100 Fun Facts About Superstitions

According to popular superstition, how many years of bad luck will you experience if you break a mirror?

Seven years, a figure often tied to the old Roman idea that life renews itself in seven-year cycles, so a shattered reflection was thought to spoil the whole cycle.

Which curse is believed to be cast by a malicious or envious stare?

The Evil Eye is a widespread supernatural belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually inspired by envy. Amulets and talismans, often eye-shaped, are used to protect against it.

By superstition, what action 'undoes' the gift of a knife, thought to sever ties?

In many cultures, gifting a knife is believed to symbolically cut the bond between giver and receiver. To counteract the bad luck, it is customary to exchange a symbolic coin, turning the gift into a purchase and avoiding the curse.

To avert the bad luck of spilled salt, a pinch of it is traditionally tossed over which shoulder?

The left shoulder: the pinch is meant to hit the Devil, imagined lurking on the left (sinister) side. The belief that spilling salt is an ill omen goes back to ancient Rome.

Which lucky object, hung above doorways, features in the legend of Saint Dunstan?

Saint Dunstan, a blacksmith before he became Archbishop of Canterbury, nailed a horseshoe to the Devil's hoof and only pulled it off once the Devil swore never to enter a house with one over the door.

Which bird is the subject of the rhyme 'One for sorrow, two for joy'?

The rhyme grows out of British bird-omen lore that goes back to at least the early 16th century; a longer Lancashire version runs well past the familiar first lines.

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear or avoidance of which number?

Thirteen is the number; the same roots give paraskevidekatriaphobia, the specific dread of Friday the 13th.

Tetraphobia is common in East Asia because the word for four sounds close to which other word?

Death: in Mandarin 'four' (sì) sounds like 'death' (sǐ), and the resemblance carries into the Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese numerals too.

In Britain and Ireland, what does folk tradition say happens when a black cat crosses your path?

It brings good luck: in British and Irish lore a black cat crossing your path is a lucky sign, the reverse of the ill omen it carries in much of continental Europe and the United States.

Performers avoid wishing each other good luck outright, and say what instead?

'Break a leg': the theatrical way of wishing luck without saying it is first attested in print in the 1930s, in Edna Ferber's 1939 memoir A Peculiar Treasure.

The lucky four-leaf clover is a rare mutation of a plant that normally has how many leaflets?

Three: the clover genus name Trifolium means 'three-leaf', and a fourth leaflet is a rare developmental variant that folklore turned into a luck charm.

Which Norse god is said to have been the uninvited thirteenth guest at a Valhalla feast?

Loki: in the folk explanation of unlucky 13, he crashed a banquet of twelve gods and engineered Baldr's death by a mistletoe shot from the blind god Höðr.

Which order's mass arrest on Friday, October 13, 1307 is tied to the Friday the 13th superstition?

The Knights Templar: Philip IV of France had the order's members arrested on Friday 13 October 1307, though no record links Friday and 13 as jointly unlucky before the 19th century.

In Hispanic and Greek cultures, which day of the week paired with the 13th is considered unlucky, not Friday?

Tuesday: 'martes 13' in Spanish-speaking countries and Triti 13 in Greece. The day belongs to Mars/Ares, god of war, and Constantinople fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday 29 May 1453.

In Italian popular culture, Friday the what is the unlucky date rather than the 13th?

One explanation is that the Roman numeral XVII can be rearranged into VIXI, Latin for 'I have lived', an epitaph.

Which player's sale to the Yankees in 1920 began the Red Sox's 86-year title drought?

Babe Ruth, 'the Bambino', was sold to New York in the winter of 1919–20; Boston then went 86 years, from 1918 to 2004, without a World Series title.

From which ballpark were tavern owner William Sianis and his goat ejected in 1945, starting the Cubs' curse?

The goat, named Murphy, was bothering fans during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series at Wrigley Field; the Cubs went on to lose that Series to the Detroit Tigers.

Actors call which Shakespeare tragedy 'the Scottish play' to avoid saying its title inside a theatre?

