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Beware the Ides of March

Superstitions — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:08:59 +0000

Months of the Roman calendar were arranged around three named days and these were reference points from which the other (unnamed) days were calculated:

Kalends (1st day of the month).
Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months).
Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months).

According to Plutarch, a seer had foreseen that Julius Caesar would be harmed not later than the Ides of March and on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar met that seer and joked, "The Ides of March are come", meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March." Julius Caesar was stabbed 33 times (three and thirty wounds) according to Shakespeare’s play (23 times, in real life).

Since then, the day has taken on a new meaning — a day when prophecies of doom are realized.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/63400.html

Breaking Mirrors

Superstitions — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:10:27 +0000

If you break a mirror you’ll have 7 years of bad luck.

You can avoid the bad luck if you take the shards of glass and other pieces outside and bury them in moonlight.

If an undisturbed mirror suddenly falls and breaks, there will soon be a death.

Mermaids

Superstitions — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:04:34 +0000

When a mermaid is captured and held captive, it results in a big flood.

Cigarettes and Matches

Superstitions — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:02:17 +0000

It is bad luck to light three cigarettes with the same match.

I heard that this was because when soldiers were hiding in foxholes in the dark, the lighted match would give away their position to the enemy. 1st cigarette = ready, 2nd cigarette = aim, and the 3rd cigarette would have been FIRE!

Magic Words

Superstitions — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:05:30 +0000

Some believe that the word Abracadabra was once used as a protective word on amulets and charms. Early Christians believed that it had the power to ward off evil spirits.

Others believe that it came from a combination of Hebrew words including ab, which means father; ben, which means son; and rauch acadosch, which means holy spirit. Others say it originated in a second century poem written by Quintus Serenus Sammonicus. Still more think is the derivative of the name of the Gnostic leader, Abraxas, which means God.

What is know, however, is that during the Middle Ages, people often wore the word on parchment around their neck to assure they that didn’t contract illnesses and were not attacked by evil spirits. The word was written in its entirety on the first line and then with each subsequent line, the last letter of the word was dropped until nothing remained but the “A” at the beginning; forming an upside down pyramid.

It was believed that this “charm” could cure the plague, fever, toothache, and a variety of other ailments. The word abracadabra itself was believed to have magical power. Over time, magicians picked it up and used it primarily because of that belief.

Hocus pocus wasn’t coined until the 17th century. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it originated from a conjurer by that name who used it as part of his magic act. Other magicians picked it up from there and it was simply passed down through the ages.

Some believe presto came from the Italian word, which means “quickly.” However, it is far more likely that it comes from the Latin words for “quick fingers” because it was used it to illustrate slight of hand magic tricks like pulling a rabbit out of a hat,

Reference:
Superstitions: Where They Come from and What They Mean