Beliefs, omens and superstitions
Luck and unluck, the evil eye, knocking on wood and the small customs people keep without asking why.
Beliefs, omens and superstitions are the small customs people keep without asking why: knocking on wood, salt over the shoulder, avoiding the number thirteen, the evil eye, a black cat crossing the road, a first visitor of the new year. They are found on every continent and are rarely tied to a priest or book. This page looks at where they come from, what the word superstition hides, and why they persist.
What they look like
Beliefs differ by place. The number four is avoided in China, Japan and Korea because it sounds like the word for death, while thirteen is avoided in much of the West. In India, a sneeze before leaving home may delay a journey, and a lemon and chillies are hung over a shop. The evil eye is feared under many names: nazar, mal de ojo, ayin hara. First-footing at new year in Scotland is said to bring luck to a house.
Whose word is superstition
The word superstition has a history. Roman writers used it for religion they disliked, and Christian writers for forbidden practice. Today it often means someone else's belief. Many religions regard some of their own customs as faith and others as superstition, and where the line falls depends on the speaker. Using the word can mark a speaker as modern and a neighbour as backward. Tests of common superstitions show that people who hold them are not less educated or less rational than others, and many hold them lightly.
Why people keep them
Psychologists find that superstition rises with uncertainty and stakes, which is why athletes, sailors, students and gamblers are known for them. Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski observed in the 1920s that Trobriand fishermen used rites in dangerous deep-sea fishing and not in safe lagoon fishing. Most people who follow small customs say they do so partly in jest and partly just in case. Similar customs turn up in places that have never met each other, which suggests that people everywhere respond to risk in similar ways.
When belief causes harm
Most superstitions are harmless. Some are not: beliefs about witchcraft have led to killings in parts of Africa, India and Papua New Guinea, and beliefs about albinism have led to attacks in Tanzania and Malawi. Others cost people money, as when a fee is demanded to lift a bad omen. Education, law and trusted community leaders have all been part of reducing harm. Campaigns by health workers, teachers and community radio have been effective where they listen first and explain later.
Belief on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇷🇺 Russia and 1 moreTelekinesis
A purported psychic ability to move objects with the mind aloneBelief · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇳🇴 NorwayTycho Brahe daysTycho Brahes-dage
Scandinavian folklore dates believed to be unlucky for magic and businessBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇫🇷 France and 4 moreEctoplasm
A substance said to be excreted by mediums during séances, later exposed as common household materials.Substance · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreMaternal impression
A discredited theory that a mother's shock or thoughts can mark her unborn childBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomTwo of Coins
A tarot card representing balance, juggling duties, and the struggle to maintain equilibrium.Belief · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreReligious aspects of Nazism
The study of how Nazi ideology borrowed religious forms and esoteric beliefs to build a political movement.Tradition · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Historical
🇷🇸 Serbia and 1 moreVampire pumpkins and watermelons
A Balkan folk tale about ground fruit that turns into vampires.Belief · Cursing and harm Legendary
🇫🇮 FinlandEtiäinen
A Finnish belief in a premonitory apparition that precedes a person's arrivalBelief · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇮🇪 IrelandLatoon fairy bush
A whitethorn tree in County Clare saved from a motorway by folkloric warnings of misfortuneBelief · Protection Living
🇩🇪 GermanyVril Society
A fictional secret society from conspiracy theories about Nazi Germany and occult energy.Belief · Power and authority Legendary
🇪🇸 Spain and 2 moreHoly ChaliceSanto Cáliz
A cup believed to have held the blood of Jesus at the Last SupperCharm · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇯🇵 JapanLooking taboo
A mythic rule forbidding a gaze that would bring disasterBelief · Cursing and harm Legendary
🇬🇷 GreeceBranchusΒράγχος
A mortal lover of Apollo who became a prophet and founded an oracle cult in ancient Greece.Figure · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Legendary
🇸🇪 Sweden and 1 moreStalloStállu
A large, clumsy creature from Sámi folklore that eats people and is often outwitted by humans.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇮🇪 Ireland and 5 moreFiddler's Green
