Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Some Fun Appalachian Superstitions

If you walk across a cellar door or a cellar grating you will never get married.


If you turn over a chair in rising, begin to say the alphabet. The letter you pick it up on is the initial of your future life partner.


If in dressing the baby for the first time you put its right arm into its dress first, it will be right-handed (and so w/ the left, it will be left-handed).


Place a child on the floor with a Bible, a dollar, and a deck of cards. The one that he chooses first indicates his future as a preacher, financier, or a gambler.


Never kiss a girl behind the ear; it brings bad luck. (yeah, but that's such a "sweet spot" though!)


Put a love vine on a bush and name it. If it grows, the person loves you.


Anyone whose eyebrows grow in a straight line across the forehead possesses a fiendish disposition. (or they're the "missing link"!)


Place the hand over the mouth when you are yawning, to keep the evil spirits from entering. (too late!)


It's bad luck to throw a hoe over the fence. (yeah, you might miss and impale her!)


It's bad luck to bring an axe into the house. (especially if the "hoe" you impaled gets back up!)


If you pour some of the first of each milking into a creek, the cow will not go dry.


Lightning & thunder will sour milk.


To stumble when going upstairs is a sign that you will receive a letter.


It is bad luck to hang out clothes after dark.


It is bad luck to shake out a tablecloth after dark.


If you dream that your teeth fall out, there will be a death.


When the moon hangs low in the south, there will be mild weather.


Moss growing on the south side of trees means that a cold winter may be expected.


An owl's hooting indicates the coming of heavy rain.


No frost will fall when a full moon is shining.


The number of rings around the moon shows how many days there will be before the rain.


A ring around the moon with a star in it bring clear weather.


Two rings around the full moon brings snow within 24 hours.


The redbird's whistle is a sign of rain.


Morning dreams come true.


Friday night's dream on Saturday told
Is sure to come true -- be it ever so old!


Saturday dreamed and Sunday told
Is sure to come true before a month old!


If you sleep with the dream bone, taken from the ham of a hog, under your pillow, your dreams will come true.


If you sleep under a new quilt your dreams will come true.


It brings bad luck to dream about catching a bird.


To dream of blood is the sign of coming disgrace.


It is a sign of death to dream of a fine-tooth comb. (I don't know about y'all, but I've never dreamt of any kind of comb.)


If you drive a nail into the ground, there will be rain the next day. (ok, might have to try this one! LOL)


The cry of a peacock is followed by rain. (no peacocks around here...might have to buy one to try it out!)


If there is a ring around the moon, rain may be expected. The nearer it is, the soon will the rain come.


The number of rings around the moon shows how many days there will be before the rain.


If the moon changes in the afternoon or evening there will not be rain. ("moon changes"? ok, and it does this how?)


There will be rain if mice cry loudly at night. (this should be interesting to witness! *Update - holy shit, it's true! LMAO)


If the rain gets thick & heavy, almost like mist, the weather will turn cold.


If a lamp flickers continually, there will be rain.


It brings bad luck for the last of 3 people to use a lighted match in smoking. (I don't smoke, so I don't have to worry about this one!)


The seventh daughter of a seventh daughter or the seventh son of a seventh son will be extremely lucky.


If you stick a knife in the ground 8 times you will have good luck. (Hmm, might have to try this one, it's certainly easy enough!)


Those born on the 13th will die before they are thirty. (Now that would be a statistic I'd like to see!)


If you find the number 13 turned towards you, you will be an old maid.


Put 24 canceled postage stamps into an envelope, and throw them out of a window in the morning. You will find something. (If I had 24 pieces of mail that even HAD a stamp on it, then I might try it - or maybe that would be considered beneficial in and of itself, considering how seldom stamps are used today!)


If you try to count 100 stars without looking down, you will fall dead on the 99th!


Hoodoo a person by putting a shoe with a dead rat in it on their doorstep.


To hoodoo a person, shake down dust on him through a crack in the ceiling.


To hoodoo anyone, put snake dust (that is, the dust made by pulverizing a dried snake) into his shoes.


Put red pepper in your shoe to ward off a conjurer's work.


Place a silver dime in your shoe, you cannot be hoodooed.


Get rid of a witch by shooting her picture over running water.


If you are about to break a witch's charm by shooting her picture with a silver bullet, she can break the charm, provided she or a member of her family borrows anything from you or your family.


AzureGreen- Celebrating All Paths to the Divine


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