Superstitions

Riniel Jasmina · **Posted:** July 6th, 2013, 7:29 pm

This is a thread for posting, discussing, and creating cultural superstitions for your various peoples.

In parts of Lor-Amar (I don't know what race it effects) it is considered good luck to keep a hot pepper (the skinny red kind) on your person, or on an item you would like kept safe.

JTO · **Joined:** July 13th, 2013, 3:16 pm **Posts:** 15

Interesting, I hadn't thought of any superstitions like this for my culture yet, but I should.... now it'll be on my mind all night. Can anyone else share what they've done?

Laothain · **Joined:** February 12th, 2013, 12:54 am **Posts:** 32

One idea of a way to get ideas for some superstitions is to look at traditions because many of them started as superstitions. A good example is a wedding ceremony everything from the bridesmaids and groomsmen to the veil all come from beliefs people had at one point, and the two things I listed came from a desire to bless the marriage the bridal party was to confuse evil spirits and the veil was to hide the bride from evil spirits. I hope that helps.

Riniel Jasmina · **Posted:** July 28th, 2013, 12:12 am

Neat stuff, Laothain.

Lady Eruwaedhiel · **Posted:** September 22nd, 2013, 6:23 pm

I'm fascinated by lucky and unlucky numbers. My favorite number happens to be four, but in Japan, the number four is very unlucky. Apparently because their pronunciation of "four" is close to the pronunciation of "death".

Also, the number nine is pronounced similarly to "suffering". From Wikipedia:

Quote:

Because of these unlucky numbers, sometimes levels or rooms with 4 or 9 in them don't exist in hospitals or hotels, and particularly in the maternity section of a hospital, the room number 43 is avoided because it can literally mean "still birth".

You should also never give flowers or other gifts in sets of four or nine. Flowers in sets of four especially means that you wish the recipient would die. Absolutely fascinating.

Also, the number seven. All kinds of things in folklore and history are grouped by sevens. It's the supposed number of perfection in the Bible. And what's with the "seventh son of a seventh son"? (Unrelated, but very intriguing: there is a computer virus affecting COM files called the "Sevenths Son Virus"; the words "seventh son of a seventh son" appear in infected files.

That sounds like a spectacular story idea.) Check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven#Religion

I think there are several types of superstitions. (If you can think of others, please list them!)

Luckiness/unluckiness by association includes things such as the unlucky number four because of its supposed association with death, or the unluckiness of red lettering in Japan because the names on graves are red. (Yes, I love the Japanese culture.) Also may apply to superstition about rabbits' feet, which may be considered lucky because of their fertility or because they are born with their eyes open, thus being protection against the Evil Eye.

Or the superstition about throwing salt over your left shoulder, since salt is a preservative, thus preserving you from death or misfortune or the Devil or what-have-you.

Luckiness/unluckiness by event is a superstition that springs from an actual event in history or legend. The unluckiness of the number 13 may stem from the 13 guests at the Lord's Supper, or a fest in Norse mythology to which twelve guests were invited and Loki, god of mischief, came and - um - crashed it. The event can be fictional or historical.

Luckiness/unluckiness by folk wisdom are things like "don't play with fire or you'll wet the bed". Things invented mostly by parents or grandparents to teach the young ones. This includes stories made up to keep children away from dangerous places, like a tale I heard once about a giant spider that lived up on top of a cliff. They can be believed or just something to joke about, like the phrase "liar liar pants on fire".

So if you want some superstitions for your story, I would suggest going one of two ways. Either start with an unusual superstition and work backwards to the event or culture that precipitated it, or start with the culture or event and try to see what superstitions might spring from it.

For an interesting list of established superstitions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition

Mistress Kidh · **Posted:** September 23rd, 2013, 6:11 am

Celtion wrote:

I think there are several types of superstitions. (If you can think of others, please list them!)
By association
By history or myth
By folk wisdom

I think that's a pretty good classification.

A lot of superstitions, though, are hard to classify. I don't think that it is absolutely necessary to try to come up with an origin idea for every quirk and superstition tradition you make up. Especially if you have a very quirky, very traditional society, it would get overdone and laborious if you tried to come up with a thought out reason for every single superstition and such....

Though it certainly is interesting to find the roots for some of them. It adds a depth to your world. And having slightly more obvious ones (like 'four' sounding like 'death' in Japanese) are awesome. The obviousness makes it a little easier to work it into the story and awe readers with your fascinating worldbuilding.

Novadar · **Posted:** September 23rd, 2013, 4:09 pm

I wasn't originally going to comment here (honestly, I was just perusing through), but this comment caught my eye.

Quote:

My favorite number happens to be four, but in Japan, the number four is very unlucky. Apparently because their pronunciation of "four" is close to the pronunciation of "death".

Having been to Japan twice, and knowing a little Japanese, I can vouch for at least the pronunciation. 四 (pronounced "Shi") is the number four, and 死ぬ (pronounced "shinu"), is death.

As far as it being considered unlucky, I haven't seen that in Japan, but it's probably because I wasn't looking. I'll have to ask my friend Kazuya about that... Unlucky numbers fascinate me too! I had always wondered about thirteen, thanks for a couple back stories

This is a really really cool post, I will be thinking about developing some superstitions for my different countries now to give them a bit more of a real feeling...

Riniel Jasmina · **Posted:** September 24th, 2013, 6:55 pm

Friday the thirteenth was considered unlucky because there was a Friday the thirteenth in the year 1313 where there was an astoundingly catastrophic fire somewhere in Europe... I don't remember if it was myth or history though...

Lady Eruwaedhiel · **Posted:** September 24th, 2013, 6:57 pm

I read that it was when all the Knights Templar were rounded up.

Charlotte Jane · **Joined:** September 16th, 2013, 3:20 pm **Posts:** 195

Wow.

All that info about the unlucky numbers is probably going to mae it's way into one of my stories somehow - especially the bit about 43. I love mythology, and superstitions fit right in there.

In my series, the Minë-Isílians always touch their fingers to their lips before greeting someone with a kiss on the cheek. In their culture, this is to signify a giving of the spirit as a sign of friendship and deep trust - that no one has ulterior motives. This is also believed to ward off death and evil spirits.

This habit comes from the Noch' Kryl'ya's ability of old to secrete poison on thier lips and their assassinations by kissing a 'friend' on the cheek. The poison would be absorbed into the bloodstream and the victim would die. The Noch' Kryl'ya began to touch their fingers to their lips before greeting anyone, as the poison took several minutes to weaponize. This touch showed that they were clean, and it literally warded off death.

Riniel Jasmina · **Posted:** January 15th, 2015, 10:41 am

Also in Lor-Amar, a certain whistle is supposed to ward off jinxes if unlucky words were spoken (i.e. What's the worst that could happen?) or sometimes before meals.

Superstitions

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