Superstitions Online » celebration

New Year’s Superstitions

Superstitions — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:08:58 +0000

What you do the first hour of the New Year will be what you do most of the year.

Changing your undershirt or underwear on New Year’s Day can cause boils.

It is believed that babies born on New Year are extremely fortunate and lucky. It is said that babies born on the first day of the New Year will have good luck in their life and bring good luck to the family they are born in.

We kiss those dearest to us at midnight not only to share a moment of celebration with our favorite people, but also to ensure those affections and ties will continue throughout the next twelve months. To fail to smooch our significant others at the stroke of twelve would be to set the stage for a year of coldness.

Make sure to do — and be successful at — something related to your work on the first day of the year, even if you don’t go near your place of employment that day. Limit your activity to a token amount, though, because to engage in a serious work project on that day is very unlucky.

At midnight, all the doors of a house must be opened to let the old year escape unimpeded. He must leave before the New Year can come in, says popular wisdom, so doors are flung open to assist him in finding his way out.

According to widespread superstition, evil spirits and the Devil himself hate loud noise. We celebrate by making as much of a din as possible not just as an expression of joy at having a new year at our disposal, but also to make sure Old Scratch and his minions don’t stick around. (Church bells are rung on a couple’s wedding day for the same reason.)

At midnight on Dec. 31, Buddhist temples strike their gongs 108 times, in a effort to expel 108 types of human weakness.

Italian people welcome the New Year in an extremely interesting way, by tossing old things out of their windows! Old things are tossed out in an effort to make room for the new and lucky to enter their households and lives in the year to come.

Food Superstitions:

In parts of the South, it’s traditional to eat hog jowl and black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day in order to bring good fortune.
The Pennsylvania Dutch eat sauerkraut to get rich.
A tradition common to the southern states of the USA dictates that the eating of black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day will attract both general good luck and money in particular to the one doing the dining. Some choose to add other Southern fare to this tradition, but the black-eyed peas are key.
Also from the south comes the custom of eating greens such as cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, kale or spinach to bring money.
One more from the Southerners: eating cornbread will bring wealth.
Hoppin’ John is a traditional New Year’s Day dish in the South. Legend has it that it must be eaten before noon to guarantee good luck.
In some families, a coin is buried in the rice and peas just before serving, ensuring a fortunate year for the finder.
Eat black eyed peas and greens (spinach will work) on New Year’s Day — the peas are for good luck, the greens are for fortune (money!).
Food which should be consumed on New Years Eve is lentil soup and pork. These foods are considered ‘lucky’.
Chicken should not be eaten on the first day of the year or you will have financial difficulties for the rest of the year
Spanish Tradition: Twelve grapes are eaten at midnight, each grape symbolizing a different month. If your grapes are very sweet, then it means that specific month will also be sweet and pleasant. If your grapes turn out sour, then you know the month will also be sour, so hope that the grapes are sweet!
Pennsylvania Dutch New Year’s Superstitions:

To keep yourself healthy in the New Year, eat smoked sausage.
For good luck in the New Year, eat boiled cabbage.
For overall good health, wealth and happiness in the New Year, you should eat pork and sauerkraut.

Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes “coming full circle,” completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.
Cabbage is another “good luck” vegetable that is consumed on New Year’s Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency
In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year’s Day.
In Greece, One of the traditional foods served is Vassilopitta, or St Basil’s cake. A silver or gold coin is baked inside the cake. Whoever finds the coin in their piece of cake will be especially lucky during the coming year.
The Italian people eat a traditional New Year dish called cotechino con lenticchie: pork sausage served over lentils. This New Year food is eaten because of the presence of fatty rich pork sausage and lentils in it. Cotechino sausage is a symbol of abundance because they are rich in fat; while lentils symbolize money (being both green and coin shaped). This New Year food promises a double-packs of luck!

Weather Conditions on New Years Day say:

A windless New Year’s day indicates a dry summer;
A decent breeze foretells a good summer rain fall;
Floods will occur if the first day of the year is violently windy.
Examine the weather in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
If the wind blows from the south, there will be fine weather and prosperous times in the year ahead.
If it comes from the north, it will be a year of bad weather.
The wind blowing from the east brings famine and calamities.
Strangest of all, if the wind blows from the west, the year will witness plentiful supplies of milk and fish but will also see the death of a very important person.
If there’s no wind at all, a joyful and prosperous year may be expected by all.

