LUCK AND SUPERSTITION

I'm sure that most people have little rituals to do with luck. I know that I do.

Some people read their horoscope every day and some take this further and have full astrological charts drawn up or get a Tarot reading done.

Here are some of the little things that I do that have somehow been instilled in me:

• Touch wood for luck
• Don't put shoes on a table
• Don't sit on a table
• Don't let birds into a house
• Don't open an umbrella inside a house
• Don't look at the full moon through a window until you've seen it outside first
• Bad luck comes in threes
• Find a penny and pick it up for luck

Some of these have cultural meaning as in Maori believed (with good reason) that shoes and arses on a table is unhygienic. Some are pagan in origin and others have been adopted by modern religion where I guess I picked up my little habits from home and school.

Some others that I'm aware of but am not addicted to are:

• Finding your initials on a spider's web is good luck
• Hands tingling -  left money coming in and right money leaving
• Don't let a flag fall or it's bad luck
• Welcome a dog into your house for good luck
• Cat into a house is bad luck
• Meeting up with a cow is good luck (Richard would disagree)
• Grasshoppers and garden insects coming in to house are good luck
• Butterfly flying into house brings important news
• Putting clothes on wrong way around is extreme good luck (Richard and I should be lucky as we grow older then)
• Rainbows or when it rains and the sun is shining is good luck
• Left ear itching nice things right ear bad things
• Bird dropping landing on your head brings wealth
• 666 is the symbol of the devil
• A rabbit's foot will bring you luck
• Black cat's crossing your path brings bad luck
• Don't walk under a ladder
• etc.

There are many more including all of those silly little rituals that Catholics indulge in that have their origins in pagan history.

Some people have lucky charms like that rabbit's foot and others have favourite toys or possessions that they feel will be unlucky to let go of.

I have a frog.

I can't remember exactly when I got my frog but think that it was in the 1980s. My little frog (no name) joined me after there was a spate of burglaries in the house I lived in on a farm in Papatoetoe in the early 1980s - 14 burglaries in about 11 months. This got to the point where insurance companies wouldn't insure us and the police were unable to do anything. I used to go home for lunch several times each week on random days at random times but was never able to catch anyone. I had a baseball bat and was fully prepared to use it. The problem started when the new motorway was being built which went next to the farm. This obviously created a walking link from Mangere which lasted while the motorway was being built. Once the motorway was built which took about a year the burglaries stopped as it's illegal to walk or cycle along motorways. 

I of course attribute the cessation of the burglaries to the acquisition of my frog.

The little frog has had prime position in the hallways of the various houses I've lived in since. It keeps a sharp lookout on the front and or back doors. When we were overseas for a couple of years the frog stayed behind keeping an eye on our furniture and valuables that were in a storage garage,

He did a great job. I trust my frog.