Macbeth: saying the title inside a theatre is held to bring disaster, so actors say 'the Scottish play' or 'Mackers', and an offender must leave the room and perform a ritual before returning.

The taboo on whistling backstage traces to which group, who used coded whistles for scene changes?

Sailors: early stage crews were hired from ships in port and used coded whistles to fly scenery, so a stray whistle could drop a backdrop on someone's head.

What is the single lamp superstition says must be left burning in an empty theatre?

The ghost light: a single bare bulb left burning on an empty stage, practical protection against stepping into the orchestra pit and, by lore, a courtesy to the theatre's ghosts.

The seafaring belief that killing an albatross brings disaster is famously referenced in which 1798 poem?

In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge's narrator shoots the albatross and is forced by his shipmates to wear the dead bird around his neck.

Which fruit is traditionally considered bad luck to bring aboard a boat, especially a fishing yacht?

Bananas: one rationalisation is that the ethylene they give off makes other produce ripen and spoil too quickly on a long voyage.

Seafarers call a person who brings bad luck to a voyage by the name of which biblical prophet?

Jonah: in the Book of Jonah the prophet's shipmates throw him overboard to calm a storm sent on his account, so 'a Jonah' became any passenger who brings a voyage ill luck.

Opal's reputation as an unlucky stone is traced to an 1829 novel by which author?

Sir Walter Scott: in his 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein a heroine's opal loses its fire and she dies, which turned a stone prized in the Middle Ages into an omen of ill luck.

In the bridal rhyme, what coin goes in the bride's shoe after 'something blue'?

A sixpence: the rhyme ends 'and a silver sixpence in her shoe', a token of prosperity; the blue item stands for fidelity and the borrowed one should come from a happily married couple.

In Britain it is considered lucky for a bride to see which tradesperson on her wedding day?

A chimney sweep: a sweep's handshake or kiss is held to bless the marriage, sweeps hire themselves out to attend weddings, and marzipan sweep figures are a New Year's luck gift in Germany.

What is the anatomical name for the fused collarbones that form a bird's wishbone?

The furcula is the wishbone; two people pulling it with the larger piece winning a wish dates to the early 17th century, while the word wishbone is only recorded from 1860.

The palm-shaped hamsa amulet, worn against the evil eye, is also known as the hand of which figure?

Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad: khamsa is Arabic for five, and in Sephardi Jewish usage the same amulet is called the Hand of Miriam.

The blue-and-white eye-shaped bead sold across Turkey to ward off the evil eye is called what?

Nazar: the word is Arabic for 'sight' or 'glance'; in Greece the same blue-and-white charm is simply called máti, meaning eye.

Omamori, small brocade-bagged amulets sold for luck, come from shrines in which country?

Japan: omamori are sold at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, mamori meaning protection; the brocade bag holds a prayer or inscription and is sold regardless of the buyer's religion.

According to tradition, a maneki-neko lucky cat with its left paw raised is meant to attract what?

Customers: a raised left paw beckons people into a shop, while the right paw invites money; colours matter too, with black warding off evil and pink for romance.

The dreamcatcher originates in the culture of which people, whose word for it means 'spider'?

The Ojibwe: their word asabikeshiinh means 'spider'. The willow hoop and web were hung over cradles as a protective charm for infants long before the craft was commercialised.

In Japan, people hide which body part when a hearse drives past, to protect their parents?

The Japanese word for thumb, oyayubi, literally means 'parent-finger'.

In Japan, sticking chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice is taboo because it is done only at what occasion?

A funeral: a bowl of rice with chopsticks standing upright is offered to the dead at the altar, so doing it at a meal evokes death; passing food chopstick-to-chopstick likewise mirrors the handling of bones after cremation.

Which Russian custom holds that everyone must pause before a long journey?

Sitting down in silence: 'prisest na dorozhku' has the whole household sit for a moment before departure, a pause to gather thoughts and keep trouble off the road.

According to Russian superstition, what happens to someone who whistles inside a house?

