Superstition Is A Superstition, And Where Do They Even Come From?

Superstitions are a mysterious part of any culture, and those mysteries greatly influence mysterious writers. Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most famous mysterious authors, use the many mysterious encounters he faced as an asset for his short stories. A major influence was his time in Charleston, South Carolina, where he learned of the many superstitions and rituals of both the blacks and the whites of the area. His interests in horrific rituals like premature burials and zombication (which mainly involves voodoo, familiar to the Lowcountry Gullah culture) helped him to write horrific short stories, like “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Poe’s gory and eerie setting of the house itself and the off-putting characteristics of the Usher siblings expressed Poe’s knowledge of paranoia and interest of the “living dead,” which comes in the weird rituals of the Gullah culture.

Superstition is considered a myth to most people, but for the ancient Romans, this was a historical belief. For the Romans, believing in superstition was a very ordinary thing. To them superstition explained the supernatural and strengthened their relationships with the gods (The Roman Empire). In the play Julius Caesar, the author William Shakespeare uses superstition repeatedly to affect the plot as well as the characters. Superstition in the play is used to foreshadow Caesar’s death, impact Brutus’ actions in the battlefield and to emphasize the Roman’s connection to superstition and fate.

The Elizabethans were a very superstitious bunch. In fact most of our silly seeming superstitions come from them. All of our superstitions from knocking on wood for good luck to black cats crossing your path being a bad omen. They also believed in everything from ghosts, to magic, to fairies, to the influence of the stars and planets alignment.

Although in postmodern society superstitions don’t have much of a place, for most of history they have a played a huge role in shaping culture and society. Whether they are old tales, urban legends, or horror stories, many humans from different backgrounds have created and develop them. A superstition is an irrational fear of what is unknown or mysterious, especially in connection with religion. In the chapter called Stocking, O’Brien describes soldier Henry Dobbins’ talisman. Soldier Dobbin carries to battle, his g ex-girlfriend’s pantyhose. Dobbins is known as a super soldier due to his skills in combat; despite the dangerous situations and mistakes Dobbin commits he always comes out of danger unharmed. Dobbin carries around the pantyhose

Singer and Benassi (1981) described a positive correlation between environmental uncertainty in western countries and occult beliefs. Although it could be argued that they may be overreaching with this generalization which is not supported with data, there is truth to this correlation. Humans try to be rational, and logical, and think critically, but in uncertain situations, we look to our environment, the physical and social environment, to provide us with information. Therefore, superstitions and supernatural phenomenon seem possible if no logical explanation can be given, and if the feedback from the environment reinforces what could be occult beliefs. French, Haque, Bunton-Stasyshyn, & Davis (2009) conducted an experiment attempting to investigate whether they could try to create a “haunted” room, and if participants would experience more abnormal sensations. Participants were informed they may feel some abnormal sensations prior to entering the room. Majority of participants reported having three or more abnormal sensations in the 50-minute period they were in the room. These sensations can be a result of susceptibility, but the uncertainty of that environment, and the lack of information may create these sensations and can validate occult

My family believes in the same superstition. Also, a man should be the first person to walk in the house, and you are supposed to eat greens and black eye peas to have good luck in the New Year. According to Chance (2014), Superstitious behavior is any behavior that occurs repeatedly even though it does not produce the reinforcers that maintain it (Chance 2014, p.184). This is why I agree with Skinner’s explanation of coincidental reinforcement. If you washed clothes on New Year’s and a person happens to passes, di you really wash them out of your life? They could have been secretly ill, and it was an coincident that it happen on New Year’s.

One common superstition that some people believed was that the weather was an expression of God’s feelings (The Religious History of America, page 56). If God was furious there might be a hurricane or an earthquake and if God was happy there might sunshine. A similar superstition suggested that God would express his feeling through people. If people were nice toward someone God was happy with them. If people were rude to one another, God was mad at someone. This superstition is different because instead of God showing feelings at a group of people, God would show his feelings to an individual. (Colonial Religion, page 12). Another popular superstition was that people had to act a certain way in order to receive good luck. For example someone made sure that they would never run into a black cat or else they would have bad luck (The Religious History of America, page 54). Superstitions have diminished in popularity over time but are still present

In our world, we do not think about the paranormal or supernatural events that could be occurring all around

The availability error not only leads us to ignore the relevant evidence, it also leads us to ignore relevant hypotheses. For any set of data, it is, in principle, possible to construct any number of different hypotheses to account for the data. In practice, however, it is often difficult to come up with many different hypotheses. As a result, we often end up choosing among only those hypotheses that come to mind, that are available. In the case of unusual phenomena, the only

Traditions doesn’t have to stay till the end, till how much you can follow you could follow but you need not to follow every single thing they did in the past. We have a lot of superstitious beliefs, traditions I believe in a couple that I think makes sense. Before they would say, if you husband dies, you must burn your body and die as well. Well, in my dictionary I would be like why should I ruin my life when I could do so many other things for my husband when he had to die or died cause of a reason. And now a day, this isn’t happening anymore because there is no point of killing yourself and going thru all the pain just because your husband got into a bomb blast, or a car accident or many others.

Anything that can be explained by science is treated as a known truth. There is a bias within the scientific community based on the “assumption that the public is uninformed, and scientist are purveyors of facts” (Bartell 7). Science and folklore have typically had a tumultuous relationship as the scientific community attempts to “re-interpret phenomena previously explained by folklore and /or supernatural mysticism as logical results of scientifically understood processes” (Jordan 8). The goal of interpreting the supernatural through a scientific lens is reflected in popular culture. I believe that film and television mix science with supernatural themes because science is such a prominent aspect of modern society so it invokes feelings

Local ghost stories about “Labyrinth Highway” began soon after the first disappearances along the road, with the belief that the forest itself was alive taking those who disrespect the natural order. This is due to the first reported missing being logging employees believed to be returning from their

What most people don’t know is that many of the superstitions we believe in today actually originated in the Elizabethan Era. The belief of witches also ties in with many superstitions believed by the Elizabethans long ago and also believed by us today. In the Elizabethan Era, superstitions were found and developed through names, numbers, chants, etc (Alchin, Elizabethan Superstitions). Over time, people started to include these superstitions with the belief of witches. Widows, old women, or any women who had a pet was accused of being a witch (Alchin).

In the dictionary, the definition for superstation is states as, “a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on such a belief.” In my opinion I believe superstitions are beliefs or legends passed down over time that been carried by your past ancestors. Every culture is different, so everyone’s beliefs are different as well. But there are some cultures that have common superstitions. Some superstitions are very hard to believe, and some that are very understandable.

In the play Julius Caesar, there was constant reference to superstition. This is quite ironical because the play is dominated by men who considered themselves as practical, even stoic. We see superstition at work for example, when during the festival of Lupercal, Caesar wanted Antony to touch Calphurnia to relieve her of her barrenness. He also sent his servant to the augers to determine whether it was safe for him to leave the house to go to the Capital that day as Calphurnia has mentioned that there were a lot of bad omen that have presented themselves. He did not want to show himself as someone who is superstitious, so he made himself appear to be not affected by these signs.