Family traditions and superstitions

PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
My parents always opened the back door and the front door at 12pm on New Years Eve.
I can understand that - letting the old year out and letting the New Year in, and I confess that I would still do it if I had the chance.
However, Darllenwr was saying that his grandmother, who was quite superstitious, would insist that on the first day of the month, the first thing you had to say was “rabbits, rabbits, rabbits “. (Needless to say, this has not been passed down the family!)
Where did this come from, and why?
Does anyone else either have, or know of, strange family superstitions?
«134

Comments

  • DavidDavid Shipmate
    I’d never heard of the rabbits, but apparently it’s a real thing, though not a very ancient one.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    One of my cousins (first cousin twice removed, so quite a bit older than I am) had a ceramic planter in the shape of an elephant. She always said that the elephant must be positioned so that the trunk is facing the front door, for good luck.

    After she died, I came into possession of the elephant, and always positioned it that way, and still do.
  • I think we only have common-or-garden ones - 'wear a vest, you'll catch your death' and 'sit too close to the telly and you'll get square eyes' and 'putting the heating on after the end of Feb is more-or-less equivalent to sin against the Holy Spirit'.

    I'm glad to carry those on with gusto, though the TV one has somewhat lost its punch in these days of small screens and my kids seem even more reluctant to dress warmly than I was. But I'll teach the feckers with the last one, so I will :smile:
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    Saying "rabbit rabbit" (only two rabbits, not three) on the first day of the month, with some sort of value (good luck, perhaps?) attached to being the first to say it to someone before they say it to you, is something I learned as a young adult among some of my groups of friends -- I'd never heard of it as a child or in our family, but even today I have friends who will, for example, post a picture of two rabbits on Facebook on the first of the month, and lots of friends who understand the reference.
  • DavidDavid Shipmate
    My wife's paternal grandmother used to say that if children didn’t stop jigging about and sit still they’d end up with St. Vitas' Dance.

    Rather confusing cause and effect, but there you go.
  • I think we had that one. And also that 'if the wind changed, you'd stick like it'.

    I think a few of my Mum's health ones (who was old-ish to be having kids (me) in 1970) came from her Mum (who was very old to be having a kid (Mum) in 1933) - and that they come from a time of no NHS, no antibiotics, no money, and (as I have been reflecting over the last year) recent deadly pandemics. 'You'll catch your death' (yeah, yeah, Mum) is something I've thought about a fair bit recently.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    My mother's family certainly had the "rabbit" tradition, they were a country and farming family (Northamptonshire) so maybe that had something to do with it.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Also, "eat your crusts, it will make your hair curl". It didn't occur to me as a child to ask why I should want my hair to curl!

  • Killing spiders causes it to rain.
  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    My great-aunt was very fond of invoking St. Vitus' Dance when I wouldn't sit still.
  • PendragonPendragon Shipmate
    Sparrow wrote: »
    Also, "eat your crusts, it will make your hair curl". It didn't occur to me as a child to ask why I should want my hair to curl!

    I was always terribly annoyed that it didn't work and give me something other than my poker straight and fine hair.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    On the acquisition of any new clothes - 'Health to wear it, strength to tear it, money to buy a new one'.

    Never bring blackthorn into the house.

    A picture falling off a wall is a death foretold.

    Pull the curtains or the sunlight will put the fire out.

    Don't wash your hair when menstruating (there were quite a few things that were mysteriously 'bad for you' if you were female).

    Baking soda as a universal panacea (not for burns it isn't).
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    My grandmother referred to "layers to catch meddlers" but I never found out what they were.

    Many of my questions she replied to with "Y has a long tail but you can't pull it"

  • NicoleMRNicoleMR Shipmate
    My father taught me that on New Years, the first food you have to have is pickled herring. This is the first year ever where I wasn't able to get any before zero hour. :-(
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    NicoleMR wrote: »
    My father taught me that on New Years, the first food you have to have is pickled herring. This is the first year ever where I wasn't able to get any before zero hour. :-(

    I'd starve to death. The only way I can imagine to make fish taste any worse than it already does would be pickling it.
  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    My mum said “White Rabbits” on the first day of the month. Despite her good Plymouth Brethren upbringing she practised a lot of minor superstitions; I’m not sure which originated in Devon, where she grew up, and which in Shropshire, where she lived before getting married.

