Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Superstitions

Am I superstitious?  Not really.  When I see a subway escalator that isn't moving I don't walk on it, not because it's uncomfortable but because it just doesn't feel right!

When I was young I read Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat, a funny children's book describing superstitions. (A lot of U.S. schools have banned it!) I learned that if you think a witch is putting a hex on you, you should put a bunch of pins in a pot of water and bring them to a boil, then she'll come to you in pain and agree to lift the spell.  And if a baby is born with two teeth already formed in his mouth he'll be a genius, but if he has just one he'll become a vampire!

In the theatre world it's considered bad luck to wish someone good luck, so people say "Break a leg!" for the opposite effect. (In opera they say, "Toi, toi, toi!")

They say that the Vietnamese are very superstitious.  After they occupied Cambodia and found the Khmer Rouge killing fields full of bones, some of them were afraid that ghosts would come after them! (Which I can understand.)

In 1665 there was a plague in London and people superstitiously blamed the cats and killed a lot of them.  But it was really being spread by the rats and mice, who no longer had the cats to keep their numbers under control...

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