A place for superstitions and old wives’ tales
Imagine you’re a little kid again, skipping along the sidewalk, merrily chanting the common phrase, “don’t step on a crack, or you’ll fall and break your back.”
Now imagine that actually happening.
Do you think it’s possible?
Do you really believe you may horrifyingly break your back by simply toeing a line on the sidewalk?
Some people do.
“Everybody has superstitions,” said associate psychology professor and certified psychologist Melanie Domenech Rodriguez. “A superstition is a not scientifically proven thought about a particular chain of behavior,” she said.
“There are generally two kinds of superstitions,” said Amy Odum, associate psychology professor. “Culturally transmitted superstitions and individual superstitions.”
The belief in the crack theory is an example of a culturally transmitted superstition, she said. You get them from other people throughout your life, she said. They may have had a basis at some point in time, Odum said, but we have forgotten the real reasons. Crossing paths with a black cat is a bad omen, she said, and we speculate that it started at the time in our history when people believed that witches existed. She said black cats were associated with witches. It was dangerous to have one around, she said, because others would figure you’re a witch and burn you at the stake.
Another example of a culturally transmitted superstition is knocking on wood.
Christine Davidson, an English major in her junior year said she doesn’t go a day without knocking on some sort of surface in order to maintain a jinx-free life.
“If there’s no wood around, I’ll use whatever is there,” Davidson said. “Vinyl, metal, plastic, it doesn’t matter.”
Last summer, she said she broke her ankle and surgery was a possibility if it didn’t fully heal after six months. She said she knocked on plastic when she heard this, but just recently, she said she had found out it had not healed.
“Obviously, you have to use wood,” Davidson said. But she said she continues to use any surface available.
Odum said people tend to ignore the counter-evidence of their superstitions. But a thorough belief in a superstition will give it a certain degree of power, she said.
One powerful superstition can be found in the theatre. A theatre major in his senior year wished to be referred to as “Peter Jackson” because he said if he used his real name, it would make him seem vain and hinder his performance.
Jackson said to use the proper title of William Shakespeare’s Scottish play “Macbeth” is a theatre no-no.
“You have to refer to it as “the Scottish play,” Jackson said.
He said before the production of last semester’s “West Side Story,” one of the guys in the gang referred to as the “Jets” used the Scottish play’s real name in the theatre. He said after that, they lost two of the “Jets.” One because of a broken foot contracted while practicing, and the other needed an emergency tonsillectomy. Jackson said he himself performed while having pneumonia.
“I had a fever of 104 on stage,” Jackson said. “It was hell.”
He said the theatre department actually performed the Scottish play a while ago, and during the second day, someone had a 200 lb. bar dropped on their toe, someone died, and someone was victim of a hit and run. There’s definitely some power in the Scottish play superstition, he said.
Jackson said there is also the “break a leg” superstition. When someone is about to perform, he said, you tell them to break a leg.
“It’s a Murphy’s law kind of thing,” Jackson said. “If you wish them well, something bad will happen. If you say something bad, something good will happen.”
Some people have their own superstitions for auditions days, he said. This is an example of what Odum said was an individual superstition.
“You wear your lucky tie on audition day because you always get good parts when you wear it,” Jackson said.
Individual superstitions are also found in people who play sports.
David Savage, a sophomore in mechanical engineering said, “In sports, I don’t like to trash talk or do anything mean because I believe in sports karma.” He said it makes him a better player because he has a better time.
“There’s a little voice that says they’ll come back to get me if I’m mean,” Savage said.
But for the most part, superstitions are light-hearted fun that most people don’t pay too much heed to.
Even if they do, Odum said “there’s no harm in it.” She said people like to feel they have some control over their lives, and having a superstition is just one way to do it.
-marylour@cc.usu.edu