They lose money: whistling indoors is said to whistle your wealth out of the house; other rules include never toasting with an empty glass or putting an empty bottle back on the table.

Which shape does the red Italian amulet worn against the evil eye take?

A horn: the cornicello ('little horn') is usually red coral, gold or silver; red ones resemble a chili pepper, but the horn shape long predates chilies reaching Europe.

Which variant of the number of the beast appears in Papyrus 115 instead of 666?

616: Papyrus 115 and the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus both carry the variant, though Irenaeus insisted on 666 in the 2nd century.

By tradition, a lucky rabbit's foot must come from which of the animal's feet?

It must be the left hind foot, and the stricter versions add that the rabbit must have been shot or captured in a cemetery, or by a cross-eyed man.

In the Bloody Mary legend, the ghost is summoned by chanting her name repeatedly while looking into what?

A mirror: chanting 'Bloody Mary' into a darkened mirror is the modern ritual; an older divination version had young women climb stairs backwards by candlelight, mirror in hand, hoping to glimpse a future husband's face.

One explanation for the ladder taboo is that a ladder propped against a wall resembles what?

A gallows: one theory says the leaning ladder recalls the ladder a condemned man climbed at the gallows; another holds that walking through the triangle it forms breaks the Holy Trinity.

Legend says that if which birds ever leave the Tower of London, the Crown and Britain will fall?

At least six ravens are kept, tended by a Ravenmaster; the tradition is popularly dated to Charles II, though historians suspect a Victorian invention.

In German-speaking lands, which animal was the original Groundhog Day-style forecaster?

Candlemas was 'Badger Day', and a badger casting a shadow meant four more weeks of winter; in Hungary the bear did the job.

A cobra reportedly ate which pet of Howard Carter's in 1922, fuelling curse rumours?

His canary: the bird Carter brought to Luxor as a luck charm was reportedly eaten by a cobra around the time the tomb was opened, read as the royal uraeus striking back at the intruders.

Which psychologist's 1948 experiment described 'superstitious' behaviour in pigeons?

B. F. Skinner: in 'Superstition in the Pigeon' (1948) the birds repeated turns and head-swings as if they controlled a food dispenser that actually ran on a fixed timer.

Which Roman statesman wrote that 'one does not destroy religion by destroying superstition'?

Cicero, in De Divinatione (44 BC): 'nec vero superstitione tollenda religio tollitur'. For Romans superstitio meant trembling fear of the gods, the opposite of religio, proper reasonable awe.

Steve Roud traces 'touch wood' to a 19th-century playground version of which game?

Tag: in 'Tiggy Touchwood', a 19th-century chasing game, players touching wood were safe from being caught; older theories invoke Norse tree spirits or the wood of the cross.

Opening which everyday object indoors is traditionally held to bring bad luck?

An umbrella: opening one indoors is held to bring bad luck; one rationalisation is that stiff, spring-loaded Victorian umbrellas could injure people or break objects in a small room.

Which country marks a National Accident Day for road safety that always falls on Friday the 13th?

Finland: its National Accident Day (Kansallinen tapaturmapäivä) is held each year on a Friday the 13th; Dutch insurers meanwhile found slightly fewer accidents on those Fridays, apparently because people take more care.

Which number is a traditional lucky symbol in Chinese-influenced cultures?

Eight: bā sounds like fā, 'to prosper', so phone numbers and licence plates containing 8 are sought at great expense, and the Beijing Olympics opened at 8:08 pm on 8 August 2008.

Which president is said to have broken the Curse of Tippecanoe by surviving his terms?

Ronald Reagan: legend has Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa cursing presidents after his 1811 defeat by William Henry Harrison; every president elected in a year ending in 0 from 1840 to 1960 died in office, until Reagan (elected 1980) survived.

Which institution did jeweler Harry Winston give the 'cursed' Hope Diamond to in 1958?

The Smithsonian: Winston bought the stone in 1949 from the estate of mining heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, toured it for years, then mailed it to the Smithsonian in November 1958 by registered post.

