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Old Wives Tales & Superstitions

Kenickie

Kenickie

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Do you believe them? What are your favourites? There are old wives tales for just about every fucking thing under the sun. Most of the ones I'm familiar with are the ones related to pregnancy and birth (my childhood best friend is a midwife). For example:

If a woman's carrying low, it's a boy; if she's carrying high, it's a girl.
Dark nipples indicate a boy.
Feed a cold, starve a fever.
If you have heartburn all 9 months, you'll have a hairy baby.

or other random ones that my mom swears by but i haven't had to use:

a bar of soap under your fitted sheet will prevent charlie horses

or even more random ones:

dimple on the chin, devil within (??)
never pick up the glove of yours that YOU dropped, if someone else does it for you, good luck.

tell me some more, i actually really enjoy them :)
 
my grandma said if you drop silveware you will have unexpected company, a fork meant it would be a male, a spoon meant it would be a female. as far as I know a knife was not accounted for
 
Use2Be said:
my grandma said if you drop silveware you will have unexpected company, a fork meant it would be a male, a spoon meant it would be a female. as far as I know a knife was not accounted for
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a knife indicates a stranger will come knocking.
if your right ear burns it means someone is taking spiteful about you, your left ear means someone is talking lovingly about you.

If your right hand is itchy you will make a new acquaintance, your left hand means you will come into money.

someone with lank hair means they are cunning and sly, someone with curly hair is full of fun, someone with long hair is strong and lucky.

trust not the man who's eyebrows meet, for in his heart you will find deceit.

if you bite your tongue whilst eating it means you have recently told a lie.

plant lavender by your gate for luck.

Always leave a door opened when someone is born or dying to allow their spirit free passage.

there are so many I love them, and how they come about. :)
 
tiggerific said:
If your right hand is itchy you will make a new acquaintance, your left hand means you will come into money.
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Ahaha, was totally going to post these.

Never trust a man with two first names.

I.e. John Wayne (LMAO, first one I thought of), Bill Robert, Jim Hank, so on and so forth.

Honestly not sure if it's an actual "Old Wive's tale" but my grandma always says that.
 
If a bird hits your window someone close to you has died or is going to. I don't know if that's true or not.
 
Masturbation Causes Blindness

The tale states that masturbation will cause blindness (in France it is said it will cause deafness). This is not true (at least not completely) and the idea has probably been spread in order to prevent children from masturbating for religious reasons. Curiously, sperm contains quite a lot of zinc, and a serious zinc deficiency can cause a decline in vision. However, it is nearly impossible to cause a zinc deficiency through masturbating.
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there are some right crackers out there, if you swallow a watermelon seed one will grow in your stomach,

the number of x's on the palm of your right hand will tell you how many children you are going to have, I have 1 x but have 4 children.

you must say god bless you if someone sneezes or the devil may take their sould.

also knock three times on wood in case a demon comes by and steals your good fortune. (this I know comes from the days of old when people had to walk or ride long distances to the next village, the first thing they always touched on arriving was the sign post made out of wood and thats how the phrase knock on wood started.

Old wives tales are just that a lot of nonsense, but amusing and interesting how they came about.
 
This isn't equivalent to Old Wives Tales but I just had to read a Hillerman book and learned a lot of Navajo beliefs. Some I thought were most interesting:

- You have to scuffle your shoes across land that has snake tracks. Otherwise it will follow you home.
- You must avoid using the name of the dead - it is a calling to them and could bring their ghost back.
- Never whistle at night.
- Seeing coyote tracks means something bad will happen - it can be avoided by producing cedar.
 
Amor-what (supposedly) happens when you whistle at night??? Just asking because I whistled for my dog last night lol
 
addictivepersona said:
Ahaha, was totally going to post these.

Never trust a man with two first names.

I.e. John Wayne (LMAO, first one I thought of), Bill Robert, Jim Hank, so on and so forth.

Honestly not sure if it's an actual "Old Wive's tale" but my grandma always says that.
Click to expand...

I TOTALLY BELIEVE THAT ONE.

seriously.

Ron Paul, I'm never going to trust you.

i know a couple similar injun ones, amor--

if you see a hawk, it means someone is thinking of/missing you.
if the sun is out and it's raining, you can look towards the sun and see the devil kissing his wife.
 
AmorRoark said:
My grandma SWEARS putting a bar of soap under my grandpa's fitted sheets stopped his restless leg syndrome.
Click to expand...

its one of those that's actually been medically proven to work, weird huh?

apparently the drano experiment works as well, but drano has changed the colour of it so it doesn't work anymore.
 
my mother did many things based on the "signs" in the "old farmers almanac"
like if you need a tonsillectomy, schedule it when the signs are far away like in the feet to lessen the chance of complications.
also for planting gardens, root crops were planted during one moon phase while above ground crops during a different moon phase... which i can't remember atm cuz i get things mixed up late at night when somewhat impaired.
-izzy
 
actually that is true in regards to farming. Just as the moon affects the tides, it also affects the moisture level in the grounds so you plant according to moisture levels for the best growth and production rate for the plants, not an old wives tale but an older form of farming pre calender and clocks lol. This also included harvest time which was as important as planting if not more so, as it depends on how much water the plant would hold as to how long it would last for.

others include if you spill salt you have to throw a pinch over your left shoulder to ward of the devil.

a black cat crossing your path is in some places lucky in others bad luck.. I like the one about soap never heard of it though. loving this old wives tale stuff its great:D
 
Relating to pregnancy, I've heard two:

*That you get sicker if you're carrying a boy than a girl.

*That how thin or fat you are as a baby is the opposite of what you'll be as an adult.

*That you lose a tooth for every child you have (in fact, they recently found that women with many children really do lose more teeth on average than those with less, or without).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080529162934.htm
 
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