House Cleaning and Household Chores:

Whatever a person does on this day will influence his activity for the rest of the year. Therefore to wash clothes will bring a year of hard
work. Washing may also cause a relative’s death.
In Tennessee, it’s said if you wash your clothes on New Year’s Day, you’ll wash someone out of your family.
From Hawaii: Don’t sweep the house on New Year’s Day.
German farmers say livestock will be safe from witches if the stables are cleaned between Christmas and the New Year.
Certain tasks were not to be done between Christmas and New Year’s Day–among them were knitting, sewing and doing the family laundry.
You clean your house before christmas and you don’t have time to clean it til after New Year’s — so no sweeping good luck out the door.
Do not wash dishes and do the laundry or there could be a death in your house that year. The theory behind it being that as you wash the dishes or laundry, you ‘wash away’ the person.

Also, do not do the laundry on New Year’s Day, lest a member of the family be ‘washed away’ (die) in the upcoming months. The more cautious eschew even washing dishes.

More New Year’s Do’s and Don’ts

DO:
To assure good luck for the New Year, one should sleep with a horseshoe under his pillow on New Year’s Eve.
All doors and windows must be opened at midnight to let out the old year. Keep doors and windows open at midnight to let the old year leave and usher in the fresh New Year.
Make lots of noise to scare away the evil spirits lurking around. People celebrate by bursting loud crackers to scare away the devils. Evil spirits hate loud noise and hence people explode fireworks and cheer aloud to send the evil spirits away. This is also the reason that church bells are rung at midnight, to ring in the New Year free from evil spirits.
It is believed that if you wear new clothes on the first day of the year, you will get many more new clothes during the year.

DON’T:
Do not break anything on this day as it sets the pattern for the entire year. Breaking things on this day is considered a bad omen as it signals destruction in the coming year. So be careful!
Crying on the first day of the year must be avoided. One must always be happy and in good spirits on New Year’s day. If you cry on New Years’ for a sad reason you will have sadness all throughout the year.

Stocking Up:

The new year must not be seen in with bare cupboards, lest that be the way of things for the year. Larders must be topped up and plenty of money must be placed in every wallet in the home to guarantee prosperity.

First Footing:

The first person to enter your home after the stroke of midnight will influence the year you’re about to have. Ideally, he should be dark-haired, tall, and good-looking, and it would be even better if he came bearing certain small gifts such as a lump of coal, a silver coin, a bit of bread, a sprig of evergreen, and some salt. Blonde and redhead first footers bring bad luck, and female first footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the household. Don’t let a woman near your door before a man crosses the threshold.

A southern US superstitions says that your first guest of the year is a sign of the marriage balance for the coming year. If a man walks thru the front door first on New Year’s Day then the husband has more umph for the year, if a woman, than the wife.

The first footer (sometimes called the “Lucky Bird”) should knock and be let in rather than unceremoniously use a key, even if he is one of the householders. After greeting those in the house and dropping off whatever small tokens of luck he has brought with him, he should make his way through the house and leave by a different door than the one through which he entered. No one should leave the premises before the first footer arrives — the first traffic across the threshold must be headed in rather than striking out.

First footers must not be cross-eyed or have flat feet or eyebrows that meet in the middle.

Nothing prevents the cagey householder from stationing a dark-haired man outside the home just before midnight to ensure the speedy arrival of a suitable first footer as soon as the chimes sound. If one of the partygoers is recruited for this purpose, impress upon him the need to slip out quietly just prior to the witching hour.

Nothing Goes Out:

Nothing — absolutely nothing, not even garbage — is to leave the house on the first day of the year. If you’ve presents to deliver on New Year’s Day, leave them in the car overnight. Don’t so much as shake out a rug or take the empties to the recycle bin.

Some people soften this rule by saying it’s okay to remove things from the home on New Year’s Day provided something else has been brought in first. This is similar to the caution regarding first footers; the year must begin with something’s being added to the home before anything subtracts from it.

One who lives alone might place a lucky item or two in a basket that has a string tied to it, then place the basket just outside the front door before midnight. After midnight, the lone celebrant hauls in his catch, being careful to bring the item across the door jamb by pulling the string rather than by reaching out to retrieve it and thus breaking the plane of the threshold.

Money:

Do not pay back loans or lend money or other precious items on New Year’s Day. To do so is to guarantee you’ll be paying out all year.
Keeping your purses and wallets full of money, and keeping cupboards stocked with food is said to bring prosperity and luck in the New Year.
Pay away all your debts before New Year’s Eve as the New Year should not begin with the household in debt. Clear away all your loans, bills and debts so that you do not have any debts left for New Year.
Do not also lend money or other precious items on this day as that would mean a year spent loaning out money.