A 2014 Sports Illustrated cover correctly predicted which team's 2017 World Series win?

The Houston Astros: a June 2014 cover with George Springer declared them 'Your 2017 World Series Champs', and they won it; the magazine had already mocked its own jinx in 2002 with a black-cat cover.

Which Japanese team's fans threw a Colonel Sanders statue into Osaka's Dōtonbori in 1985?

The Hanshin Tigers: the statue stood in for bearded slugger Randy Bass, and the 'Curse of the Colonel' was blamed for Japan Series losses in 2003, 2005 and 2014 before the club won again in 2023.

In 2002 Otis estimated what share of tall buildings with its lifts skipped a 13th floor?

85%: Otis's 2002 estimate was that roughly 85 per cent of tall buildings fitted with its lifts omit a 13th floor, using dodges such as calling it 14, 12A or 'M', or declaring it a closed mechanical floor.

US Southern porch ceilings are painted 'haint blue' against ghosts; whose custom was it?

The Gullah, descendants of enslaved West Africans in the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry: the blue-green mimics water, which 'haints' were said to be unable to cross, or the sky, so they drift on through.

Modern statues of Ekeko, Bolivia's god of plenty, have a mouth opening for what offering?

A cigarette: Ekeko is offered a lit cigarette, his mouth moulded to hold it; the mustachioed figure, loaded with miniature goods and banknotes, headlines La Paz's Alasitas fair every 24 January.

Spain's twelve New Year's grapes were popularised in 1909 by growers from which region?

Alicante: an excellent 1909 harvest left Vinalopó growers with a glut, so they promoted the custom to shift grapes; each of the twelve stands for a month of the year ahead.

In Scottish first-footing, who is the ideal first visitor after the New Year bells?

A tall, dark-haired man: one theory links the preference to the Viking age, when a blond stranger at the door meant trouble; he brings gifts of coal, salt, shortbread and whisky.

Belief that sleeping with a fan running in a closed room can kill you is strongest where?

South Korea: in 2006 the Korea Consumer Protection Board listed 'asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners' among the top five summer accidents, and Korean-market fans commonly carry sleep timers.

The Filipino superstition 'sukob' warns siblings not to do what in the same year?

Marry: sukob holds that siblings who wed in the same year split their luck; the same belief forbids a wedding within a year of an immediate relative's death and underpins a 2006 horror film of the same name.

In 2014 the Queen named HMS Queen Elizabeth with a bottle of what, instead of champagne?

Islay whisky: a bottle of Bowmore single malt was used because the carrier was built and launched in Scotland, at Rosyth; champagne only became the standard christening drink late in the 19th century.

The 'dead man's hand' of aces and eights is tied to the 1876 murder of which gunfighter?

Wild Bill Hickok, shot from behind while playing poker in Deadwood on 2 August 1876; nobody connected aces and eights to him until Frank Wilstach's 1926 biography fixed the modern version in place.

What did umpire David Shepherd do whenever a cricket score reached 111, or 'Nelson'?

Lifting a leg off the ground: Shepherd hopped or stood on one leg until the score moved off 111 (and its multiples 222 and 333), a habit TV crews loved; the commonest dismissal score is actually 0.

Eddie Lenihan's 1999 campaign saved a 'fairy bush' from a motorway in which Irish county?

Clare: the whitethorn at Latoon, near Newmarket-on-Fergus, was spared when the Ennis bypass (M18) was rerouted around it after Lenihan warned that felling it would bring death and misfortune to motorists.

In the Chinese lunar calendar, 'Ghost Month', when spirits roam free, is which month?

The seventh: the Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month, when heaven, hell and the realm of the living are said to stand open, and families lay extra places at dinner for the dead.

In Chinese culture, which gift is taboo because its phrase sounds like 'attend a funeral'?

A clock: 'giving a clock' (sòng zhōng) is a homophone of 'sòng zhōng', seeing a parent to their death; the taboo is strongest with elderly recipients, for whom the pun lands hardest.

