People Share Which Superstitions Are So Ingrained In Society We Do Them Without A Second Thought

Farmers' Almanac

The Farmers' Almanac.

Its never been through peer review. It supposedly uses secret equations and the positions of celestial bodies (astrology anyone?) to predict weather.

"But they're over 80% accurate!"

That number is self reported using standards they establish.

-chartreuse_chimay

God Bless You

Telling someone "God Bless You" when they sneeze.

-LBCClipper1313

Yet, for every other bodily function, the offender says 'excuse me'. Its so weird.

-JonHammsUlna

Umbrella

Pretty sure death will come to me if I ever open an umbrella indoors. And when I see someone do it, I automatically wince because I know their life force is about to be taken from them.

-oopsiedaizie

I pissed my mother off to no end because I once asked her if she thought umbrella factories were all outdoors, or if they just had an unusually high turnover due to deaths in the family. She was very superstitious and not at all amused.

-thenextlineis

Nurses

Nurses will murder people who say a shift is quiet. We aren't allowed to say the q word. (I don't believe it, but it's fun to give each other hell about saying it or getting to blame someone when sh*t hits the fan.)

-F**kYouChristmas

Nurses are ridiculously superstitious (generalization, but I've met so many superstitious nurses)

So many believe in ghosts, spirits, deities, luck, ect...

-exiled123x

Due

That if you've had a bad run like at the casino, you're 'due' for a good run. Not how probability or binomial distribution works.

-manlikerealities

The same goes for investing. People won't sell a stock they lost money on because they feel it "owes" them something. But if you look at your portfolio as a point in time, you sell the ones that aren't doing well and buy ones that are a better investment.

-T1Nerd

Christmas colors

Just in time for the holidays, Christmas colors are red, green, and white. Blood on snow to bring back the green plants after winter. Pagan tradition of blood sacrifice to ensure spring would come back each year.

-FelixVulgaris

Jinx

Knocking on wood to make sure we don't jinx anything.

-MissVikingQueen

Gum

Not to swallow gum. It's perfectly safe to and passes just as fast as anything else, but instead an old superstition about it being stuck in our digestive tract causes people to litter the stuff everywhere.

-ThatOneRussian

Jinx, again.

Telling someone not to just say that something will go well because you don't want to jinx it.

-FrogginBullfish_

Theater kids.

Break a leg!

-Imflex

Spent the entire autumn 2017 rehearsing for a major role. The premiere is a hit, performances come and go, and we retire for the year to continue in January.

What happens on Christmas Eve? Of course I break my bloody leg.

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

-Dolfk

Warewolves

That a full moon brings out the crazies. I think this is mostly confirmation bias.

Here's one source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-sc...

-SteamboatMcgee