Have
you ever wondered why seemingly off-the-wall superstitions hang around for
hundreds, if not thousands, of years? Or
where new superstitions come from? Read on for my mostly unscientific
analysis.
My sweet Italian mother-in-law had
a superstition in her pocket ready to pull out for any occasion. Some of her
beliefs are shared widely in the US: If
you break a mirror, you’ll have seven years’ bad luck. Walking under a ladder
is unlucky. If a black cat crosses your path, something bad will happen to you.
She
also held many more obscure beliefs: A
bargain is guaranteed to be kept if the people involved spit in their hands and
shake on it. Eating raw potato or raw hotdogs will give you worms. If your
right palm itches, you’ll receive money. If your left palm itches, you’ll give
away money. If a crow lands on your roof, sickness or disaster will strike you
or those with whom you live. If you drop a knife, someone close to you will
die.
A
number of these beliefs make a certain kind of sense. Eating raw pork or
potatoes can make you sick—just not
from worms. Crows often feast on dead things (think plagues) and follow armies
into battle. Knives are weapons; being careless with weapons kills people—you
get the idea. This type of superstition may have along lifespan because there
is some truth (at least historically) in them and they have very strong
emotional associations, like illness, war and death.
Some
superstitions are rhymes and rituals. Step on a crack and you’ll break your mother’s
back. If you’re holding hands with a friend and you let go to go around an
obstacle on opposite sides, one of you says bread
and butter, then the other replies cheese
and crackers to avoid bad luck. Children love rhymes and call-and-response
rituals, so they learn them from older kids and then teach them to younger
kids, perpetuating the superstition.
Many
superstitions are specific to people from a certain cultural tradition. Years
ago I worked with a Mexican-American woman who was a naturalized US citizen.
She told me that some mothers in Mexico deliberately infect their small
children with head lice to protect them from ghosts.
Seeming
superstitions exist that cross so many cultures in one form or another that I
believe there may in fact be truth to them. For example, people in many
cultures believe in the power of a curse or the Evil Eye. Interestingly, modern
scientific research gives credence to the power of focused intention to affect
outcomes. (Quantum physics, anyone?) Many cultures believe certain symbols or
objects offer protection. An article in the latest issue of Scientific American
Mind reports that recent research indicates metaphors have powerful subconscious
effects on behavior.
New
superstitions show up in cultures over time. Some may be an attempt to find
logic when we are faced with things we can’t explain. When I worked as a
technical writer for a large corporation, I became friends with a smart guy
named Brian, our department’s computer and internet troubleshooter. At one
point, all the tech writers were experiencing a particularly nebulous and
intractable problem: our saved work disappeared from the server on a regular
basis.
I jokingly said to Brian, “Maybe we’re
suffering from Bad Computer Magic.”
He laughed. “Actually, we have a
name for what causes situations like this in the Information Technology
Department. We call it PFM—Pure Fx%!-ing Magic.”
What do you think? Are we simply
dealing with systems too complex for our minds to understand? Or might there be
a ghost in the machine?
Happy Halloween!