References:
pinkfreud-ga
indiaparenting.com
pnwlocalnews.com

Amazon.com Widgets

Halloween Superstitions and Origins

Superstitions — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:05:00 +0000

Halloween derives its name from the fact that in the Christian calendar it occurs the day before ‘All Saints’ or All Hallows’ Day. It was the last night of the old year according to the ancient calendar of the Celts. On that night it was said that the witches, hobgoblins, warlocks, and other evil spirits walked abroad and devoted themselves to wicked revels. But the good fairies, too, according to some folklore, made their appearance at this time, but only from the hour of dusk until midnight.

Happy Halloween!

It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

If you hear foot steps behind you on this night, don’t look back. It may be the dead following you. Turning back could mean that you will soon join the dead.

Girls who carry a lamp to a spring of water on this night can see their future husband in the reflection.

Girls who carry a broken egg in a glass to a spring of water (during the day) can not only see their future husband by mixing some of the spring water into the glass, but she can also see a glimpse of her future children.

Girls should go into a field and there scatter the seed of hemp. While they did so they chanted “Hempseed I sow thee Come after me and show me”. Upon suddenly turning round, it was declared that each girl would see a vision of the man who would be her husband.

To find out of your lover is true. select one of the letters which you have received from your sweetheart, especially one which contains a particularly passionate and important declaration; lay it wide open upon a table and then fold it nine times. Pin the folds together, place the letter in your left-hand glove, and slip it under your pillow. If on that night you dream of silver, gems, glass, castles or clear water, your lover is true and his declarations are genuine; if you dream of linen, storms, fire, wood, flowers, or he is saluting you, he is false and has been deceiving you.

Mashed potatoes offer a method of divining who will be the first to wed. Into the heap of mashed potatoes a ring, a three penny-bit, a button, a heart-shaped charm, a shell and a key are inserted. Then all the lights in the room are turned out, and each guest, armed with a spoon or fork, endeavors to find the hidden charms. The one who finds the ring win marry first; the three penny-bit signifies wealth; the button, bachelorhood or spinsterhood; the heart, passionate love; the shell, long journeys; the key, great success and power.

The old Celtic custom was to light great bonfires on Halloween, and after these had burned out to make a circle of the ashes of each fire. Within this circle, and near the circumference, each member of the various families that had helped to make a fire would place a pebble. If, on the next day, any stone was out of its place, or had been damaged, it was held to be an indication that the one to whom the stone belonged would die within twelve months.

Peel an apple from top to bottom. The person with the longest unbroken peel would be assured the longest life. If you threw the apple peel over your shoulder, the initial it forms upon landing is the initial of your future mate.

When bobbing for apples, it is believed that the first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry.

If you go to a crossroads at Halloween and listen to the wind, you will learn all the most important things that will befall you during the next twelve months.

A person born on Halloween can see and talk to spirits

To prevent ghosts coming into the house at Halloween, bury animal bones or a picture of an animal near the doorway.

If a girl puts a sprig of rosemary herb and a silver sixpence under her pillow on Halloween night, she will see her future husband in a dream.

In Britain, people believed that the Devil was a nut-gatherer. At Halloween, nuts were used as magic charms.

Some believe if you catch a snail on Halloween night and lock it into a flat dish, in the morning you will see the first letter of your sweetheart written in the snail’s slime

You should walk around your home three times backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits

If you see a spider on Halloween, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one who is watching you

If you ring a bell on Halloween, it will scare evil spirits away

If a candle flame suddenly turns blue, there’s a ghost nearby

A burning candle inside a “Jack-o’-lantern” keeps away evil spirits, ghosts and goblins.

If a candle suddenly goes out by itself – as if from a wind or breath, it usually means that a ghost has come to call.

You should always burn new candles on Halloween – for good luck. Never burn Halloween candles any other time of the year, since this may bring bad luck.

Looking deeply into the flame of a candle on Halloween will give you the gift of looking into the future

If you light an orange-colored candle on Halloween night and let it burn until the sun comes up you will have good luck.

Put you clothes on inside-out and walk backwards on Halloween if you want to meet a witch.