    Others I recall are:
    Friday night’s dream, if Saturday told, will surely come true no matter how old.
    Never look at the new moon through glass.
    Wash on a Friday [?not sure which day...], wash one of the family away.
    If you spill salt, throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder.
    If you say the same thing at exactly the same time as someone else, you have to link your little fingers and say a poet’s name.
  • AnselminaAnselmina Shipmate
    I thought 'rabbits, rabbits, rabbits' was for the first day of Spring? Or just one month in particular?
    No shoes to be left on the table.
    Like Firenze, a falling picture was a death in the family.
    You always wished someone with a new car 'health to drive'.
    Near Year's: first footing had to be a tall dark stranger bearing food and drink.
    Never leave your knife and fork crossed on your plate when you'd finished.
    Throw salt over the shoulder, when spilt at the table, to blind the devil in the eye so he couldn't see you'd been clumsy.
    Hang a mirror in the front lobby by the door, so the devil when entering the house with you would spot his reflection and be scared off, and not come any further.
    'Ne'er cast a clout, till may is out.'
    Never put a brolly up indoors.
    A fork falling to the floor meant a woman was coming.
    An itchy nose needing a scratch meant you were going to have a fight with someone. (You could rap somebody on the back of their hand to dissipate the curse.)
    An itchy palm meant money was coming your way.
    And an itch in your foot meant you would soon be treading new ground.
    Bad luck to bring peacock feathers into the house.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    My maternal grandmother was a very superstitious woman. Off the top of my head: never do laundry on Good Friday, and always wear at least one brand new garment on Easter Sunday. I shall probably think of more.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    My mother also was quite superstitious and would get agitated if she only saw one magpie - "I must see another one!" (One for sorrow, two for joy.) I suggested once that she look at the same one twice and pretend, but apparently that wouldn't do at all. I catch myself looking for another magpie if I see just one, even now.

    She was a nurse and had what I believe is a common nurse's superstition about red and white flowers in the same vase, as they signify blood on bandages. It's ok if there's another colour flower in the vase as well.

    She also had the superstition that being given a pair of gloves meant a parting. I well remember her sharp intake of breath one Christmas when she unwrapped her neighbour's present of gloves. (My father, strangely, died the following year.)
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    "If you spill salt, throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder."

    I've noticed Rachael Ray doing that on her shows when she cooks.
  • I don't think I grew up with much by way of superstition, I learned of superstitions but my parents mentioned them merely (so it seemed) as matters of anthropological interest.
  • edited March 21
    Aravis wrote: »
    My mum said “White Rabbits” on the first day of the month.

    You've reminded me, that was my Mum's version. She grew up in Wiltshire, and her side had links to Somerset I think. She had the one about itchy noses and fighting, and I think crossed knife and fork on an empty plate meant the same. But Mum and Dad were so class-conscious (that is, hoping we would be upwardly mobile, I guess) that it was probably mixed up with not being 'common'. You're not wearing jeans to church - elbows off the table and hands out of your pockets - close your mouth when you're chewing (well, OK) and 'it's buTTer, NOT buh--uhh!' :smile:

    Quite a few of these ring bells with me now. And there are all those ones about corn dollies (fertility) and spinning wedding rings on strings over pregnant women to foretell a boy or a girl.

