Crossing your fingers to wish for good luck (or, secretly, to
get you out of keeping a promise) is common around the world - but
its origins are unclear. It seems to be most common in Christian
countries, suggesting that it's related to the Christian sign of
the cross. However, other suggestions include it being an old Pagan
or Norse gesture, or possibly a good luck superstition created by
archers during the "Hundred Year War" between England and France
(archers used their two main fingers to draw back their bow.)
It's a common superstition that a broken mirror will result in
seven years bad luck - it's thought this belief can be traced back
to the idea that a mirror captures part of your soul. So when a
mirror breaks, part of your soul gets broken too. That's also why
some cultures cover up all mirrors and reflective surfaces in a
house where someone has died - so their soul can leave the building
without getting trapped in the mirror.
The superstition that a large rodent can predict the weather (if
he sees his shadow, there'll be an early spring; if he doesn't,
there's six more weeks of winter) might seem ridiculous. But that
doesn't stop it being extremely popular in the US and Canada - even
more so since one of the most famous groundhogs, Punxsutawney Phil
of Pennsylvania, was immortalised in the film (above) of the same
name. The tradition of animals' shadows predicting the coming of
actually dates back to an old German superstition around Candlemas
Day, which was brought to the Americas by Germanic immigrants.
But how good is Punxsutawney Phil's record as a meteorologist?
Pretty bad, actually - according to the Stormfax Weather Almanac,
tracing his record for over a century, he's only been right 39% of
the time.
It's an old superstition that accidentally spilling salt is a
bad omen: it's said that it draws its origins from the Christian
tradition, due to Judas Iscariot having supposedly spilled salt at
the Last Supper shortly before he betrayed Jesus. In fact, its
origins are probably much more pragmatic: until recently, salt was
really expensive, so spilling it was already rather unlucky. It was
also used as a sign of friendship and hospitality - spilling salt
offered to you by your host was a bad sign.
Much like black cats, spilled salt can work both ways - another
common superstition holds that throwing a pinch of salt over your
left shoulder brings good luck and wards off evil.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia - that's the technical name for
the fear of the number 666, otherwise known as the Number of the
Beast. This superstition undeniably comes from Christianity - the
number is mentioned as being representative of Satan in the
Biblical Book of Revelations. It's gained in popularity through
being heavily featured in films like The Omen (above), and was
taken so seriously by former US President Ronald Reagan that when
he moved into a private house at the end of his presidency, he had
the street number changed from 666 to 668.
However, it might be that everyone's got it wrong all this time
- in 2005, a group of scholars announced that they discovered
evidence that the number was originally supposed to be 616, not
666...
