Why is it bad luck to associate ourselves with number 13? Why don’t we want to own a black cat or cross our fingers in order to give our sports team the advantage? To find out we first must explore where the concept comes from.

To quote Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “superstition” comes from: “super “above” … + stare “to stand,” from PIE root *sta- “to stand, make or be firm.” In plain english, superstition simply means the belief that supernatural forces cause certain events to occur.

TED-ed made a great video on how we’ve come to believe different superstitions. To summarize, different superstitions come from different places. Many of them are based in religion. Take the number 13 for example. In the last supper there were 13 people -Jesus and all of his disciples- and Jesus was arrested and then crucified on the cross. The idea that 13 people sitting at a table was bad luck slowly but surely grossed into any concept situation that includes this number. Many people knock on wood because centuries ago there was a belief that trees housed spirits within them and that touching the trees would give the individual good luck and protection. Similar to the superstition regarding number 13, knocking on wood expanded and is now done in order to assure that we don’t “jinx” something. For instance if our favourite sports team was playing and someone says, “I hop we win”, and doesn’t want to jinx the team into losing, we simply knock on wood. For more details you can click here to watch the video. I highly recommend watching it if you are interested in this topic.

Another thing that could be at play here is our knack for pattern recognition. In October investors are afraid to invest, because many things have occurred on October over the years. Black Monday in 1987, Black Tuesday in 1929, and the financial crisis in 2008 all occurred in October. By recognizing the pattern of those events all occurred in the same month, most investors have a superstition regarding October. However, superstitions and pattern recognition have helped us a lot in terms of survival and evolution.

Ewen Callaway wrote a great article on this subject. One of her interviewees, Kevin Foster, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, said, “a prehistoric human might associate rustling grass with the approach of a predator and hide. Most of the time, the wind will have caused the sound, but if a group of lions is coming there’s a huge benefit to not being around.”

So what are some weird/funny superstitions around the world? Well, In Turkey, an itchy right hand means you’ll come into some money but an itch on your left means you’ll lose money. I thought those two occurred by working at a job and buying stuff, but whatever. Another one says that stepping in dog poop is actually considered good luck in France if you do it with your left foot. It’s only bad luck if you step with your right foot. “Why do we need to step on crap with a specific leg to get good luck, how does crap help us with life?”, he said laughing. Another one states: “Bird Poop Brings Good Fortune“…. ok. I think ill end it there. For more you can just click here.

Be sure to leave a like, comment and follow for more content.

Sources: https://www.etymonline.com/word/superstition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quOdF1CAPXs https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14694-superstitions-evolved-to-help-us-survive/ https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/g4489/strangest-superstitions/?slide=1