Superstitions And Their Reasons

By Suparna Chakaraborthy

Friday, August 13, 2010, 14:44

Superstition, an outcome of human fears and imagination, is the strongest believe which a human being has ever kept. Maybe because there are too many people to acknowledge the facts.

Psychologists say, that it's an human tendency to believe the bad than the good. It is so because, the good does not strike a caution but the evil does and steps need to be taken to prevent it from happening.

One major feature of superstition is that they are all old dated. The reason is, in olden days when the intelligentsia of the society wanted to caution people of a practice, they did so by attaching an evil connotation to it. They did this because it was the best way to explain to the illiterate. With time people became literate but couldn't deny the deep embedded superstition.

Here are some of the reasons of famous superstition -

1.Black Cat superstition – If a black cat crosses your path, you need to stop where you are. If you cross the that line without anyone else crossing it first, you will get bad luck. The most literate of people still follow it.

In the villages, the roads used be uneven and people in those days walked without slippers. When they were cautioned about the black cat, they would be careful while walking on the road.

2.Fast On Monday – Specially designed for girls, this superstition says, that if a girl fast's on Monday, she will get a husband like Lord Shiva.

Scientifically, one day fast helps the body to rest the system. During fasts, girls were kept on liquid diet. It helped the body to rework it's digestive systems. During fast's girls were denied household work, thus giving them a chance to rest.

3.Don't Go Near Tree At Night – If you go near the tree at night, ghost will catch hold of you.

At night plants, give out carbon dioxide. If you go near it, you will inhale that. Thus this superstition was made to prevent people from practicing it.

4.Stop If You Sneeze – On your way out, if you sneeze, you should stop for sometime. If you don't you will get bad luck.

Generally, the first sneeze is accompanied with another. If you sneeze while you walk, you might lose focus on the road and hurt yourself. Thus, this superstition was followed.

5. 3:00 AM Is The Time Of Evil – Christians believe that 3 o' clock at night the evil spirits become more active. So, no one should step out of bed at that time and keep a cross near.

There are people who tend to stay awake till late in the night. Thus was a way to get them to bed on time.

We face these superstition everyday. We are so used to following them that we do it mechanically without questioning but we should. The superstition's are passed on to the next by the present but let this generation stop the system.