Living in an asian country and having pure asian ancestry, I think we have so many superstitions that if you stop a while to think about all of it; you'd rather not move anymore for fear of breaking not just one but a number of them.
I remember the superstitions my grand parents have once told me about:
Black cats crossing in front of you bring bad luck. Seriously?! I find black cats mesmerizing, especially when you look into their eyes, so imagine my face when I learned about this superstition. How in the world can a black cat bring you bad luck? Well, probably, if you're crossing the street and you stop becuase the black cat mysteriously appears in front of you and you stop and you get hit by a speeding vehicle, then yea, it did bring you misfortune. But come to think of it, it wasn't the black cat that caused it, it was the reaction you gave when you saw the cat. I mean, why would you stop in the middle of a street that you are crossing just because of a cat?
Friday the 13th lures bad luck for the entire day. Erm, what does the number 13 have anything to do with a specific day of the week? So here's what happens. You wake up, you check your phone and realize OMG it's Friday the 13th. You freak out realizing you have exams, or a presentation, or a job interview, or a date; wondering what unpleasant happening will occur today while you're going about your business. You know what's going to happen? You're going to attract all the negative vibes that the universe has with all that wondering and pessimistic attitude.
Break a mirror = 7 years bad luck. Hello!!! What in the universe does a broken mirror have to do with 7 years of your life? Come to think of it, how do you break a mirror? Is it the one in your purse? Or the rear view and side mirrors of your car? Or the one in the bathroom, bedroom, walk in closet?
Wedding superstitions. I do wedding and events planning/consultancy and trust me, I have witnessed a mother, standing right next to the candle in church, holding her hands close to the flame, protecting it from dying out simply because of a superstition that if the candles during a church wedding dies, the marriage dies as well. So you mean to tell me that if nature decides to get windy and for some odd reason it blows the candle out then the couple will end up getting a divorce / separation?
And have you ever heard of that superstition that siblings cannot marry within the same year, because according to folklore, the siblings who do get married within the same year will outwit each other in all aspects to prove their marriage is better than the other.
Death / Wake / Burial. Oh my gosh. The number of superstitions I can remember with regard to this is endless. Like family members are not allowed to wear anything loud in color (red, orange) because they are supposed to be in mourning. The deceased family member should never wear any footwear so that his/her travel to heaven will be easy. The deceased family member should never hold a complete rosary inside the coffin because if he/she does, it is believe that more family members will die soon, one after the other, like beads of the rosary.
But in all seriousness, superstitions should never dictate what your life will become. I have read somewhere before that superstitions are like reading the horoscope. That horoscope do not really tell you your future, but instead it presents something to your subconsciousness and you unknowingly gear towards it, ultimately making it appear as if the horoscope has come true, well in fact you did it all on your own, without even knowing it.
What you can do is take care. If you believe in a higher power, pray. Life is meant to be lived in motion, not just staying in one place doing nothing for fear of something might happen. As Dory told Marlin in the movie Finding Nemo, when the latter told Dory he promised never to let anything happen to his son Nemo, Dory said "That's a funny thing to promise" ... "you can't never let anything happen to him, then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo". If you just stop doing something for fear of something might actually happen, then you stop living and nothing will ever happen.
How about you, what are the superstitions you know?
Comment below and let's talk about it.
there's one that I really just don't understand.
Apparently when a person dies, you have to take down all the mirrors or cover them with cloth. Somehow this practice will not allow the spirit of the deceased to be trapped in a mirror,
and to stay in there forever, unable to move on to the afterlife. i find it kinda weird tho xD