Why are we superstitious

Everyone has a superstition or two. Whether it's wearing a specific tie to a job interview or growing a playoff beard to coincide with your team growing one, superstitions are a part of our lives.

Why do we have superstitious? What makes us want to repeat a task or have some sort of special clothing or item that we need to make us feel like everything is going to be alright?

why are we so superstitious? 

its in our blood and culture to hug superstitions and stereotypes. As we progress furthur in time, the same things that were regarded as ominous signs of trouble by our gandparents or their grandparents, are now impractical ideology for us youth. That is because of the exposure we have regarding the nature of the world. and furthurmore, we live in a very opinionated world. 

Passing a anti-superstition law does not mean anything for a commoner who hardly cares about reading the newspaper. Laws and policies are recognised more in the urban, educated society, but maybe not to a villager in some distant village where black magic, witches and so on are an integral part of their lifestyle. 

I;m not saying that urbanites are totally derived of being superstitious, apparenty not...with the biggest filmmakers terrified of certain dates and time. Haven't it been for superstitions, nobody would check their horoscopes either, be it on Yahoo.

How do you define a superstition ? One man's faith can be another man's superstition. What is required is to ensure that criminal practices carried out in the garb of faith are stopped. This again is a contentious issue. Yes, human sacrifices are inhuman. But essentially it simply reflects the desire of one man to acquire whatever he needs in a Machiavellian manner. Big leaders and terrorists also do the same thing, killing humans to achieve their ends. They don't use the cover of 'tantrik' , but in their case they have 'ideologues' and political analysts, etc. 

Essentially this all shows that people are selfish.

The real reason sports fan have so many superstitions is that they help us feel like we're in control. There's nothing worse than just to sit and watch your team fail. In the big moments of the game we want to feel like somehow, in some little way, we were partially responsible. It's our way of being part of the team, to show our support, and have a belief that our teams will always prevail.

Maybe I really can't control the game, but I can control my superstitious behaviors. If we can't believe in superstitions then what can we believe in? I know that statement sounds ridiculous, but superstitious are just our beliefs; transformed into a manner that allows us never to waiver in our thought process.

There are thousands of superstitions in our life like but i have list 10 most common superstitious things in our life.

TOP 10 MOST COMMON SUPERSTITIOUS THINGS IN OUR LIFE

Sports superstitions 

Athletes are a rare bunch. This might be the least debatable statement in this entire article. Depending on the sport, there are many interesting stories. For one, it is widely accepted that players do things depending on the streak they are in. Sometimes, a player that has a strong game may repeat every step in his preparation for the following games.

Other athletes will never touch lines. Baseball pitchers rarely touch the white lines. There could be many explanations and each hurler may have his own. I suspect that it's because smudging the white lines that separate fair balls from foul ones may make a call go against them in later innings as the umpire may think that the ball, and not their foot, touched the line.

Hockey players are the same -- from goalies that talk to their post, to others who jump over the blue line that separates the defensive zone from the neutral zone. Current Colorado goaltender, Patrick Roy, admitted to talking to his goalposts in his rookie season with the Montreal Canadiens when he won the championship -- but only after the playoffs were over. Whatever their madness, there is usually a method to it and this is measured by the win and loss column.

 Step on a crack -

Nobody wants to break their mothers back. I know my mom's back has had some problems and she doesn't need me breaking it. The only reason I mention this old saw is because it was my first remembered introduction to luck/superstition. You mean to tell me that if I step on a crack I'll break my moms back?! this was fascinating to me. how is it that these cracks know who everyone's mother is? And more importantly why doesn't the city do something about it? can't they pour crackless concrete? or better yet make sidewalks out of cobblestones so we don't have to spend our mornings walking to school avoiding chiropractic peril on

our moms.

Rabbit's foot 

A rabbit's foot is considered lucky by many, if carried in a pocket. Although many people opt to hang them from rearview mirrors and the like, this lucky charm's influence dates back to 500BC. The claim that rabbits are rather prolific was linked to luck, especially when it came to the life of others. But because of rabbits' proximity to land, their fertility was believed to help families with their crops, and as a result, general finances and family.

Those in Ancient times believed that because the rabbit's strong hind legs touched the ground before its front ones did, the rabbit's foot was a powerful charm against evil.


