False Fears?: Seahawks dish on their secret superstitions
Do you dread Friday the 13th? If you see a penny on the ground, do you automatically pick it up for good luck? Do you knock on wood to ward off bad luck? Are you someone that purposefully avoids walking under ladders? If so, you might be a superstitious person. 25% of Americans admit they are very superstitious and over 50% admit to believing in at least one superstition.
Superstitions originate from all over the world. Ninth grader Jeffery Smrha-Monroe muses about how superstitions could have possibly originated. “Well, people didn't really know there was this gigantic object floating in space so when the first solar eclipse happened they just thought it was something really bad happening and put a name on it based on everything else was going on.”
One of the most common superstitions, wishing on a shooting star, came from the first century when Ptolemy, a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet, declared a shooting star was a sign that the gods were watching. The idea that blowing out all the candles on your birthday cake brought good luck came from Ancient Greece, where they would put candles on their birthday cakes to honor their moon goddess Artemis.
“I think at first [superstitions originated] from shamans with hallucinations and plants like magic mushrooms but I think over time it became an integrated part of our society and people started to believe it and once you start to believe in something it makes it real,” says tenth grader Sam Hindman.
The idea of a horseshoe being lucky actually came from the theory that witches were afraid of horses, so in the Middle Ages people believed hanging their shoes up on their door or fence would ward them off. Likewise, wishing on dandelions came from the Celts, who believed dandelions cured diseases that fairies would inflict. “[A superstition is] the belief in something that cannot be directly explained but seems to have an impact on something,” says Smrha-Monroe.
“[A superstition is] something you do in fear of something else happening, just out of caution” says freshman Paige Helt. “When you sleep always having your head face away from the door and always having a blanket on you when you sleep for covers” says Helt, commenting on her superstitions.
“A coincidence is just a random variable of events happening that leads up to something else” says Smrha-Monroe, a non-believer in superstitions.
There are some odd, unique superstitions, but most people recognize the word superstition by the most distinguishable and common ones. “The most common superstition I've heard of is just believing in ghosts in general” says Hindman. Other common superstitions include: black cats bringing bad luck, opening an umbrella inside brings bad luck, and itchy palm means good fortune will come your way, and tossing spilled salt over your shoulder will prevent bad luck.
Déjà vu (a French term that literally means “already seen”) is a feeling 60-80% of people have felt at some point in their life. “I feel like I have [experienced it.] It’s like a weird feeling when you feel like you've already lived this moment and you're reliving it in the moment. I don't know what it is honestly I just think it's when I'm really tired and really out of it and it's probably not real.” says Helt.
Another explanation for déjà vu is cryptomnesia. Cryptomnesia is when your brain has stored information in it, but then later forgotten it. “I have experienced déjà vu. It's basically like something you feel like has already happened but like you know it's gonna happen but you can say like this happened but you can't remember a time where it's happened before” says Hindman.
Many people have superstitions, but very few know where they come from or where the idea came from. Studies show that a lot of times people believe in superstitions that they'll even agree that they probably aren't true, but find themselves believing in them anyways. Superstitions are a part of almost every culture, and can really shape the way people view the world.
