Blogcritic Veshka dispells a few superstitions:
- Friday the 13th: Well, might as well start with this. This one's half biblical, half witch hunt. First part, it is believed that Adam and Eve were given the boot from the Garden on a Friday, and that the flood started on a Friday, and generally most of the nastiness of the Bible. As for the 13, it's a number the Inquisitors linked with Witchcraft during the Burning Times. 13 is the average number of full moons in a year (thus the number of "Witches' Sabbats" as noted by the Malleus Maleficarium). 13 is also the number Inquisitors believed to be in a coven - 12 Witches and the Devil. So, throw the worst day of the week in biblical terms with a number people were killed for, and volia, one nasty occurance filled with "evil". Or, cheezy 80's horror flicks.
Walking under a ladder: Another religious superstition. It was believed that disrupting any triangle was like disrupting the trinity. So walking under a ladder, which makes a triangle in relation to the ground and the wall (or other half of the ladder), was symbolic of such and shouldn't be done. If done, you obviously were in leauge with the Devil. Yep, un-hun, sure. Swamp land in Flordia, you say?
Black Cats: I've had a few black cats, and lived to tell the tale. Actually, this one has slight Egyptian roots. Bast, Egyptian Goddess, was associated with the domestic cat, and was depicted as a black cat. In attempts to discourage the Egyptians from worshiping their Gods, the chruch did their best to convince them that they were evil. The thought that if a black cat crossed your path being bad luck, again, probably stems from the Burning Times, since cats, and particularly dark colored ones, were considered familliars of Witches, and to be seen within the vicinity of one was enough evidence for someone to point the finger and yell heathen.
Article comments
1 - Tabitha
well i happen 2 be a witch and i have been 1 4 many years and i think most of that superstious stuff is bull in fact the color black repels evil not attracts it like many people believe black cats bring bad luck and evil spirits i have ghad many black cats and most of them were born on friday the thirtheenth so really the bad luck mombo jumbo is bull