  • CathscatsCathscats Shipmate
    Don’t stir the porridge anti-clockwise. That stirs the luck out. (My Gran.)
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    "Stir with a knife, stir up strife."
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    Sitting on cold stone will cause piles
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    It’s interesting to read some of these - I still don’t like to see knives crossed.
    We think we’re not superstitious, but subconsciously, we probably still are.
  • edited March 21
    Put your feet to the fire and you'll get chillblaines (whatever they were). Put your back to the fire and it'll make you sick. Actually, I think the idea was to keep kids away from the fire, there was so little heat coming out of it, and most of that which there was, was absorbed by the cat - so I never did find out what chillblaines were. Our fire was gas, and made a strange noise when on very low, just at the point of going out. If it ever wasn't making that noise, Dad wanted to know why :smile:
  • We don't suffer much from superstitions but we do have a few traditions. One relates to Shrove Tuesday. When the children were teenagers, they were allowed to invite friends to come for pancakes (UK variety). One year, one of our daughter's friends, Magda, came. She confessed that her parents never made pancakes. Each year, from then on, she would come round on Shrove Tuesday for pancakes. Her record was 12 in one evening.

    One year, our kids were out on Shrove Tuesday, so it was just Mrs Claypool and myself. As we were settling into the kitchen to make pancakes, we heard a knock on the door. It was Magda. "I hope you don't mind, but I wondered if I could come for pancakes."

    Shortly after that, we moved away and now live in a different continent but every Shrove Tuesday, as we start cooking pancakes, we pause and wait for a knock on the door, just in case Magda has found us again.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    If you are having a tea party, only one person must pour out of the teapot.
  • ChoristerChorister Shipmate
    Pinch, punch first of the month. 'White Rabbit' was if you spoke at the same time as someone else - link little fingers as you say it.
    Don't walk under a ladder, always walk round it.
    Pick a four-leaf clover for luck (I spent ages looking for one; eventually someone gave me one, I had begun to think they didn't really exist.)
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Does anyone remember why putting shoes on the table is supposed to be so unlucky (I get that it's unhygienic but I don't think that was the reason)?
  • In 70s Essex, it was because you had almost certainly stepped in, errr, something.

    (It's amazing how many nostalgic conversations amongst men of my age gravitate to 'and why _do_ you no longer see white dog turds?').
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    Put your feet to the fire and you'll get chillblaines (whatever they were). Put your back to the fire and it'll make you sick. Actually, I think the idea was to keep kids away from the fire, there was so little heat coming out of it, and most of that which there was, was absorbed by the cat - so I never did find out what chillblaines were. Our fire was gas, and made a strange noise when on very low, just at the point of going out. If it ever wasn't making that noise, Dad wanted to know why :smile:

    Chilblains are itch painful purplish-red lumps on the fingers & toes often seen in cold climates especially after rapid transition from heat to cold.

    Uncommon in coastal NSW ( have only seen twice in professional life) but seen in colder places such as NSW and Victoria high country and Tasmania


  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    Another strange one: stand with back to fire and this will cause the fat to melt around your kidneys
  • NicoleMRNicoleMR Shipmate
    If you leave a knife on it's back, with the blade facing up, the devil sits on the edge and causes accidents.
  • DavidDavid Shipmate
    My entirely non-religious mother in law always makes the sign of the cross when she sees a magpie.

    And my maternal grandmother, Blodwyn, always used to counsel us as children to ensure we wore fresh underwear every day in case we were run over by a car and taken to hospital. This was always the queue for me to crack a joke about determining blame for such a road traffic collision by measuring the skidmarks.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    My mother would neither give nor receive a knife as a gift. It had to be paid for. A symbolic penny sufficed.
  • My grandmother extended the prohibition against working on the Sabbath to include not using the future tense on the Sabbath. It was also unlucky to cut your fingernails on the Sabbath.

  • LandlubberLandlubber Shipmate
    Does anyone remember why putting shoes on the table is supposed to be so unlucky (I get that it's unhygienic but I don't think that was the reason)?
    In my childhood home it was only unlucky to put new shoes on the furniture, so dirt/hygiene can't have been the reason!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Nenya wrote: »
    My mother also was quite superstitious and would get agitated if she only saw one magpie - "I must see another one!" (One for sorrow, two for joy.)
    David always used to say, "Good morning, Mr. Magpie, what a fine fellow you are" if he saw one; I presume it was to break the curse. I've also heard it as "Good morning, Mr. Magpie, how are your wife and children?". I use whichever one comes into my head first.

