GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

16-03-2006, 06:11 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible

writes:

There are a gazillion "time-tested" ideas that no one should believe.
Black cats, walking under ladders, the number 13, women are
subservient to men, and *MANY* many others that have survived
hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. Doesn't make them any more
real than Santy Claus, Easter Bunny, Thor the Thundergod, or many
others. Urban legends passed around the internet prove how gullible
people are--they will believe anything as long as someone says it or
writes it.

I really must comment on this, at least two of the comments.

Black cats are bad luck, at least in past centuries. Imagine making the
dark night run to the outhouse and having a black cat run across your
path, you trip and fall and perhaps even break some bones. With a doctor
not even available, that would be bad luck, wouldn't you say?! Some such
event is likely the seed of that superstition.

Walking under ladders can be very bad luck and is downright not thinking.
If you don't believe me, let a bucket of paint or a hammer fall on your
head!

Spilling the salt was undoubtedly tagged as bad luck as people had to
travel many miles (sometimes hundreds) to get salt, and salt is necessary
for the human body. That necessity is why salt tablets were given to
military personnel as well as government employees working in construction
(hot weather, sweating, etc.) Although, where throwing some over your
left shoulder if you do spill it came from is totally beyond my
imagination so far. g

Whether someone should believe those "urban legends passed around" would
depend on what it is. You think walking under a ladder is bad luck is
nonsense, but I'm not going to do it, not if someone is on it working!

Many superstitions are founded in reality, just think about how they may
have gotten started way back when. I'm convinced the "If dogs don't sleep
every two hours, they'll die" (which we, as adults, know is not true) is a
result of some parent not wanting their kids playing with the dog all day
inside the house.

Oh, and "women are subservient to men" was very real . . . just look at
history and see how women were treated and still are in many parts of the
world. Though our Creator may have created all of us equal (regarding
rights, etc.), historically we human beings have not practiced it.

For some comic relief:
Maybe the number 13 is unlucky when you have 13 eggs and a 12-egg box and
drop the 13th or maybe the 13th donut gets eaten, started out as a baker's
dozen and someone decided 12 is enough.
(Sorry, the devil made me do it.g)

Glenna