Hey Pandas, What Superstition Do You Believe In? (Closed)

Healthcare superstitions.

1: Never try to sleep with your back to your pager.

2: If you say the word "quiet" before end of you shift, the whole world will be in your ER within 10 minutes.

3: Full moon effect is real.

During Chinese New Year Day: Avoid sweeping on New Year's Day to prevent "sweeping away" luck. Do it the day before so that you get rid of all the bad luck.
Make sure your salt, pepper, sugar are all full, so that you enter the new year with flavor; my mom tacks on "a full wallet" so you go into the new year with money. Not sure I believe but why tempt fate?

I still knock on wood, cause Murphy is an a-hole that loves to laugh at me.

Touch wood (double tapping the wood to not jinx yourself)
The horse shoe has a right way to go (it is up to stop the luck falling out)

I am not sure if these are officially superstitions, but most nurses will relate.

1. Never, ever, use the word Quiet in relation to work - The sh*t WILL hit the fan! Especially on night shifts.

2. "It must be a full moon tonight!" is frequently said when working the night shift from hell.

* Normally sane, calm patients will temporarily misplace their marbles.

* I have been given a left hook from an elderly lady that was so hard, I ended up against opposite bed - She had a broken right wrist and was genuinely scared, confused and irrational.

* Those with acute mental health issues are likely to be more irrational or volatile.

* I have been stabbed by a tiny elderly confused lady; she pulled out the needle that was being used to deliver her palliative care medicines and stuck in me really hard.

* I have had to separate 2 ladies as one was having a psychotic like reaction to medication. She was trying to attack another very unwell patient - We eventually managed to distract her and wheel the bed of the other patient to a different part of the ward.

* I have also had to help stop the start of WW3 when a very confused gentleman was looking for a urine bottle and the patient in his bed caught him weeing into his water jug.

In all cases this was no fault of the patients, just their condition, meds and the full moon.

I have so many stories that I am collecting from my 41yrs experience of nursing. I am contemplating trying to collect them in a book for publication!

-Never sign your name with a red pen (bad luck)
-Someone once told me in a stairwell that it is bad luck to go up/down the stairs when someone is going passed (opposite). Now I wait whenever someone is on the stairs and start going up/down when they leave

my culture tends to believe that ghosts haunt hotel rooms, even if the hotel is brand new

so before I ever set foot in my hotel room, I tend to knock on the door to alert any ghostly preoccupation of my presence, so they leave me in peace during my stay

(only the first time though, the following countless times I pass through the doorway were fair game for some reason)

"The Scottish" play.
Bad Dress rehearsal, great opening night.
Never whistle back stage.

*NEVER* tempt Murphy, lest he say 'Challenge Accepted!'

Magpies.

I always say "I'm not superstitious, but..." when it comes to lone magpies, I always salute them and ask how the missus is.

I didn't do it once, and I ended up face-planting in the middle of the city center, on the road, and my phone, handbag and suitcase went flying. I ended up taking a few layers of skin off my knees because my trousers never ripped, but I slid on them. Took forever to heal and one of them healed awkwardly, leaving lovely scars.

So now, I always, ALWAYS salute a single magpie.

Goldsmith.

Never make your own wedding or engagement ring(s)

I will never EVER use a ouija board! I don’t know if I truly believe that spirits roam the earth, but I am not going to willingly summon them. If there are evil spirits, and many cultures are adamant that there are, inviting them into my presence seems dangerous. There are so many unexplained occurrences around the occult that I don’t mind being cautious about that and, in fact, being wary about it doesn’t change the way I go about my life.

As far as I know, none. If Occam’s razor says it’s not true, and you can’t show me evidence to prove otherwise, I’m not buying it.

No matter the town, no matter the time of day, the guy at the stoplight next to you will be picking his nose.

Not really an official superstition but I think Sundays are bad luck. Basically every major fight my family has had seems to have been on a Sunday so it just feels unlucky

I do not considered myself superstitious, but I do have this strange habit of stepping out of my bed on the right side and making sure the right foot touches the floor first. I normally do it when I have something important to do that day.

People I know have these superstitions:
-Never sleep next to a mirror, especially one that reflects your face when asleep.
-On New Year's Day, take a suitcase outside and walk around your building or bloc, so you travel that year.
-Never leave a white tablecloth on your dining table overnight. Soon the household will need a shroud.
-Never pass salt on the table from hand to hand. Make sure the shaker touches the tabletop first.
-If you prepare spicy food while angry, this will be extremely spicy (in Mexico, that's a lot).
-In the countryside, never lend your horse to another man, unless he is a priest (you will be cheated on).

1. Jinxes, kinda. Hey, it's not gonna hurt to say "so far" or whatever.

2. God*. Some days. Maybe a third of the time. It's complicated. Half the time I'm ignostic** and the last third I'm agnostic*** and then there are days when I'm atheist.****

*The Reform Jewish one.

**The whole debate on if God(s) exist doesn't really matter until we properly define it. Coined by Sherwin Wine, a gay rabbi who founded a branch of Judaism that, perhaps not entirely unrelatedly, never actually mentions God, humanistic Judaism.

*** I don't know if God(s) exist/there is _no way_ for humans to know if God(s) exist

**** I know those sum to over 100 percent. Haven't _you_ ever prayed to a God you're pretty confident doesn't exist?

I also believe some superstitions:

I always knock on the wood not to jinx myself, if I can't find wood I use paper (as it's made from wood)

I believe full moon affects people (especially in hospitals)

I tend to my garden or sow the seeds when it's waxing crescent as plants grow better

I also know these, but not so much in believing them:

If black cat crosses the street - I am not afraid to go after it as I know it has white balls I just can't see it

I don't believe that if you brake mirror you will be unlucky for seven years

Magpies.

I always say "I'm not superstitious, but..." when it comes to lone magpies, I always salute them and ask how the missus is.

I didn't do it once, and I ended up face-planting in the middle of the city center, on the road, and my phone, handbag and suitcase went flying. I ended up taking a few layers of skin off my knees because my trousers never ripped, but I slid on them. Took forever to heal and one of them healed awkwardly, leaving lovely scars.

Not so much a lored superstition, but, I MUST put my left sock and shoe on first. If not, "bad things will happen." Proved it to myself once by putting my right house shoe on first and my stereo record button snapped off. Never put my right shoe on first again after that.