we usually hear people say "touch wood and keep your fingers crossed" Keeping fingers crossed is supposed to ward off evil while touching wood is meant to bring good luck. Hiccups, it is believed that someone is talking about you or remembering you. if you kill a spider it brings bad luck. if the right hand itches your finances increase. a very common superstition is of a black cat crossing the road, it is believed to bring bad luck.
many people also believe in the influence of numbers. it is believed that the number 13 is bad luck especially if it falls on a Friday. people usually don't make any business deals on the the 13Th . often the seat number 13 is omitted in air crafts. people also avoid having 13th floor or room number 13 when building hotels.
the desire to predict future is very natural in human beings. Palm readers, coffee cup readers, and tarot card readers. the belief in omens has existed in all ages and all countries.
There are pirs claiming to cure people from curses and adversities in all sects and classes of our society. women in particular are plagued more by superstitious like magic, charms and curses which involve jinns, marrige problems, birth issues etc. if a black cloth is hanging at a shrine or a grave of a Sufi, it is believed that wishes come true, on the other hand if a black cloth is found hanging on a bus or a wagon , it is meant to ward the evil off.
even in today's modern and post enlightened society, people from all classes believe in superstitions.
Superstitious practices which have been adopted by our society from other cultures, go a long way back from pagans belief. they usually originate from a little bit of sensibility but often lose validity due to advancement of time. due to week faith in God, and belief in one's self, people are not capable of critical thinking. when faced with adversities, people often go through a gullible phase where they believe everyone and everything. this lack of confidence takes them through a long journey where they start to follow pagans and pirs, who claim to cure the curses and ailments faced by the people. not only do the uneducated class of our society tend to follow this act blindly, this practice is found common even in the educated upper class or elite of our society.
A fortune teller or a parrot may provide us a comfort zone to live in or give us the strength to deal with adversities in our own twisted way, but would you really want to know what lies in the future?...good or bad? It is probably okay if you are prudent in all that you do in your life but the best would be to have faith in God, and always remain optimistic. Where there is a will, there is a way and if God hadn’t empowered humans with intelligence and intellect, the cat crossing your path would have been ruling the earth.
3 comments:
Hi Malaika. It may sound strange, but I think certain things actually start to happen when your belief in that thing is strong enough.
It could be just a coincidence but running into bad luck right after a black cat has crossed your path would definitely cement your belief in this superstition.
really interesting and informative.
Its just that we all need to feel better. We all have this need to believe that everything will be ok, and that we will turn out fine. This makes us want to be superstitious.
Rationally, I completely agree!
But being an intelligent (I hope) and literate (very) human being does not stop me from wondering when things are going inexplicably wrong that I might have offended a higher power in some way. It also makes me want to ward off other potential problems that might just occur. I feel that respecting superstitions that have been in the family for generations is a little price to pay for some sort of security (as tenous as it may be).
I think we tend to underestimate the sheer power of superstitions because they give us one less thing to fear... the reduction of uncertainty.... or so we hope...
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