WISH ON FALLING START
 Everyone knows that if you see a genuine falling star, you are guaranteed one wish. It can be anything of course, but the rules on star wishing are pretty vague to say the least. apparently there is not time limit on granting this wish. So if I wish for say 1 million dollars. The falling star just says 'well, over the course of your life, you will make 1 million dollars sooooo, I guess my work is done here see ya!' Darn, I gotta stop wishing for 1 million dollars


MY LUCKY X

This something of some permanence and usually unusual in nature but not always. Talismans are knowns to endow the bearer with strange mystical powers and rare luck. I've had many lucky things. The lucky Rabbits foot is among the most recognizable but I never owned one. I believe the standard rejoinder against the rabbits foot is 'It wasn't lucky for the Rabbit was it?'. True, but we don't think of luck in terms of others. Luck is always relative and specific to each person evaluating it. I have had lucky rocks, lucky kids meal toys, lucky casino chips, lucky dice, lucky credit cards, lucky ID cards. With so many lucky things, you'd think I would be brimming with luck. Well I am. I couldn't be much more lucky really. I'm certain that my lot in life was helped in some small way by all of those items.


Walking under a ladder 

Early Christians believed that any ladder that was leaning formed a triangle, with the wall and ground being the other two sides. This triangle supposedly represented the Holy Trinity, and walking through it violated it: a religious faux-pas rendering you a devil. As you can imagine, such a devil label was not going to improve your life, hence bringing you bad fortune. 

As public lynching grew in popularity, so did the preferred method of hanging. As a result, ladders were used to remove the corpse from the pole. If anyone were to walk under it, they would essentially be coming face to face with death as the hangman would catch their eyes.

With time, a more obvious reason for this superstition was the logical assumption that anyone on a ladder was doing some kind of work that was dangerous or potentially messy. From public hangings to public paintings, stay away from the ladders. 

You can avoid bad luck (if you believe in that sort of thing) by walking under the ladder backwards and making a wish.


ITCHY PALM SUPERSTITION

This one is more of a fortune teller than a lucky thing, but who doesn't want to know they are getting money? And better yet, they get advanced warning! Thank goodness. Without advanced warning, who knows what I would have done with my precipitous windfall? I may have just blown it on something that was a little bit more expensive than I could afford thus increasing my used credit and lowering my credit score. What? I couldn't qualify for the loan to buy my house? BAD LUCK. I guess I'll have to move to somewhere a little less posh.


7 years bad luck superstition

Originally, reflections were perceived as glimpses of the viewer's soul. It was also for this reason that reflections from water were used as a window into one's soul. With time, some would hurl rocks into the still water to shatter the reflection and disrupt their "soul-searching," and effectively bring about bad luck. As times have changed, the broken mirror superstition has taken on a larger dimension and is, in fact, the equivalent of the still water rippling about. 

There are two theories as to why a person was sentenced to seven years of bad luck, as opposed to another number:

A) Romans believed that life would renew itself every seven years and that a person's life could be transferred to a mirror. If the mirror breaks, then the last person who looked into it was believed to be in bad health and would continue to be in bad health for the next seven years of their life -- until, that is, they got their renewed life.

B) The other explanation was simply that the number seven was linked to the differing phases of the moon.

5. Finding a Horseshoe

If you find a horseshoe in an open field- you should consider yourself to be extremely lucky. When you find it, you are required to use your right hand to pick it up, cover one end with your spit, wish for something spectacular and then throw it over your shoulder- make sure it is the left one because otherwise, all that activity will bear no fruit.

Friday the 13th

Ever step into apartment 13? How about get off the elevator on the 13th floor? Chances are that few, if anyone has, because for as far back as we can remember, we are told to beware of 13, especially when the 13th day of the month falls on a Friday. Believers suggest that Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden on a Friday, Noah's weather troubles started on a Friday, and last but not least, Christ was crucified on a Friday as well. In fact, 13 was unlucky even before Jesus' time. The Hammurabi Laws, for example, skip number 13. 

Why is Friday so denigrated? Christians point to the 12 witches -- tack on one devil and you get 13. But 13 was unlucky for Jesus as well: if you recall, Judas was the 13th guest at the final supper, and ultimately betrayed him. But history has also helped this superstition gain credibility: centuries ago, France's King Philip and The Pope put out the death warrant for the Master of the Knights, Jaques DeMolay -- the date was Friday October the 13th, 1307.

Others would argue that Friday the 13th is only unlucky for men, as calendars used to have 13 months to match the 13 phases of the moon. While mankind changed this to 12 months, women's natural 13 cycles stayed intact. As well, Friday is ruled by Venus, which represents women anyway. So stay home and rent a movie instead.

What this research demonstrates beautifully is how easy it is for superstitions like tempting fate to be formed. We absorb superstitions from around us, especially vigilant for their occurrence and reinforced by any events that fit the pattern, conveniently forgetting events that don't fit. Then the fast, automatic processes of our minds automatically anticipate the regret we might feel in the future, trapping us in a reinforcing loop.