Top 10 True Stories Behind Superstitions

Ladders are everywhere, particularly around areas where construction is being done or if someone’s working high up, say on a roof. According to popular belief, walking under one is bad luck. While the danger involved, particularly if someone’s using the ladder, may have something to do with it, there are other theories. Some believe the superstition has religious origins, with the triangular shape formed by ladders leaning against a wall tying into the beliefs of ancient Egyptians or the Holy Trinity in Christianity. Others hold that ladders resemble a gallows, and an association with death is rarely considered good fortune. Better to just walk around them if you can anyway.

While pennies aren’t worth much these days, for most of history, pennies and other low-value copper coinage have been seen as good luck. The idea that finding a penny on the ground heads up was seen as good luck, while tails would mean bad luck, ties into many cultures’ ideas about good and evil. Meanwhile, some belief systems hold that metals like copper are gifts from the gods, and pennies are therefore lucky by association. And from a purely financial perspective, even something as small as a penny is an increase in wealth, and therefore, good fortune.

To ward off bad luck or to inspire good fortune, people will often knock on or touch wood. While the exact origins of the practice are disputed, several explanations have been offered. One theory ties the practice to Jesus’ wooden cross, with the touching of wood being an entreaty to the Christian savior. Another one takes the origins even further back, to the pagan religions of Celtic peoples, who believed that gods and spirits inhabited trees. Knocking on wood may have been an attempt to catch the attention of good spirits or else ward away the bad ones. Oddest of all is the idea that the superstition is derived from a variant of tag wherein the player who touches wood is safe from being “it.”

When someone spills salt, it’s considered unlucky. To fix this bout of bad luck, the most common solution is to throw salt over your left shoulder. But why? Well, before mass transportation and refrigeration, salt was considered nearly as valuable as gold, due to its preservation properties. Losing something worth that much is bound to make people consider it unlucky. The superstition also has possible religious connotations. In the famed painting by Leonardo da Vinci, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is spilling salt. People also thought that only the devil could make you do something as misfortune as spilling salt. And the devil is usually depicted as being on people’s left shoulder - throwing salt on that side will blind him.

Contrary to this recent superstition, cats in general were looked on as good luck in ancient pagan religions. However, because of their association with paganism, Christians in Europe looked at cats with mistrust during the Middle Ages. One pope even declared that black cats were agents of the devil, leading to mass burnings. And of course, when hysteria about witchcraft became commonplace, black cats were viewed as their familiars and persecuted just as much zealotry as the equally innocent women who were killed. While people aren’t quite as extreme today, the negative association with dark-coated kitties still lingers in a less extreme form.

One of the most enduring symbols of luck, the 4-leaf clover is a popular good luck charm. Part of its appeal may be its rarity, as clovers only sprout an extra leaf around 1 time in 5,000 (or 10,000 depending on who you ask). But while rarity is part of its appeal, the superstition again has some of its origins in religion. When Eve left the Garden of Eden, she supposedly brought a 4-leaf clover with her. The shape of these lucky clovers is also evocative of the four points of a cross. The 4-leaf clover is an especially prevalent symbol in Ireland. Guess that’s why they have the “luck of the Irish.”

A popular superstition is that if you break a mirror, you will have 7 years of bad luck. But why would mirrors of all objects cause bad luck? The answer lies in Greek and Roman cultures. Greeks believed that one’s reflection displayed one’s soul. It was the Romans who created some of the first mirrors through reflective metal sheets, and later glass. They believed that mirrors were windows through which the gods observed their souls. Breaking one would anger the gods and bring ill fortune upon their soul. However, they also thought that souls were renewed every 7 years, hence the 7 years of bad luck, until your soul has been cleansed.

Looking to the sky for answers and attributing supernatural and mundane events to what we see there has been around for as long as humanity. Likewise, shooting stars, or meteors, are looked on as a favorable or lucky event in many cultures. While the origin of the idea that wishes are more likely to be granted when you see a shooting star has unclear beginnings, it has several potential roots. Ptolemy, the ancient Greek astronomer and scientist, held that a shooting star was an indication that the gods’ attention was on Earth. Therefore, wishes made on them are theoretically more likely to be heard. Christians may have held similar beliefs, but with angels instead of gods.

When someone sneezes, instead of doing the logical thing and excusing the person for all the mucus coming out of their orifices, most people say “bless you,” or some variation on it, depending on the language. While the Greeks and Romans looked on sneezing as a sign of good luck and health, Europe tended to lose its good opinion of the act after a few plagues. Pope Gregory VII reportedly began the practice of blessing people after sneezes, as a short prayer to ward against the plague. While this particular response to sneezes is rooted in religion, most of them have a common theme of wishing the sneezer good health, in the face of potential illness coming out of their face.

Although Friday the 13th is considered a particularly unlucky day, the number 13 in general is seen as an ill omen, at least in Western cultures. For centuries, people have seen 12 as a perfect number, as it's tied to so much of our culture, particularly timekeeping, with months and hours marked in 12s. So being one being it makes 13 seem awkward. But more importantly, 2 influential western mythologies, Christian and Norse, both feature ill-fated dinners with treacherous 13th guests. Christian lore holds that Judas, the 13th guest at the Last Supper, betrayed Jesus. Meanwhile, discord supposedly came to Valhalla after Loki arrived at a dinner for 12 gods. That Loki is always ruining meals…