    My mum used to say "rabbits, rabbits, rabbits" on the first of the month; for some reason I think it was only on months with an "R" in them, i.e. September to April, but I could be mistaken about that bit.
  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    Opening an umbrella indoors is bad luck.

    You must never give anyone something empty as a present - e.g. put something in a purse, even if only a penny (probably bad luck again?).

    Catching a falling leaf in a certain month is good luck, but I can’t remember which month! October?

    If you peel an entire apple without a break in the skin, throw the peel on the ground and it will reveal the initial of your sweetheart (NB: this is unfairly biased towards people whose names begin with S, and you should possibly not try it if you have a secret yearning for someone whose name begins with letters such as K).

    If you want to live and thrive, let the spiders run alive (I didn’t appreciate this one as I was terrified of spiders).
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    We had "Rabbits" (said once) on the first of the month and distress if we had already said something. The point was that "Rabbits" had to be the very first thing out of your mouth

    If we saw a white horse we had to cross our fingers till we saw a black dog

    My maternal grandmother (whose mother was born in County Clare, Ireland) would send us 4-leaf clovers (dried and wrapped in tissue paper) in the post with a piece of light card (to stop the envelope getting bent I assume)

    I always do the salt over the shoulder thing. I have had a few jobs working with food over the years so that has caused much amusement among my workmates

    There is a "thing" here my daughter brought home: never pass a knife from hand to hand. (Lay it on a surface and then the other person picks it up). It's so common you have to be aware of it or people look at you like you're wishing them an awful death tomorrow
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    edited March 22
    Never step on the cracks in the pavement or bears will come around the corner and eat you up.

    The AA Milne poem about Christopher Robin always sticking to the squares would be quoted:

    And the masses of bears,
    Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
    The sillies who tread on the lines of the street


  • Sojourner wrote: »
    Put your feet to the fire and you'll get chillblaines (whatever they were). Put your back to the fire and it'll make you sick. Actually, I think the idea was to keep kids away from the fire, there was so little heat coming out of it, and most of that which there was, was absorbed by the cat - so I never did find out what chillblaines were. Our fire was gas, and made a strange noise when on very low, just at the point of going out. If it ever wasn't making that noise, Dad wanted to know why :smile:

    Chilblains are itch painful purplish-red lumps on the fingers & toes often seen in cold climates especially after rapid transition from heat to cold.

    Other way around - it's heating up too fast after being chilled that causes them. I've had them a few times as I have Reynaud syndrome. Can be sore for a couple of days. I find warm water best for warming cold hands and avoiding chillblains.
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    I stand corrected😜
  • Sojourner wrote: »
    Put your feet to the fire and you'll get chillblaines (whatever they were). Put your back to the fire and it'll make you sick. Actually, I think the idea was to keep kids away from the fire, there was so little heat coming out of it, and most of that which there was, was absorbed by the cat - so I never did find out what chillblaines were. Our fire was gas, and made a strange noise when on very low, just at the point of going out. If it ever wasn't making that noise, Dad wanted to know why :smile:

    Chilblains are itch painful purplish-red lumps on the fingers & toes often seen in cold climates especially after rapid transition from heat to cold.

    Other way around - it's heating up too fast after being chilled that causes them. I've had them a few times as I have Reynaud syndrome. Can be sore for a couple of days. I find warm water best for warming cold hands and avoiding chillblains.

    That's interesting. I used to work in noise and vibration, including the design of vibration-reduced power tools for mitigating the industrial version of what you suffer from.
  • David wrote: »
    My wife's paternal grandmother used to say that if children didn’t stop jigging about and sit still they’d end up with St. Vitas' Dance.

    Rather confusing cause and effect, but there you go.

