I thought little of it, but a friend said something like” “You shouldn’t have done that; now you’ll have bad luck all day”.

Bad luck? 

Nobody was on the ladder. It wasn’t even supporting a can of paint that could spill over me.

The word superstition came to mind.

Here is a word that, apparently, still rules the lives of some people. They can’t lean a broom on the bed, they watch out for black cats or occasionally the chill they feel means that somebody is walking over their grave – even if they’re not dead.

I looked up some superstitions. There seems to be hundreds of them. One says simply “it is bad luck to walk under a ladder”, not “don’t walk under a ladder when a person is on top of it, because that person might drop something that could cause you an injury”.

What about: Seeing an ambulance can be unlucky unless you hold your breath until you see a black or brown dog. Do ambulance stations have dogs tied up in the back yard to help customers with poor eyesight?

And what about wedding superstitions? How about: “The person who gives the third gift to be opened will soon have a baby”. 

Lock grandma up for the night.

The word superstition is a very old one.

The first use I could find of superstition came in 1402. The meaning of the word came from “to stand over” and the word meant an unreasoning awe of something unknown, “especially in connection with religion”. Shakespeare in 1608 made a comment about clearing the ship of the dead and then added “that’s your superstition”. In 1856 RA Vaughan, in his Mystics, commented that the soul of a man who had left some deed not finished “is frequently known to enter into another person”.

I was more interested in some of the superstitions that direct the lives of some people who should know better.

A friend put some new shoes on a kitchen bench, along with some groceries, and was criticised. He asked me about it. I could understand an argument against putting dirty shoes on the kitchen bench (what with birds’ poo and all the other nasties from the roadway), so I looked up the superstition about shoes and it made mention of “shoes”, not “new shoes”. The wording I found said: “Do not place shoes upon a table, for this will bring bad luck for the day and you might even lose your job”.

Breaking mirrors means seven years bad luck, unless you can bury the pieces or run them into a stream.

When you sneeze, put your hand in front of your mouth, because “your soul might escape otherwise”.

It’s bad luck to let milk boil over. Boy, now I know why I’m always in trouble at my place.

Don’t wear opals unless you were born in October. Will you tell the people at Lightning Ridge, or will I?

I also discovered that more than 10 per cent of high rise buildings lack a 13th floor, many airports skip the 13th gate, many hospitals and hotels do not have a room numbered 13 and a whole lot of information about number 13 that you needn’t know about, unless you are superstitious.

I don’t have room for the hundreds of superstitions, but I had thought fairies at the bottom of the garden had died long ago.

www.lauriebarber.com or lbword@midcoast.com.au