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April 14, 2014 11 Comments

Superstitions

Crossed fingers

Photo by Carmella Fernando / by CC 2.0

If someone were to ask, I’d say I’m not a superstitious person. I will open an umbrella inside with no qualms, and a black cat crosses my path every day (and cuddles me every night). But if I examine the facts I have to admit I might be a wee little bit superstitious. I would qualify superstition as anything you do or believe that has magical, non-scientific reasons for its effectiveness like, oh, these three things:

1) Crossing my fingers for good luck
As a web developer I frequently have to test a web site after I’ve made changes to it. When I’ve made a tricky edit that I’m not completely sure will work, I always, always, ALWAYS, cross my fingers on both hands after I press the refresh button in the browser. I keep them crossed for the 10, 20, 30 or however many seconds the page takes to load and my fate is revealed in HTML destiny. Rationally I know that all this does is make it harder for me to use my keyboard and mouse. Irrationally, I feel like it gives me good juju and will help magically fix any coding errors that previously existed on the page.

2) Knocking on wood
You’re supposed to knock on wood to prevent jinxing yourself if you say something that tempts fate. So if I were to say, “Thank goodness I’ve never been eaten by a pack of wild dogs,” I would follow that up with, “Knock on wood!” to prevent myself from meeting that fate simply by bragging about the fact that it’s never happened. If there’s wood in the room, I will actually knock on it, but if no wood is available I just say the words. Obviously, this is completely insane. If I could summon a pack of wild dogs simply by mentioning them, my enemies would be far more scared of me.

3) Burying a statue of St. Joseph in the yard to sell a house
I have never owned a house or sold one, but if I had to I would definitely bury a St. Joseph statue in the yard. According to Snopes there are several theories on how this practice started. I’ve always thought of it as a Catholic thing, but I think it could work for anyone. There is a lot of debate about whether you should bury the statue in the front yard or the back yard and if St. Joseph should be right-side up, upside down, or on his back pointing at something. I don’t know how or where I’d bury St. Joe, but I would do it. Apparently a lot of people feel the same way because there is an entire St. Joseph Home Sales Kit available online.

Of all my superstitions I realize this one is the most absurd because it’s so labor-intensive. It doesn’t take much time or effort to cross your fingers or knock on wood, but this task requires you to buy something and then go dig up your yard. Selling your house has a lot more to do with the current market conditions and whether your house smells like freshly-baked cookies than it does with whether or not you have a plastic statue hidden in the dirt outside. Yet, when a friend of mine mentioned that her house had been on the market for several months my first question was, “Have you buried a St. Joseph statue in the yard?” She hasn’t, and the rational part of my brain knows that her real estate problems have nothing to do with the lack of a plastic statue in her yard, but the other part of my brain really thinks she should try it. I will cut her some slack though because it’s harder to dig up your yard when there’s two feet of snow on the ground like there has been all winter.

So what about you? Do you have any superstitions you know are ridiculous but feel compelled to take part in anyway?

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Leave a Comment (11) Read more about: crossing your fingers, knock on wood, saint joseph, st joseph, superstition, superstitions

Jennette Fulda is the author of:

Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn't Go Away

"Smart, unflinchingly honest, and laugh-out-loud funny."

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Comments

  1. Vickie says

    April 15, 2014 at 6:58 am

    Knock on wood is a big one for me too. I am actually very careful in what I say, so that I do not have to knock on wood. I guess I take the jinx thing seriously. I am also a BIG Hail Mary prayer girl.

    I had a non-Catholic friend who did the St Joe thing (upside down thank you very much). I just went back and looked in her archives, to see front or backyard, and discovered I was the one who suggested it. She ordered off Internet with priority mail. And yes, house sold.

    I had a black cat long ago too. . .no worries.

    Reply
  2. Meg says

    April 15, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    I am 100% convinced that bragging will bring me doom. Like, saying “I just love the project I’m working on now!” will get me fired, and “My apartment is so nice!” will get me evicted.

    Reply
  3. Shirley @ gfe & All Gluten-Free Desserts says

    April 15, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    I’m similar to you, Jennette. I’m not superstitious because I’ll go in a different door than I entered, walk under ladders, some of our favorite cats have been black, etc., but I do things for good luck, so to speak. Crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, and the like.

    Now I want to know if that St. Joseph statue works if you simply have land to sell. I mean it’s called a “Home Sales Kit.” We really have land we want to sell ASAP. I think that guy who is selling the kits is making a killing, but who can chance not having the statue, right? I’m going to buy one if it applies to land, too. Not Catholic, but we’re anxious to sell!

    Shirley

    Reply
  4. Courtney says

    April 15, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    Oh my gosh, my little Polish Catholic grandmother does all of the superstitions, plus some of her own. If you forget something after you’ve left the house, when you go back in you MUST sit down and count to 10. And I have never neglected to do it because I am totally convinced something horrible would happen. Memaw said so.

    Reply
  5. JenFul says

    April 15, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    @Courtney – I just thought of another one Fred told me about back in high school. He said signing your name in red ink is bad luck in Korea and means you’re going to die soon. Now I try not to sign my name with a red pen if I can avoid it!

    Reply
  6. JenFul says

    April 15, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    @Shirley @ gfe & All Gluten-Free Desserts – I’m not sure if it would work for land sales, but I suppose you can give it a try! If you do, let us know how it goes.

    Reply
  7. Natalie says

    April 17, 2014 at 6:13 am

    I have never heard of St. Joseph. How funny! (non-Catholic Australian here)

    We have a running gag in my Dungeons and Dragons game that if anyone says “I’m on fire!” (meaning things are going really well for them), then pretty soon they will find that their character actually is on fire…

    Reply
  8. Kate ancell says

    April 18, 2014 at 5:32 pm

    We did the St. Joseph thing and it worked–and I should say that apparently it’s okay to bury him in, say, a flower pot or window box (as we did) if you don’t have a yard or it’s frozen (although that said, just who is making the rules here?). We lived in the city and buried him head first in a basil pot on the windowsill (after making a special journey to Mustard Seed books to retrieve him). So you could give your friends a pot plant with him pre-buried and maybe that would do it!

    Reply
  9. Jen says

    April 23, 2014 at 8:46 pm

    I bought a statue of St. Joseph in a desperate attempt to sell a house that had been on the market for months. I went to a Catholic bookstore where they gave me the stink-eye when I asked for one, probably guessing my fiendish plan.

    I can’t say that it helped — the house sold eventually, but not until after I went through a lot of sweat and tears and several more months of renovating this thing, then that thing. Painting my basement floor probably had more to do with selling the house than the stupid statue.

    You are supposed to dig poor St. Joe up when you sell the house, and put him in a place of honor at the new one. I tried and tried to find the guy, but I think the squirrels kidnapped him. I finally grabbed a rock about the same size as the statue and put it on a shelf in my new basement.

    Reply
  10. Jen says

    April 23, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    P.S. I did the statue thing mostly to shut up all the people giving advice (as you did with so many of the headache remedies), so maybe I didn’t do it in the proper spirit?

    Reply
  11. Jen says

    April 23, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    @Kate ancell – A pot plant or a potted plant? I guess either could make a nice housewarming gift, depending on state and local laws!

    Reply

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