Halloween History:

370 AD - ”Eve of All Hallows (Saints)” feast associated with the “Night of Mischief.
5th to 19th centuries - Religious celebrations continue in western Europe on eve of Feast of All Saints, which was introduced to replace pagan festivals of dead. During this time Irish and Scottish immigrants celebrate customs imported from homelands.
20th century - Increased urbanization brings Halloween from farms to cities. Pranks increase in cities – term “Trick or Treat” finally appears in print in the 1930s. Urban violence on Halloween increases – forcing churches, social clubs and neighborhoods to organize “safe” celebrations to combat street violence.

Why did the pumpkin become part of Halloween?

Carved pumpkins were actually a very old Irish custom because it was so easy to put a candle in a hollowed-out pumpkin or turnip and use it to light your way.
However, the custom of carving out a face on a pumpkin was much more popular in North America where this member of the squash family was available in large numbers. People began to cut out a comical or frightening face and put it on their porches or doorsteps on Halloween night.
The name “Jack-o’-lantern” comes from an old Irish folktale told by parents to their children. If you carve a scary face on a pumpkin you can frighten people on Halloween.

Where did “Trick or Treating” come from?

Trick or treating is also called “guising.” It has several beginnings. It began with the Irish custom of going from door to door to collect money, bread, cake, cheese, eggs, butter, nuts and apples in preparation for the coming Feast of St. Columkill. Another custom, from Europe, was the begging of “soul cakes” for oneself in exchange for promises of good luck or protection against bad luck.

Couples and Matchmaking:

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday–with luck, by next Halloween!–be married.

In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday–with luck, by next Halloween!–be married.

New Years Eve and Day

Superstitions — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:12:20 +0000

You’ll ‘cut off’ fortune if you use scissors on new years day

April Fool’s Day

Superstitions — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:44:47 +0000

April Fool’s Day is celebrated on the first day of April each year. It is common practice to play practical jokes on family and friends on this day.

Playing practical jokes after 12 noon is bad luck.
Failing to respond in a jovial manner to practical jokes is bad luck.
Being fooled by an attractive girl may be a sign of a good relationship with her.
Getting married on April Fool’s day predicts the groom will always be ruled by his bride.
Children born on April Fool’s Day will have good luck in all things except gambling.

Babies and Birth

Superstitions — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:07:38 +0000

Birth is made easier if all the locks in the house are open and you keep an axe under the bed.
A child born feet first or breech, will be lamed in an accident.
A baby that is born feet first will have healing abilities.
Firstborn children are protected from witchcraft.
Babies born at midnight can see ghosts.
A baby born when the moon is rising will be a girl.
Thursday has one lucky hour, just before sunrise, for birth.
Babies born on Sunday cannot be harmed by evil spirits.
Babies born at night will stay awake at night.
A baby born from a red water sac is believed to have great powers and double sight.
A baby born with big ears will be generous.
A baby born with open hands and out-stretched fingers will be prosperous.
A baby born with a large mouth will be a good singer.
A baby born with teeth could be a vampire.

First a daughter, then a son,
The World is well begun.
First a son, then a daughter,
Trouble follows after.

Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is sour and sad,
Thursday’s child is merry and glad,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child must work for a living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonny, good and gay.

Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace
Wednesday child is full of woe
Thursday’s child has far to go
Friday’s child is caring and giving
Saturday’s child works hard for a living
But the child that’s born on the Sabbath day
is fair and wise and good and gay.

(Some put it, Sunday’s child shall never know want.)

He who is born on New Year’s morn
Will have his own way as sure as you’re born.

He who is born on an Easter morn
Shall never know want, or care, or harm.

A child born on a saint’s day must bear the saint’s name. It is
unlucky to take away the day from it.
Catholic superstition.

It is good luck to:

Carry a baby upstairs when first taking it out into the world.
Have a baby born with a caul.
Spit on a newborn baby.
Rub a baby’s head with money.
Kiss a newborn baby.
Have a baby sneeze.
Have a baby first clasp something using it’s right hand.
Brush your baby with a rabbit’s foot.
Put a string of coral beads around your baby’s neck.
Give a new baby a gift of bread or salt.

It is bad luck to:

Carry a baby downstairs when first taking it into the world.
Weigh a newborn baby.
Let babies see themselves in a mirror before they are six months old.
Dress a baby in black.
Cut a baby’s nails before it is twelve months old.
Dress a baby by putting clothes over its head instead of its feet.
Watch a baby as it sleeps.
Give away all a baby’s clothes when you have finished with them.
Wean a baby in early spring.
Carry a child on the left side.
Step over a crawling infant.
Let a cat in the room of a newborn baby.
Wash a baby’s hands before it is twelve months old.

To hold a newborn baby while menstruating would cause the baby strain.