I recently googled to find out which is the most superstitious country in the world, fully expecting it to be Ireland. Surprise, surprise; it wasn’t. It was India. And within Europe the most superstitious people apparently live in Serbia. Perhaps we are beginning to shake off our belief in bad omens in Ireland. I was brought up by superstitious parents and it took me years to abandon their worries about magpies, broken mirrors, spilled salt and peacock feathers, to name but a few. When I accused my mother of being superstitious, she replied that she never was until she moved from England to live in Ireland and she blamed it on my father! I suppose it makes psychological sense that superstitions are catching because if parents are worried, young children are more likely to be concerned about the same thing.
Fortunately there weren’t as many magpies around years ago when compared to now. My mother was obsessed with single magpies. As soon as she saw one, she would count backwards from 10 and finished by saluting the bird and saying “Good day, Mr Magpie”. It makes me laugh to think of this now but my mother took it all very seriously. I remember we were on our way to watch one of my brothers competing in a show jumping competition and, horror of horrors, my mother spotted one of the black and white birds sitting menacingly on the branch of a tree. A few hours later, in spite of carrying out her ritual of counting backwards, my brother fell off his horse and broke his leg. That was definitely the magpie’s fault.
Two magpies seen together are said to be lucky - (Photo: Shutterstock)
“One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, Three for a Girl, Four for a Boy, Five for Silver, Six for Gold, Seven for a Secret ready to be told.”
Another time my younger brother shot a magpie and stuffed it, in his first and last attempt at taxidermy. He proudly showed us the unfortunate bird and, instead of admiring it, my father took fright and immediately ordered him to remove it from the house. There are so many superstitions about birds that go back hundreds of years. Apparently folklore states that the magpie was believed to be the one bird that refused to enter Noah’s Ark and it sat defiantly on the roof chattering away as the world drowned. Although, if you think about this logically, birds and animals flocked to the Ark in pairs so there would’ve been two magpies and we all know that two of these birds together are considered lucky.
Our garden is full of magpies these days. Only yesterday one was hopping on the lawn and landed on the roof of our garden room where it spent quite a while thumping across the slates. My parents would’ve been feeling uneasy at that stage. I think there are a lot more magpies about as they are no longer hunted down, (grey crows and magpies used to have a bounty on them years ago) with the result that I just don’t have the time anymore to keep counting backwards and saluting. Hence my fear of the single black and white bird has vanished. Magpies aren’t friendly towards smaller birds, though. I’ve seen one break eggs in a blackbird’s nest and a friend noticed a magpie carry off a baby bird in its beak this year.
Peacock feathers in the house are considered unlucky in Britain and Ireland but are lucky in India where the bird is a symbol of royalty - (Photo: Shutterstock)
Birds coming into houses are considered unlucky in many countries and Daphne mentions this in my historical mystery, The Family Shadow, when a house martin flies in the open window in an old attic bedroom. My father refused to allow us to bring peacock feathers into the house and in Eastern Europe they are also considered unlucky because they were worn by the Mongols when they invaded in the 13th century. However, in India the peacock is a symbol of royalty and for this reason is prized and deemed to be lucky. Robins near the doors of our houses are supposed to be lucky. Perhaps it’s better to play it safe and not let the robin come inside. Our cat obviously isn’t superstitious because he carries birds into the house and dumps them in the upstairs bath. I’ve snatched quite a number of feathered friends from his jaws and set them free again.
Spilling salt was another of my mother’s worries. We used to have to pick up a pinch of it and throw it over our left shoulder. Why? To blind the devil, of course. Some believe this superstition might have come from the Romans where slaves were traded for salt. I only discovered recently there was supposed to be an upturned salt cellar on the table in front of Judas Iscariot at the last supper. If you look closely at copies online of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting you’ll see that it looks like Judas has knocked over the saltcellar with his elbow. He obviously forgot to throw the spilled salt over his left shoulder to negate the bad luck. Meanwhile in Italy spilling red wine is considered unlucky but they get around this by dabbing some of the wine behind their ears. We have a useful tip here in Ireland when red wine gets spilled on a table cloth. We pour salt over it and leave to soak it up. It seems to work well. More useful than dabbing it behind our ears.
