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@pete wrote:
Three on a match (also known as third on a match) is a supposed superstition among soldiers during the Crimean War to World War I. The superstition goes that if three soldiers lit their cigarettes from the same match, one of the three would be killed or that the man who was third on the match would be shot. Since then it has been considered bad luck for three people to share a light from the same match.
The belief was that when the first soldier lit his cigarette, the enemy would see the light; when the second soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would take aim and note if the soldier was friendly or foe; when the third soldier lit his cigarette from the same match, the enemy would fire.
There was in fact no such superstition during the First World War.(The light would not be visible if the soldiers were in a trench or bunker, as they usually were when not attacking.) The superstition was alleged to have been invented about a decade later by the Swedish match tycoon Ivar Kreuger in an attempt to get people to use more matches but it appears he merely made very shrewd use of the already existing belief which may date to the Boer War. In the 1916 novel “The Wonderful Year” the following explanation is given: “It arises out of the Russian funeral ritual in which the three altar candles are lit by the same taper. To apply the same method of illumination to three worldly things like cigars or cigarettes is regarded as an act of impiety and hence as unlucky.”
in other words complete arse water
it must be true because Billy Connolly did a really funny story about it :)
@pete wrote:
Superstition has it that, at all times, a devil waits over your left shoulder, and also that spilling salt is bad luck (perhaps because it used to be rare and precious). Hence, you can mitigate your bad luck by throwing salt into the eyes of the devil. There’s also a belief that your guardian angel (who can be found over your right shoulder) spills salt to warn you of evil nearby. Either you throw the salt to hurt the devil or, as salt was valuable, as an offering to placate him.
are you religious ????
are you grumpy ?
No touch wood :lol:
Excluding the obvious – that something might fall on you from above – the belief
that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck seems to stem from the ladder
forming a triangle with the wall and the ground. This represents the “Holy
Trinity”, and if you violate this by entering the space, it puts you in league with
the devil, and you’re likely to incur God’s wrath.Hmmmm been thinking a bit more about this…there are several things that I do on a daily basis that are understandable when you know the nature of my business, but that other people might see as superstitious. :?
I always close my flies lest people giggle
Broken Mirrors
An ancient myth our ancestors believed was that the image in a mirror is our actual soul. A broken mirror represented the soul being astray from your body. To break the spell of misfortune, you must wait seven hours (one for each year of bad luck) before picking up the broken pieces, and bury them outside in the moonlight.@pete wrote:
Broken Mirrors
An ancient myth our ancestors believed was that the image in a mirror is our actual soul. A broken mirror represented the soul being astray from your body. To break the spell of misfortune, you must wait seven hours (one for each year of bad luck) before picking up the broken pieces, and bury them outside in the moonlight.I was always told it was 7 years bad luck for a broken mirror. :?
Sarah….it’s bad luck not to read a post properly :lol:
You do all realise that im now going to have a mountain of superstitions that i never had before????? :?
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