Whether it’s avoiding ladders or kissing dice, superstition shapes our daily lives more than we think.
It was just a random Wednesday, and I was walking home from class with a friend when I noticed something weird, she kept avoiding walking under signposts. So I asked her why.
“Well, it’s bad luck, isn’t it?” she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
And she’s not the only one who believes in these kind of things.
Superstitions, a belief or practice that we think is linked to some sort of fate, magic or supernatural influence that is beyond our control or explanation.
We’ve all heard popular ones like a fear of walking next to a black cat: They are generally believed to bring bad luck as they are usually associated with witches and demons.
Or walking under ladders: In the medieval times, it was believed that a ladder leaning against a wall resembled the gallows (a place where people were executed by hanging). So, if you were to walk underneath a ladder, it was believed that you too would die at the gallows.
Admittedly, even I’m superstitious. I have avoided walking on three consecutive drain covers (or manholes) since secondary school and although the origin stories of this belief are not definitively known, some legends suggest it’s linked to an injury sustained by a child who fell through a poorly placed drain cover.
And it’s not just bad luck people, people also believe that if you perform certain practices it can bring you good luck instead.
Like apparently seeing two magpies is said to bring you luck, getting pooed on by a bird supposedly means you’ve won the lottery (personally, not too sure i’d be happy with that one) or even just seeing your lucky number fills people with a sense of joy.
But why exactly do so many of us believe in them, even if we say we don’t?
Phillips Stevens Jr, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Buffalo and author of Rethinking the Anthropology of Magic and Witchcraft – Inherently Human, said that
A lot of these beliefs are rooted in magical thinking, and that people believe things which look like each other or have connections in some way can actually affect one another. “Things that resemble other things have a causal relationship,” he explains, “and things that have been in contact with other things… have a stronger connection with those other things.”
Let’s take the example of the fear surrounding opening your umbrella inside, umbrellas are used to ward off storms and rain. So by opening it inside it’s like you’re “bringing a storm into your house.”
Or people who avoid walking on cracks when on the pavement, “a crack is, is damage, damage might infect you and cause some kind of ailment in you. So people avoid that kind of behavior.”
These are the kinds of superstitions that he explains is the principle in magical thinking, “you don’t want to establish a magical connection, because it could be harmful.”
He follows this up by explaining how we all have a little belief in something and the belief we have for example magic bypasses spirits and addresses the forces of nature directly. People believe that they can project impulses along invisible pathways to make the spirits of nature do certain things.
“They provide people with answers, they provide people with explanations for how the cosmos (universe) works and their place within it”
He says our beliefs, although not founded in any science, helps us feel like we have control in our lives “they themselves can get along in their own little corner of the universe.”
Superstitions (or magical thinking as I’ve grown to call it), are a way for us to make sense of this big and complex universe with all its unpredictability. Our personal beliefs give us a sense of individuality and strength in believing that the small things we do such as avoiding cracked mirrors helps shape our destiny, or at least our future.
So, even if I do avoid walking on three consecutive drains or my friend who avoids signposts, it’s comforting to think we’re tipping the odds in our favour.
Even if it’s just a little.