What is the proper reply to the Italian good-luck wish 'in bocca al lupo'?

'Crepi il lupo' means 'may the wolf die'; the wolf stands for danger, as in 'cry wolf'.

Ballet dancers avoid 'break a leg' and wish each other luck with which French word?

Merde: the custom is said to date from horse-drawn carriage days, when a pile of manure outside the theatre meant a full house; theatre people have borrowed the word too.

The Koh-i-Noor diamond is said to bring misfortune to which wearers?

Men: the legend says the stone curses any man who wears it, so since Queen Victoria it has been worn only by queens and queen consorts, set since 1937 in the Queen Mother's crown.

How does Thirsk Museum keep the 'cursed' Busby Stoop Chair so that nobody can sit in it?

Hung from the ceiling: the museum has suspended the chair out of reach since 1978. Murderer Thomas Busby supposedly cursed it before his 1702 hanging, and it spent centuries in a nearby inn racking up blamed deaths.

Whose death turned a cluster of rock deaths at 27 into the '27 Club' idea?

Kurt Cobain: after his death in April 1994 his mother was quoted saying he had 'gone and joined that stupid club', and the press ran with it.

Per Schoenberg, which composer started the 'curse of the ninth' by disguising a symphony?

Gustav Mahler: he left Das Lied von der Erde unnumbered after his Eighth, then wrote a Ninth and died with the Tenth unfinished; Beethoven and Schubert had likewise died before completing a tenth.

The 'Superman curse' cites the 1995 accident that paralysed the films' star; doing what?

He was thrown during a cross-country equestrian event on 27 May 1995 and died nine years later of heart failure.

Japanese children hang teru teru bōzu dolls outside windows to bring what?

Sunny weather: the name means 'shine, shine monk', and the children's song promises the doll sake if the next day is fine and decapitation if it rains.

Under Japan's yakudoshi system of unlucky ages, which birthday is worst for a man?

42: read as 'shi-ni', 'to death', it is a man's great-calamity year; for women the worst is 33, read 'san-zan', meaning disastrous.

The Russian phrase 'born in a shirt', meaning born lucky, refers to being born how?

Cauls were prized as charms against drowning, and Italians and Poles say 'born with a shirt' and 'born in a bonnet' for the same idea.

Folk belief held that hot cross buns baked on Good Friday would do what for a whole year?

A bun baked on Good Friday would never go mouldy for the following year, the belief ran; in 1592 London banned selling spiced buns except at burials, Christmas and Good Friday.

On Java's south coast, wearing which colour is said to anger sea goddess Nyi Roro Kidul?

Green: swimmers on the south coast avoid the colour lest the Queen of the Southern Sea claim them; the Samudra Beach Hotel at Pelabuhan Ratu keeps room 308 furnished in green and reserved for her.

Which trophy do superstitious NHL players refuse to touch, waiting for the Stanley Cup?

The Campbell Bowl, the Western Conference trophy (its Eastern twin is the Prince of Wales Trophy): captains pose beside it without touching it, though some teams have hoisted it and won the Cup anyway.

After her husband was shot in 1981, Nancy Reagan secretly consulted Joan Quigley, a what?

An astrologer: Quigley, a San Francisco astrologer, vetted the president's schedule for years; the arrangement stayed secret until ousted chief of staff Donald Regan revealed it in his 1988 memoir.

Which symbol did early Christians supposedly invoke by overlapping the index and middle fingers?

The Holy Cross: the crossed-fingers gesture is said to have begun as a discreet sign of the cross among early Christians; children later appropriated it as a way of excusing a white lie or cancelling a promise.

The soldiers' taboo on three cigarettes from one match is often wrongly credited to whom?

Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish 'Match King', is often said to have invented the belief to sell matches, but the fear that the third smoker would be shot probably predates his 1920s empire, going back at least to the Boer War.

English folklore calls which day the unluckiest to marry, with 'no luck at all'?

Saturday: the rhyme ends 'Saturday for no luck at all', after 'Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses'.

