Showing posts with label superstitions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label superstitions. Show all posts

March 13 – Open an Umbrella Indoors Day

Posted on March 13, 2016

Don't walk under a ladder, or you'll have bad luck!

If a black cat crosses your path, you'll have bad luck!

If you break a mirror, you'll have bad luck – SEVEN YEARS of bad luck!

If you step on sidewalk crack, you'll have bad luck!

If you open an umbrella indoors, you'll have bad luck!

According to superstitions, there are lots of ways to bring bad luck down on yourself. But of course, I'm sure you know that these are silly bits of folklore that – although they have been handed down for generations – haven't got a shred of truth to them.

I mean, let's face it, every day bad things AND good things happen to all of us. We could look carefully at every day and think, “Well, here's an example of good luck, and here is an example of bad luck.” But the truth is, there really is no such thing as “luck.”

Everything that happens, good or bad, has an explanation. Sometimes the explanation isn't very satisfying. For example, a person was careful all of her life not to smoke, not to live in a place with air pollution, not to work in a job where she has to breathe toxic chemicals – and yet she still gets lung cancer. The explanation may be that she inherited bad genes. That explanation seems not only unsatisfying, it seems unfair! But it still might be true.

Here's another example: A couple of friends may enter prize drawings every week at the library summer reading program, and one friend may win three times over the course of the summer, while the other friend may not win at all. Again, it seems totally unfair! And we may want to say, X has good luck, and Y does not. But the truth is probably that X the winning and the not-winning were just chance.

A man named Thomas E. Knibb started National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day to encourage people to notice that, when they break the superstitious rules, nothing happens. Well, of course, stuff DOES happen, and like always, it is a mix of good and bad stuff. But there isn't a sudden, dramatic uptick of bad things happening after you open an umbrella indoors.

Check and see!

NOTE: Obviously, opening umbrellas anywhere can be tricky. If you aren't careful, you could knock something off a shelf or counter, or you could poke someone, when you open an umbrella. So...be careful!

Of course, to celebrate Open an Umbrella Indoors Day, you could do more than just test out superstitions.


You could create a private play spot...


decorate a room with a large garden-sized umbrella... 


build an umbrella fort (probably outside, where you have more space!)...






Also on this date:


Daylight Savings Time begins






















Decoration Day in Liberia





















Plan ahead:
And here are my Pinterest boards for:


November 15, 2010


Sichi-Go-San – Japan

The name of this holiday means “seven-five-three.” It is a rite of passage and a festival day honoring the passage to middle childhood for five- and seven-year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys. Children wear kimonos or other formal wear, are taken to shrines, and are often photographed. Kids are also given Chitose Ame, or thousand-year candy. Don't worry, the candy isn't 1,000 years old! Instead, this long, thin candy symbolizes a long life and healthy growth. The candy is wrapped in thin, clear rice paper that is edible, and it is given to kids in bags decorated with cranes and turtles—which also represent long life.

One reason that ages 3, 5, and 7 are recognized with this festival is that, according to an old Japanese tradition, odd numbers are said to be lucky. People who play games such as dice game often think of some numbers as being especially lucky or unlucky. Can you think of any superstitions you have heard about certain numbers?

Triskaidekaphobia

Some people fear the number 13. (This fear or phobia has the 7-syllable name above.)

There are some ancient traditions that explain the linkage of the number 13 with evil. For example, ancient Persians had a tradition that the number 13 is associated with chaos, and the 13th day of the Persian calendar is associated with bad luck. An old Christian tradition suggests that Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the thirteenth to sit down to the “last supper.” An old Norse tradition suggests that the shape-shifting, troublesome Loki (who was said to be the thirteenth god of the Vikings) was the thirteenth guest at the funeral of Balder, the god of beauty and light—a god Loki had conspired to have murdered.

From these and probably other ancient beginnings rose a superstition that, if 13 people come together in a group, one of them will soon die. Friday the thirteenth is famously thought of as an unlucky day—and to some a day associated with evil.

Some people will not rent an apartment number 13 or stay on the thirteenth floor of a hotel. Because of this, some builders skip the number 13 when labeling floors. As a matter of fact, almost no hotel in Las Vegas (a city that is all about numbers and luck) has a floor labeled "13." However, I have always thought that the thirteenth floor is still the thirteenth floor, even if it is labeled "14" on the elevator!

In 1881, a group of influential New Yorkers decided to put an end to such silly superstitions. They formed the Thirteen Club, and on their first meeting, on Friday the 13th, January 1881, at 8:13 p.m., thirteen people sat down to dinner in Room 13 of a club. Guests entered the room by walking under a ladder, and there were piles of spilled salt here and there.

Everyone survived, and the Thirteen Club thrived. Soon other Thirteen Clubs sprung up all over the United States and held meetings for the next forty years. Interest in the clubs faded out...but, then again, belief in superstitions about numbers has been fading, too. (I think. I hope!)