I was having a conversation with a friend recently and I noticed my palm was itching. Growing up, my mother always told me that if your palm itches, it means you’re going to come into money. That led to a longer discussion about the origins of these kinds of things. I don’t know whether to call them old wives’ tales, superstitions or urban legends.
My mother was primarily raised by her Eastern European grandparents. Here are a few of the things I heard a lot growing up:
It’s bad luck to leave a house from a different door than the one you used to enter it.
If you drop a piece of silverware, you will have an unexpected visitor: A knife means a man, a fork means a woman and a spoon means a child.
If your nose itches, you are going to kiss a fool.
It’s bad luck to say thank you when someone hands you a sharp object such as a knife or a pair of scissors.
If two people walking together walk on opposite sides of an object taller than their head(s), they will get in an argument.
I did a little research to try to find the origins of these things. A quick search found a bunch of sites listing them, though I didn’t find much in the way of sources — but I guess that’s why these are called superstitions! There probably isn’t a whole lot of reason or logic — just things that get repeated over time.
Here are a few sites to check out for more: Superstitions and Old Wives Tales; Old Superstitions.com; Unusual Trivia Collection.
I did learn that the itchy palm thing is a little more precise: If your right palm itches, you’re going to come into money — if you don’t scratch it (It was my right palm that was itching, but I scratched, so I guess no money for me). If your left palm itches, you’re going to lose money.
Any favorites of your own to add?