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

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:11:46 -0800, (Glenna Rose)
wrote:
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.


I can't find an online reference, but I remember reading somewhere
that the Roman Catholic Church, in an effort to wipe out a resurgence
of the cult of Freya, I think, declared cats to be minions of the
devil. By the Middle Ages, cats had become associated with
witchcraft, and witches were believed to be able to change into black
cats.

There are actually a lot of conflicting superstitions about black
cats, sometimes they're considered lucky; and it seems it was the
witch hunts of the Puritans that established the superstition that
black cats are unlucky in this country.


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!

I beleive there was actually some nonsense about the ladder, what it
was leaning on, and the ground being a symbol of the Holy Trinity
because it formed a triangle. Walking through it was a sign you were
aligned with witches and demons. I agree that it's certainly a safety
issue, but I don't think that was the source of the superstition.

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.

I thought it was because Judas spilt salt at the Last Supper? At
least, that's what I was taught as a child.


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

You throw salt into the eyes of the evil spirits waiting to make you
sick or give you bad luck.

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!

But are you avoiding it because it's a safety issue, or because you
think it will spoil you chances of winning the lottery? Recognizing
the danger of walking under a ladder is common sense, but believing
doing so will bring you bad luck is a superstition.

Many superstitions are founded in reality,

No, they're not. They're founded in a false conception of causation.

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.

Only, way back when, people in single family dwellings weren't likely
to have dogs in the house. And that's if they could afford to have a
dog at all. That's a superstition I've never heard before, btw.

Oh, and "women are subservient to men" was very real

You're confusing a cultural practice with reality. Women were/are
treated as subserviant to men because that's what religion and
society taught, not because it is a fact that women are actually
subserviant/ inferior to men.


Penelope
--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"

It is no doubt that many superstitions are based on religious
hysteria. We have to remember, people once believe gods dragged the
sun aross the sky in a flaming chariot. And these religions were as
real and serious then as Jesus is considered today. Right down to
human sacrifice to Zeus and Yahweh. I wonder when humanity will look
back at us and laugh at how silly people were to rage wars and kill
over our "modern" sacred gods.


Penelope Periwinkle wrote:

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:11:46 -0800, (Glenna Rose)
wrote:
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.


I can't find an online reference, but I remember reading somewhere
that the Roman Catholic Church, in an effort to wipe out a resurgence
of the cult of Freya, I think, declared cats to be minions of the
devil. By the Middle Ages, cats had become associated with
witchcraft, and witches were believed to be able to change into black
cats.

There are actually a lot of conflicting superstitions about black
cats, sometimes they're considered lucky; and it seems it was the
witch hunts of the Puritans that established the superstition that
black cats are unlucky in this country.


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!

I beleive there was actually some nonsense about the ladder, what it
was leaning on, and the ground being a symbol of the Holy Trinity
because it formed a triangle. Walking through it was a sign you were
aligned with witches and demons. I agree that it's certainly a safety
issue, but I don't think that was the source of the superstition.

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.

I thought it was because Judas spilt salt at the Last Supper? At
least, that's what I was taught as a child.


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

You throw salt into the eyes of the evil spirits waiting to make you
sick or give you bad luck.

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!

But are you avoiding it because it's a safety issue, or because you
think it will spoil you chances of winning the lottery? Recognizing
the danger of walking under a ladder is common sense, but believing
doing so will bring you bad luck is a superstition.

Many superstitions are founded in reality,

No, they're not. They're founded in a false conception of causation.

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.

Only, way back when, people in single family dwellings weren't likely
to have dogs in the house. And that's if they could afford to have a
dog at all. That's a superstition I've never heard before, btw.

Oh, and "women are subservient to men" was very real

You're confusing a cultural practice with reality. Women were/are
treated as subserviant to men because that's what religion and
society taught, not because it is a fact that women are actually
subserviant/ inferior to men.


Penelope

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
4th year gardener
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/royalf...=/2055&.src=ph