Black cats and ladders: Some lucky history
BE CAREFUL!
If you aren’t, a black cat might cross your path as you trip under a ladder, and break a very inconveniently placed mirror. According to superstition, that’s a lot of bad luck coming your way.
Then again, superstition is a funny thing.
“Superstition,” said the Archbishop Trench, a non-dead authority on etymology, “is a Latin word whose secret has been lost, so that, except for a guess, more or less plausible, it can never be recovered.”
Cincero (c. 106-43 BC), a Roman statesman, in “Taking a Guess” has proposed that the word superstition comes from the words “supersisto,” which means “to stand in terror of the deity” and “superstes,” which means “surviving.” Cicero also believed that, “superstition is the baseless fear of the gods, religion, and the pious worship.”
Finaly, Oxford says that superstition is “An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.”
Nowadays, superstition is a thing of the past – something based less in logic than the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm … or is it?
How much of what we do on a daily basis lies in superstition? How much of it have we inherited from generations long dead? In our actions, speech, and beliefs, superstitions are as alive today as they ever were.
Are you a Paraskevidekatriaphobic? Does the very mention of “the devil’s dozen” start you quaking? Fear of Friday the 13th is probably the most widespread superstition in America.
“The sixth day of the week and the number 13 both have foreboding reputations said to date from ancient times,” said author David Emery. “Their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year portends more misfortune than some credulous minds can bear: Some people won’t go to work on Friday the 13th; some won’t eat in restaurants; many wouldn’t think of setting a wedding on the date.”
But Friday the 13th is just the beginning. What about knocking on wood? When a friend says, “There’s no way it would snow in October,” what is the first thing you tell them to do?
According to the book “Superstitions,” by Peter Porie, knocking on wood is a superstitious action used to ward off any evil consequences, like those from untimely boasting; it can also be a charm to bring good luck. It’s origins are sketchy at best (some believe it comes from the Irist belief that you should knock on wood to let the little people know that you are thanking them for a big of good luck), but its applications are very apparent.
Lories list of superstitions goes on and on:
1) According to Norman legend, a person’s death within a year is portended by a cat of black color crossing your path in the light of the moon. In the orient, black cats symbolize poverty and ill-health.
2) Then there’s the breaking mirror. One variant of this superstition is that the broken mirror is a foretelling of a death in the family within a year’s time. The more common thought is that the person who breaks the mirror will have seven years of bad luck.
3) Walking under a ladder? What’s the harm in that. Well, the “don’t walk under a ladder” thing started with the early Christians who felt that the ladder leaning against the wall made a triangle. By walking through the triangle the walker would be violating the Holy Trinity and thus be in cahoots with the devil.
Lorie’s book also lists many superstitions which the average student has never ever heard of, like one that says appendicitis can be caused by swallowing any kind of seed – like watermelon, one that says flowers should not remain in a hospital ward at night for fear the flowers will use up valuable oxygen and deprive the ailing patients, or one what attributes special powers to a seventh child (seven being the most sacred of numbers).
Really in the end, there’s only one thing to say: This Halloween, be careful. There are lots of crazy people out there. But don’t worry about superstitions, they aren’t real, and they can’t harm you … knock on wood.
-mattgo@cc.usu.edu