The Power of Superstition Essays

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.

would of in China. “ My mother had a superstition about certain dangers that can harm children,

Clashes over religion were a never-ending battle with England. The church was being used for corruption and power, and citizens had the Catholicism religion forced upon them. They had no choice but to accept this religion because going against the church meant going against the king. So many people dealt with the situation and conformed to Catholicism. However, there was a vast majority that didn’t. These rebels would start something that would forever be a major part of history. It may seem as though these non-conformists did good, but they actually did not. Puritans did not set a good example for England to learn from, the Quakers did.

What is the difference between superstitions and traditions? «The lottery» by Shirley Jackson provides a good example how superstitions of people from a tiny town affect on those traditions. This story shows dark side of Humanity. Whole community entrusts their life with a small black box. The allegory can confuse you, because the main purpose of the «lottery» is kill one of the citizens for a strange false belief. To my mind, the author tried to explain why new generation sometimes shouldn’t continue the weird and cruel traditions.

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.

Life is full of superstition, whether you like it or not everybody has some sort of superstition in them. Some people don’t let some things go to their head like others do. Some people can get really stubborn if something suspicious happens. I am one of them people, it is really hard to get suspicion out of your head, it is one of them things that once you do it, it is hard to not have those thoughts in your head. And in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn you will see the cause and effects of the use of suspicion. The main character, Huck Finn, used superstition as a means to keep him going in search of his true self and find interesting ways to live life the only way he knew.

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

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.

When I was young I always heard touching toads would give you warts. This was presumed not because people are superstitious or arrogant but because there wasn't any other logical explanation. Toads have a wart like texture so it made sense to hypothesize that's how you got them as well, and other people never questioned other peoples believes. This is an example of conventional wisdom and how it can often be misleading and inaccurate. Conventional wisdom is the ideas that people accept as factual regardless of how truthful that statement is.

For thousands of years ancestors of ancient China have watched over people. They would protect them and watch over them providing that they pray. People of ancient China used a shrine. The shrine was used to honor the ancestors and ask for luck to come when needed. People of china believed there doors had to face south. They believed that the doors facing south brought good fortune and not misfortune. There are many ancient traditions in china for example Yan-Yat, Yan-Yat is the 7th day after chinese

In Massachusetts, John Winthrop who was the governor merited the idea that if an individual cut their fingernails and placed them in a bag of linen thread then tieing it around the neck of a live eel in water that it would die and then the ailed person would instantly be alleviated and the disease would be carried away. Another idea that was formulated and believed to ease the pain of teething babies recommended that a necklace made of wolf teeth and tied around the babies necks should help. If a person was sick, the colonists believed that the sickness had been cast on by witches through spells. Actually, some doctors would even cut a vein and let some of the victim’s blood drain out. This was suppose to remedy the illness. However, these methods were so perilous and risky and often resulted in the death of the sick individual. These superstitious

The triangle has been used throughout the mystery schools around the world as a symbol for manifestation. Points one, two and three represents thoughts, actions and the goal. Once you connect the three points you form a triangle or the manifestation. All things follow this pattern of creation. If you want to become a world class swimmer it will take more than just clicking your heels together three times with positive thinking to obtain your dream. You also need to get in the water and swim, swim a lot.

One superstition that spilling salt is bad luck and the custom of throwing salt could cancel bad luck was started by the ancient Egyptians and sometimes still used today even in our culture.

Some examples of common, everyday superstition include the belief that the number 13 is unlucky, that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck, and that a black cat crossing your path can affect your luck. Belief that black cats affect your luck goes far back in time. One king of England, Charles I, owned a black cat. His fear of losing it was so great that he had it guarded. The day after it fell ill and died, he was arrested. Black cats were often witches in disguise or witches' familiars. There were also many cat charms relating to ships and the sea. Fishermen's wives would keep a black cat at home to prevent disaster at sea, consequently the cats became very valuable and were often stolen. If a cat ran ahead of a sailor to the pier that would bring good luck, but if the cat crossed his path it means bad luck. For luck, cats were often kept on board ships. If a sailor was approached by the ship's cat it meant good luck, but if the cat only came halfway and went away again it meant bad luck. The worst possible cat-related act, guaranteed to raise a storm and bring bad luck of all sorts, was to throw the cat overboard. Cat superstitions were also common in medicine. Fur and blood drawn from various parts of the cat's anatomy cured everything from shingles to St. Anthony's Fire.