Rings go on the ring finger because a 'vena amoris' was believed to run from it to where?

The heart: the 'vein of love' was thought to run straight from the fourth finger to the heart, a notion the Roman writer Aulus Gellius traced to Egyptian anatomists; Harvey's circulation work later showed every vein leads there.

The tale of storks delivering babies was popularised by an 1839 story by which author?

Hans Christian Andersen: his 1839 tale 'The Storks' spread the idea across Europe; older German folklore had the birds find infants in caves or marshes and drop them down the chimney.

Roman commanders took omens before battle from the feeding of which sacred animals?

Chickens: the sacred chickens travelled with the army under a keeper called the pullarius, and if they ate so greedily that food fell from their beaks it was a 'tripudium solistimum', the best possible sign.

Under the old kissing rule, bad luck fell on any woman who did what beneath the mistletoe?

Refused a kiss: a woman who turned down a kiss under the mistletoe was said to stay unmarried for the coming year; the custom was noted as popular among servants in late 18th-century England.

On the Isle of Man, which animal is called a 'longtail' because its real name is bad luck?

The rat: Manx custom avoids the word, especially at sea, and says 'longtail' instead; the island's Fairy Bridge has a rule of its own, with passers-by expected to greet the fairies.

In Korea, writing a person's name in which colour of ink is thought to foretell death?

Red: names of the dead were traditionally written in red in family registers and on funeral banners, so using it for a living person reads as a wish for their death; Korean lifts often label the fourth floor 'F'.

Medals of which patron of travellers are kept in cars for protection on journeys?

St Christopher: legend has him carrying the Christ child across a river, hence the name 'Christ-bearer'; older Eastern icons give him the head of a dog.

Why do some insist a lucky horseshoe must hang with its ends pointing up?

So the luck can't fall out: with the ends up the shoe forms a cup that holds good fortune; blacksmiths traditionally hung theirs ends down so the luck would pour onto their tools and work.

Pearls in a wedding ring are said to bring misfortune because their shape suggests what?

Tears: pearls are said to foretell a marriage full of weeping, their shape recalling teardrops; a sapphire, by contrast, is supposed to bring happiness to the marriage.

In Irish tradition, why are bells rung at weddings?

To drive off evil spirits: the chime was believed to scare spirits away and keep harmony, and Irish brides traditionally receive a small bell to ring whenever a quarrel threatens the marriage.

In Afghanistan the number 39 is shunned because of a belief that it is linked to what?

Pimps: the slang 'morda-gow', literally 'dead cow', means pimp and became attached to 39, by one account from a pimp whose car plate bore the number; plates carrying 39 are hard to sell on.

Japanese maternity wards avoid which room number, because it can be read as 'stillbirth'?

43: read 'shi-san', it echoes 'shizan', stillbirth, so maternity wards skip it; Japanese hospitals also avoid 4 ('shi', death) and 9 ('ku', suffering) more generally.

Baltic sailors fixed a carved Klabautermann, a helpful sprite, to which part of the ship?

The mast: a carved Klabautermann, in yellow with a pipe and a caulking hammer, was nailed to the mast to bind the sprite to the ship; St Elmo's fire at the masthead was read as his protection.

India's lemon-and-chili charm hung outside shops wards off which goddess of misfortune?

Alakshmi, Lakshmi's elder sister and bringer of poverty: she is said to crave sour and hot flavours, so the lemon and seven chilies satisfy her at the door and she leaves; one rationalisation says the odour repels pests.

The 1935 Send-a-Dime chain letter hit which city's post office with 100,000 letters a day?

Denver: the 'Prosperity Club' or Send-a-Dime letter started there in spring 1935, and within weeks the city's post office was handling more than 100,000 of them a day before the craze spread nationwide.

In Greece, if a listener sneezes mid-claim, the speaker may say 'bless you and' what?

'I am speaking the truth': in Greek lore a sneeze while someone is talking confirms their words, an idea as old as the Odyssey, where Telemachus's sneeze confirms Penelope's wish.