Triskaidekaphobia

[toggleswitch2]

Well kids, Friday the 13th came and went.

Anyone superstitious? About what? Any particulars to your country or ethnic group?

You show me yours and I'll show you mine. Fears, that is.

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[sudsmaster]

All superstition, and many religions, are based on the very human tendency to believe that in daily events there are patterns that don't really exist.

This has been shown with behavioral research.

It is the basis for much unproductive, albeit sometimes comforting, activity.

 

[jeffg]

I don't have any, but my grandparents did. They thought breaking a mirror would bring them "13 months of maybes" (uncertainty in thier lives) and 7 years of bad luck.

 

[revvinkevin]

When I was younger, I used to "pay attention to" or "be aware of" things like black cats crossing the street in front of me, not walking under an open ladder (common sense!), Friday the 13th and other superstitious non-sense. I would sometimes change what I was doing because of certain situations, but most of the time I was just "aware" of my surroundings.

Now that I am older I've learned to ignore them, I have more constructive things to do with my time then worry about such foolishness.

 

[panthera]

Hmm,

Since we don't have political correctness in Germany, I am free to ask my students every semester how the feel about superstition, religion, etc.

Those who most loudly protest they have no religious beliefs and are not superstitious also turn out to be those who bring "lucky charms" most frequently to their final exams...

Interesting.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Momma always said, *Baby, you is sittin' on a gold-mine!

And by lucky charms do you mean an answer "key"?

I saw my Social Studies professor years ago in school, catch a young lady that had a cheat-sheet on the seat between her legs. Her legs flew open and closed so much we throught she was going to end up in flight, or was trying to induce an air-current down there to cool the hot spots. We just looked at each other at that moment so we both knew the other knew and shook our heads.

When I handed in my paper he said in a very low voice. "Don't you wish you could just open your legs in life to progress?" I held my tongue but thought, "Jeez if you only knew the half of it! And Gawd, there are times that I am willing".

 

[jeffg]

The Exam

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[toggleswitch2]

In my ethnic group:

1- you don't buy your lover / partner/ spouse shoes; they'll walk out on you.

2- When you have a new car and you show it off, "lookers" throw coins in it so it doesn't cost you much money in repairs.

3- and then there is the "Evil Eye". When someonw overly compliments you it is feared they are jealous of you or your accomplishments.

Names in various languages:

In most languages the name translates literally into English as "bad eye", "evil eye", "evil look", or just "the eye". Some variants on this general pattern from around the world are:

Albanian "mer më sysh" (to give somebody the bad eye)
Armenian "atchk ooloonk" (eye bead); "char atchk" (evil eye)
Amharic "Buda" (one with envious eyes)
Standard Arabic عين حسد ayin hasad (eye of envy)
Standard Arabic "ayin ha'ra" (hot/evil eye)
Tunisian Arabic "'ayn l-mrida" (sick eye)
Assyrian "ayna"
Azerbaijani "göz dəyməsi" (touching of eye); "kəm göz" (evil eye); often simply "göz" (the eye)
Bengali "Nojor"(Standard: bad thing), "Nazar"(Sylheti and Chittagongian: the curse)
Bulgarian "uroki"
Chamorro "Atan baba"
Chinese "邪眼"
Chuvash "kuş ükni" (the falling of an eye), "hajar ükni" (the falling of anger (cruelty)), "kuşăh" (to get an eye), "văr" (to give an evil eye), "usal kuş" (evil eye)
Croatian "Urokljivo oko" (the cursing eye)
Czech "uhrančivý pohled" (bedeviling gaze)
Danish "det onde øje" (the evil eye)
Dutch "het boze oog" (the evil eye)
Filipino "Matang Nanlilisik" (literally: evil eye); "Usog" or "Balis"
Finnish "Paha silmä" (evil eye)
French "Le Mauvais Oeil", "La Guigne", "La Skoumoune", depending on region
Gaelic "Droch shuil" (the evil eye)
German "Böser Blick" (evil gaze)
In Greek, to matiasma (μάτιασμα) or mati (μάτι) someone refers to the act of casting the evil eye (Mati being the Greek word for eye); also: "vaskania" (βασκανία, the Greek word for jinx)
Hawaiian "Maka Pilau" (The stink eye)
Hebrew "ayin ha'ra" (the evil eye)[11]
Hindi "Buri Nazar" (evil gaze)
Hungarian szemmel verés (beating with eyes)
Kurdish chawi geza (eye (of) unluck), châwenî (evil eye), chawi pîs (dirty eye)
Italian, malocchio (bad eye)
Japanese "邪眼"
Macedonian, "Zlobno Oko" (the evil eye) or "Uroklivo oko" (the cursing eye)
Malayalam, "Drishtidosham" ("Sight Curse")
Maltese "l-għajn il-ħażina" (the bad eye)
Norwegian "det onde øyet" (the evil eye)
In Persian various terms can be found, depending on the region. In Iran, people use Ceşm Zaxm (pronounced ”Cheshm Zahm”) which means 'harm caused by eye', or Ceşm Šur (pronounced "Cheshm Shoor") meaning 'Sour-Eyed'. In Afghanistan, Dari-speaking people use the terms "nazar" (vision) or "chashmi bad" (bad or evil eye). Tajiki-speakers use the terms "chashmi bad" (bad or evil eye) or simply "chashmi" (derived from the word "chashm", meaning "eye");
Polish złe oko (evil eye) or marne oko
Portuguese, olho gordo (fat eye), quebranto (jinxed/bad luck/breaker), "mau olho" (bad eye) or mau olhado (bad gaze)
Romanian deochi (from the eye)
Russian сглаз (a noun from verb сглазить from noun глаз - "an eye"), дурной глаз ("evil eye", "bad eye")
Sardinian, ocru malu (bad eye)
Sicilian, ucchiatura ("eye activity, look")
Sinhalese eswaha or aswaha
In Slovak little babies are said to have a malady named z očú (from the eyes)
In Spanish, the phrase is mal de ojo (eye curse or eye disease) or simply el ojo (the eye). The act of giving someone mal de ojo is called ojear (literally to eye) in several South American countries.
Swedish "det onda ögat" (the evil eye)
Tagalog "ohiya" or mata ng diablo (the devil's eye)
Tamil "Dhrishti" or Kan dhristi Kannooru கண்ணூறு(the eyes of evil looks)
Turkish "Nazar" (stare) or "kem göz" (evil eye) or simply "göz" (eye)
Urdu "buri nazar" or simply "nazar" ("bad gaze" or simply "gaze")
Yiddish aynore or ahore (from Hebrew עין הרע cayin harac)

Here is a pciture of a charm worn to fend off the "evil-eye"