than be sorry" and observe or transmit some or many of the superstitions endemic to their cultures.

See also

• Magic
• Taboo
• Numbers in Chinese culture

Notes

References

• Codrington, R. H. (1891). The Melanesians. Oxford.

• Frazer, J. G. (1911). The Magic Art (2 vols.) (The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., Part II). London.

• Freud, Sigmund (1950). Totem and Taboo:Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics, trans. Strachey, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-00143-1. 

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