    That happens. Back in the day it was believed that being touched by a Royal would cure scrofula. (I believe that Queen Anne was the last British Royal to lay on hands for scrofula.) In a reversal of this, when Emelian Pugachev led the last great Russian peasant revolt* in 1773-74, he claimed to be in fact Peter III, who had been killed in Catherine the Great's coup against him (her husband). Pugachev, as Peter, claimed to have escaped from the palace, that his death was an exaggeration, and that he had been in hiding in the interim. As proof of his royal identity, Pugachev pointed to his own scrofula.

    *This was very serious. Pugachev managed to capture Kazan, posed a potential threat to Moscow, and as legacy, so frightened Catherine and the gentry that their relationship was cemented in common cause, and any reform of serfdom (except for the Baltic Governorships) was delayed for almost a century. Pushkin, ever the master, captured the destructiveness of the revolt in his The History of Pugachev with the sentence, "They were in retreat, and it seemed an invasion."

  • Funny that in my family, of whom I'm the only one religiously inclined, there were superstitions. Everyone else claimed to be very rational.

    *The spilling of salt required throwing salt over the left shoulder, because that's where Satan lurks.
    *In university residence a friend of mine was amused when in the dining hall he started to stir his tea with a knife and I and another friend screamed "Stop that!"
    *When giving a knife, the recipient must "pay" you for it.
    *On New Year's Eve, if your first guest ("the first footer") is dark haired, it's good luck for the year; a ginger is bad luck.
    *Not a superstition as such, but when something couldn't be found around the house, my Italian nanny (who was very religious) would say, "It'll show up when the Devil is tired of playing with it." (For the record, she did not believe that.)

    This wasn't part of our folklore, but the thing about shoes that I know is that shoes on a bed is bad luck. I think that it's probably because the only time that one wears shoes on a bed is as a corpse.
  • Ethne AlbaEthne Alba Shipmate
    From a very churchy household:

    No shoes on the bed, causing unexplained chaos when I was taken to the doctor as I had lace ups on and the doc didn’t have time for this!

    Knives and forks Never crossed.

    No hawthorn blossom in the house.

    The red and white thing with flower vases was strong in our home and at church. Even in St George Day the centre of the cross had a daisy in it. When I challenged mum on this she Strongly denied any such superstitious base instead giving a rather weak explanation involving the ability of ones eyes to focus after seeing red and white together.....

    No cutting nails on Sunday or washing one’s hair , but upon reflection that was Maybe merely an extension of not unnecessarily
    working on Sunday + Sunday Toys.

    Umberellas were never opened indoors. But could be bought inside while still up to be dried.

    Head stands and hands stands within an hour of eating could kill us . Also somersaults.

    Open window after a death.

    My father rubbished the lot of ‘em, my mother went to great lengths to explain.

    That said , mum would go out of her way to walk under a ladder!
  • Loads
    • "White rabbits" first thing to say on the first day of the month, but also "hares" the last thing to say on the last day of the month - that came from my maternal grandmother - but that's well known as an acknowledgement of a sacred animal, apparently;
    • Also from that grandmother, no hawthorn or may blossom inside - dramatic reaction to that one;
    • and peacock feathers - my grandmother and mother were in a car crash when they had peacock feathers in their car. Their reaction wasn't helped when my art teacher at school also crashed when taking peacock feathers to school, badly enough to have to have some time off- I love peacock feathers but was permanently banned from having any anywhere;
    • Having to put a coin in a purse when given as a present;
    • Having to give money in return for a knife;
    • No umbrellas up inside as it might mean you need it and no-one wants to need an umbrella inside;
    • No whistling inside, and also being careful about whistling for wind - that may well be a Navy tradition.
    • Salt over left shoulder too;
    • From my paternal grandmother, not only was she superstitious about magpies, but if she saw a single magpie she saluted and spat at it, which rendered car journeys with her somewhat insanitary.

    I'm sure there are more.
Sign In or Register to comment.