A maritime afterlife of endless music and rest for veteran sailorsBelief · Wonder and entertainment Legendary
🇱🇹 Lithuania and 2 moreEglė the Queen of SerpentsEglė žalčių karalienė
A Lithuanian folk tale about a woman who marries a serpent king and turns her family into trees.Figure · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇦🇺 Australia and 1 moreVoldemort effect
A social pattern where naming a fear or problem makes it seem more powerfulBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreOuroborosοὐροβόρος
An ancient image of a serpent eating its own tail, symbolizing cycles and wholenessFigure · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇸🇪 Sweden and 4 moreSwastika (Germanic Iron Age)
A four-armed symbol found on Germanic artefacts from the Migration to Viking periods.Belief · Power and authority Historical
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreWitchcraft accusations against children
Historical and modern persecution of children blamed for witchcraftBelief · Cursing and harm Living
🇬🇧 United KingdomLantern man
A ghost light of the English fens said to lure victims into the marshesBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomShoes on a table
A superstition that placing footwear on a table invites bad luck or disrespectBelief · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇹 ItalyIn bocca al lupo
An Italian idiom wishing good luck by invoking danger, with a response asking for the wolf's death.Belief · Luck and prosperity Living
🇷🇴 RomaniaTanacu exorcism
A 2005 Romanian Orthodox ritual that ended in a nun's death and a murder convictionRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Cursing and harm Historical
🇫🇷 FranceTempestarii
Medieval figures accused of controlling storms and the beliefs surrounding them.Belief · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇨🇭 SwitzerlandSegen
A German term for blessing, charm, or spell rooted in Christian and folk traditions.Belief · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇷🇺 RussiaAugust curse
A Russian belief that severe disasters and national tragedies cluster in the month of August.Belief Living
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreWedding superstitions
Folk beliefs and omens tied to marriage customs across many culturesBelief · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreAstral projection
An intentional out-of-body experience where consciousness travels through the astral planeTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 5 moreApocryphal prayer
A folk prayer text blending church forms with apocrypha and incantations for protection and healingText · Protection · Healing Living
🇫🇷 FranceMagonia
A cloud realm of aerial sailors blamed for hail and stolen grain in medieval EuropeBelief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇮🇪 IrelandTír na nÓg
An island realm in Irish myth where time stands still and youth never fadesBelief · Wonder and entertainment Legendary
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreDevil's Footprints
A 1855 English mystery of hoof-like tracks appearing across snow-covered landscapesBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreClassical elements
Ancient theories that explain all matter as combinations of earth, water, fire, air, and aetherBelief · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomCain bairns
A Scottish folk belief that witches took children as a tax to the DevilBelief Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Astral projection: Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon., Public domain, source
- Witchcraft accusations against children: Radbot, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Stallo: John Bauer, Public domain, source
- Mediumship: Harvey Metcalfe, Public domain, source
- Classical elements: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Devil's Footprints: John Good, Public domain, source
- Tír na nÓg: Arthur Rackham, Public domain, source
- Telekinesis: Strobridge Lithographing Co., Public domain, source
- Vampire pumpkins and watermelons: The original uploader was Ke4roh at English Wikipedia ., Public domain, source
- Looking taboo: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Eglė the Queen of Serpents: Huw, CC BY 2.0, source
- Two of Coins: Augusto Rius in 1889 [1] for Heraclio Fournier, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Holy Chalice: Vitold Muratov, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Voldemort effect: Shayan Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ouroboros: Djehouty, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Swastika (Germanic Iron Age): No machine-readable author provided. Bloodofox~commonswiki assumed (ba, Public domain, source
- Religious aspects of Nazism: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
- Vril Society: John Martin, Public domain, source
- Branchus: Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Wedding superstitions: Anonymous Unknown author, Public domain, source