Print

[Scorched Eartha]

I'm pretty sure the salt thing has its origins on Roman times and is not at all Christian.

Salt was a prized commodity in the ancient world as the only means available of preserving food. Roman soldiers in the Legions were paid in salt, as it made it ever so much more efficient than having to get hold of local currencies and they were able to trade it for many times the value of their real pay for goods, services and loose women (or tight ones, by preference I suppose). It was known as the "Salarium" and is where we get the word salary from.

If a Roman soldier spilled his salt it was a punishment or a fine that he had to fling a bit more over his shoulder and to look back at it - to remind him of not bein=g so careless in the future,.That it was flung over the left shoulder probably arises from the fact that most people are right handed and so will fling with their right over their left.

This "devil' business is bullshit. The church grafted that on top of an old pagan tradition to get the people more in line with....oh you know the story there.
lol

btw I will not have an open umbrella in the house and new shoes cannot go on the table.

[oldghost]

Know all about the Roman Stuff but it was the Church that made it more wide spread , never heard about new shoe on the table . Would perfer new shoe on the table then  old ones .

[alyceavary]

I don't open umbrellas inside, and I don't walk under ladders.

[dark magus]

I'm superstitious about superstitions. If you believe in them hard enough...they come true.

[oldghost]

All I know is that I have to get some bread , lakes open up this Friday and there nothing like bacon wrapped trout for breakfest .
 
                   Superstitious about superstition , sound reasonable .

[Earthbound Spirit]

I don't open umbrellas inside, and I don't walk under ladders.

I do both. 

[Earthbound Spirit]

I do do the knock on wood thing.  I use my head.....

[Firesong]

I do do the knock on wood thing.  I use my head.....

I thought I was the only knothead that did that... no wonder we get along so well...

[C_A]

Some of it I think is habit, more than anything else.

I throw salt and knock wood, as well.  These are two things I saw all the time, growing up, so I do them as well...almost reflexively.

[oldghost]

It would be nice to find out truly how superstitions came about not just speculation and what the reasoning was in the first place.

[naturalpaganmomma]

I do the salt over the shoulder thing too. Also, my mom had a thing about rocking an empty rocking chair. It upset mom more than drawing on furniture, getting into her belongings, etc. We learned at an early to leave the rocking chair alone unless we were going to sit in it and rock. I'm not kidding either. She was serious. Groundings were delivered. 

[oldghost]

That's not so strange NPM , older people on the East coast will not go near a house if a rocking chair is moving on the porch. One of the unseen ones is rocking in it . Spooky 

[marisol]

I have a book around here somewhere , might look for it.

[naturalpaganmomma]

Oldghost,
It was something the Great-great-grandparents brought with them from Holland. Supposedly if you rocked an empty rocking chair it invited bad things, evil, the devil, etc. etc. etc. into your home. Just think really bad and substitute. I didn't know that there were similar superstitions on the East coast.


Marisol,
If you do decide to check, let us know if you find anything interesting. I think that would be really cool.

[oldghost]

It's something I heard from my grandmother about chairs that could only keep on rocking if someone was sitting in it . Just like you never walk on the same side of the street that a cemetery was on , my great grandmama used to leave food outside on the dark of the moon so nothing would try to get in and eat us.
 
Coming from a seaside town there was also the superstition about standing in front of the light of a lighthouse bringing about the doom of any ship the light shone on. The old tales are just so neat. ( yeah I said neat ) .