In Other Words

Superstition

Its Friday the 13th. That doesn’t mean terribly much to Asian people, but us white farts have a bit of a thing with the number thirteen. Comes back to us from olden times. It was when witches danced around naked, which was really dangerous, seeing as they were old, ugly and might just give you a heart attack.

So if you see any naked dancing witches, run. If they happen to be bitches, take pictures and send them to me (yes, that was lame).

We white farts actually have a lot of interesting superstitions. Probably all born from perfectly healthy normal everyday things. Like we don’t like to walk under ladders. That’s probably a good idea, as otherwise people might throw paint on you, or you might get crushed when the ladder slips away and the painter falls on top of you.

Then there is that superstition about black cats, which is also completely comprehensible, because we should hate everything that is black, that is the way god ordained it. (I’m not racist, I just happen to have an incredible dislike for all black people).

The one about spilling the salt is logical to. When you spill the salt you should pick some up and throw it over your left shoulder. The logic behind that is, of course, completely obvious. The person standing behind you probably bumped into your arm, making you spill the salt, therefore by throwing salt over your shoulder you’ll get them in the eyes. (Vengeance is served.)

The horseshoe over the door is, quite logically, for people that slam doors too hard (that will teach ‘em!) and not standing on cracks comes straight from Bangkok, where time and again we have been shown that anything cracked will probably break, if you stand on it. (there was a lot of commerce between medieval Europe and Bangkok, after all prostitution is the world’s second oldest profession).

Its funny how superstitions are different all over the world. You would think that the spirit world (and Satan and all that lot) would work the same way the world over, so you would expect the same superstitions would spring up. Silver bullets on werewolves and garlic on vampires doesn’t seem to work in Asia. Here you’re supposed to show your forehead and your tits to vampires (I’ve thought about dressing myself up as one, just to see if it works. Though the pretty chicks might be a little bit surprised if I come charging after them, slobbering and groping).

I guess if you could find superstitions that seem to be the same the world over, they might be the ones that actually work. (like wearing charms, charms is big in pretty much every superstition). I’ve also often wondered at the questions 'why do we no longer really see ghosts in Europe, but here in Asia people still talk about them all the time?' 'Do the European superstitions work better?' 'Or have we created some kind of ‘wall’ against the supernatural?' 'Or are Asians just more susceptible to mass hallucinations?'

Interesting fact: In years of bad harvests during the middle ages a black mold used to grow on grain in Europe. This mold causes severe hallucinations (not nice ones). A group of scientists decided to see if there was any correlation between this mold and the witch hunts. They found, interestingly enough, that peaks in witch burnings and accusations were almost inevitably years of bad harvest, when this mold would grow. Gives a new definition to the words ‘drug victim’ doesn’t it?

posted by Symbol @ 13.8.04