Spilling salt is unlucky but fortunately we can avoid an unfavourable outcome by throwing a pinch over our left shoulder - (Photo: Shutterstock)
The number 13 opens up another massive Pandora’s Box. In France it was unlucky to set a dinner table for 13 guests and I’ve heard of that here too. Friday the thirteenth is a terrible day to do anything. I remember in my early twenties being given Seat 13 on the plane when I went to check in, probably because I was late turning up and other superstitious people had taken all the other numbers. The first time, I swapped it for a different seat. When it happened a second time to me, I decided to be brave and not object. I managed to get safely to my destination, the plane didn’t fall out of the sky, we weren’t highjacked and I didn’t lose all my luggage. I notice now on Ryan Air, another Irish airline, that there is no Seat 13. They skip conveniently from 12 to 14. I think this is also the case on some US airlines. It certainly does away with squabbling over being seated in the unlucky seat. Again, when we apply logic to this problem, if the plane is going to crash because I’m sitting in Seat 13, surely the other seats are just as unlucky for the other passengers?
Oddly enough the colour green is sometimes considered by some to be unlucky in Ireland. This is strange because green is our national colour but apparently the superstition comes from folklore about fairies wearing green. Fairies in Ireland aren’t considered sweet, harmless creatures who grant you your wishes with a twinkle of their wand. Fairies can be nasty, malevolent little demons who cast wicked spells and curses on those who annoy them. All you have to do is dig up a hawthorn tree or a fairy fort (a circle of trees often found in Irish fields) and enraged fairies will make your life a misery. Bringing hawthorn blossom into the house is another disaster. It upsets the fairies, brings bad luck and it actually smells horrible. Hawthorns should be admired from a distance in Ireland.
The Victorians in England had a plethora of superstitions. Some of them were charming, such as hiding a child’s shoe under a floorboard to bring good luck to the household, and others were actually frightening. Omens of death were everywhere. If anyone in the nineteenth century smelled roses and there were none growing nearby, that was considered a very bad sign. As was seeing an owl in the daytime or having a sparrow land on your piano. Back to birds again… I wonder what the chances of having a sparrow land on your piano are? Perhaps greater if you are performing outside?
Black cats used to be associated with witches but can be lucky unless they jump onto your ship - (Photo: Shutterstock)
If bird dropping lands on your head or on the windscreen of your car, that’s good luck. I once had the droppings of a herring gull land in my hair when I was a child at the seaside and it took my mother hours to wash it out as it was oily and stank of fish. She kept reassuring me by telling me how lucky I was but it is not an experience I wish to repeat.
And as for black cats… Are they associated with witches and bring bad luck? Does it depend if they cross the road in front of you or behind you? Apparently in Britain and Ireland it is lucky to see a black moggie as long as it crosses our path from left to right. Black cats on ships were a different story: if one wandered onto the ship and off again, the boat would sink. Just as bad as bringing a woman on board!
“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”
And what about good luck at weddings? We all know that for a happy marriage we need to wear “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.” Then there’s the added paraphernalia of old boots tied to cars and horse shoes. Does anyone do that anymore? Friends sprayed our wedding getaway car with shaving foam so we got off lightly.
I haven’t even got to the bad luck that follows after opening an umbrella in the house, or walking under a ladder or how touching wood helps stop unpleasant things coming true. 666 is perhaps worse than 13, as it’s the Number of the Beast in the Book of Revelations in the bible. I may not believe in this but I certainly notice the number 666 when it flashes up in front of me. My parents trained me well. And then there are four-leaved clovers (very lucky) and coins on the street (never to be passed by). A Bulgarian once told me women should never leave their handbags on the ground because it means they will lose all their money and if the smoke from a bonfire blows in your face, it’s unlucky. The smoke from a bonfire always blows in my face. I could have done without knowing what it meant but, having managed to get rid of most of my Irish superstitions, I don’t intend to take on more Bulgarian ones.
The best of luck to you this month!