Are you superstitious? (How do you behave on Friday 13th?)

[NinaZara]

In my country people still believe in magic and witchcraft. It is hard to deny it when things happen in front of your eyes yet they don't seem to make any sense.

For example, people from my family is not allowed to eat silver catfish. My mother has been warning me this over and over again since I was a child. I never took it seriously, nor did any of my siblings. Then one day my uncle accidentally ate the fish and turned blind. He was brought to a witchdoctor and she used an ointment made from the fish to heal him back. So he was temporarily blinded by the fish. Still, I find it hard to believe. But do I dare to tempt fate? No, I rather not.

Later, I found out that there are a lot of people in my hometown who cannot eat this fish too. Some got weird skin disease, and some even died. The explanation that I got from my parents is that one of my ancestor was a magical being, she was a silver catfish and so that is why all of her descendants are forbidden to eat this fish.

Crazy, right? I tried to think of it so I came up with this explanation. I think it was just a severe case of allergy that is suffered by a group of people in my area due to their diet. Bottom line, I am not superstitious, just an open minded skeptic. I think many of younger generations in my country think this way too.
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Try your best and damn the rest.

[Prezbucky]

Does this silver catfish maybe require more stringent cleaning, longer cooking time, etc?

But... nah. your allergy explanation sounds right to me.
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Alinutza]

Hi!First of all, I'm not a supersticious person, but some customs in my country are kept from generation to generation- for example, romanians whose relatives died, use to give something for dead people's soul to rest in peace-like food, cloth or others pieces of furniture.I really know that all things are made in vain, we can't do anything for their souls, only them , while they were alive must have faith in God.

[NinaZara]

[Ajay_Singh_Dhakre]

Well, I'm not very superstitious but sometimes I behave like that. As you know, I'm from India so we are superstitious about some things like when a cat crosses the road and we are about to pass from there, many people don't pass from there right away. They just wait for a while (about 5 minutes) and then move from there. Its like making a fire line by the cat on the road.

Another example is when we are walking on the road, we simply avoid walking over the squares. Even many people just don't eat sweet in the open environment. My mother always stops me to do so but I love to eat outside.

Superstitions are not concerned with the literacy. i mean It is not that if a person is well educated, he can't be a superstitious.

Here, i wanted to make you familiar with some superstitions in our country. As you know, I'm new for these forums and eager to learn English. So, please forgive me for my bad English and please if possible, let me know about my grammatical mistakes if I did any.

Time to say bye..

Hope to c u again

[Stylishchoco]

Hi everyone...
I don't really believe in superstitious stuffs... for example ghost and the like, I don't even know if they are for real (I can't see them and I haven't seen them, if they are actually there) so I think I don't care about it. I think it's just irrational, but I will believe it if there are some undeniable fact presented upon me. I want to believe, but crappy stuffs just won't work on me

[Prezbucky]

One of my high school girlfriends told me that she saw the ghost of her dead aunt: the girlfriend was in bed and the ghost aunt was sitting in a corner of the room, just staring at her.

My girlfriend seemed more or less level-headed. Then again, we did break up, so how mentally solvent could she be? hehe

But seriously, I didn't know how to respond to the tale.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Bluep999]

I'm not quite the superstitious, nor the religious person by the way.
Although I respect all religions, I'm not afraid, or should I say, callous of these superstitious belief/stories.
I do, however, afraid being in darkness without a viable light source/flashlight.
But, things like spilling the salt & pepper shaker, walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror, even the number 13 or 4 just doesn't act as a taboo to me.
Perhaps studing Science in my High School contributes to it.
I'm not saying these "ghosts" thingy being unscientific (Are they?)
I'm still yet to see one for myself.

[Prezbucky]

YES! I also am afraid of the dark!

If it's pitch-dark, sometimes I'll remember every ghost story I've ever heard and/or bad scenes from horror movies.

I don't usually remember my dreams too well -- when I wake up I'll think, Wow, that was some dream!" and sometimes I can remember bits and pieces of those dreams, but I almost always lose the thread... one or several pieces are missing or I simply can't make sense of it.

BUT I remember one nightmare vividly.

I was in my childhood house. I was in the basement of that house.

I was just sort of standing there when I heard a squeaking noise. The noise was coming from the laundry room in that basement, and I immediately knew who it was -- Freddie Kruger.

So of course I try to go outside using the basement's sliding glass door, but it is stuck and I try and try but it won't open.

And now Fredeie has opened the laundry room door just 15 feet away. He just stands there looking at me.

So between the sliding glass door (to the outdoors) and Freddie is the staircase to the upstairs kitchen. So I move towards that staircase but it.. isn't.. there.. anymore. The staircase has vanished, and the door to the upstairs is out of my reach without the stairs.

So I'm stuck in the basement with Freddie.

I go back to the sliding glass door and it is still stuck. I kick and punch the glass but somehow it absorbs the force and doesn't break. I look again at where the stairs used to be and they're still not there. I cannot use either of my exits. Now Fredeie is laughing and he opens his mouth SO wide and it's horrific and I am stuck with this monster and now he is walking towards me OH NO.

We scuffle and I fight heroically but of course I'm doomed and then I woke up.

It was the worst dream I can remember.

I only had that dream once but I've never forgotten it -- THAT dream is locked in my memory.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Cimarro]

Hi,dear Mr.Daerr!
No,I`m not superstitious!I`d like to tell you the number 13 doesn`t make me feel worried about anything.This is just a number and nothing else.
I`ve just taken the multiple choice number 13 and I got right at all 10 questions.
I`m looking forward to meeting you on the forum very soon.
Have a nice day!
Best regards,Peter!

[makki.knotch@gmail.com]

I am not a superstitious person. I never was and I don't believe I ever will be. For me, the number 13 is just another number, Friday the 13th is just another day, the 13th floor is just an ordinary floor etc. Superstition is a thing of the mind and that's all there is to it, nothing more. Take for example; some hotel owners don't number the 13th floor as floor number 13 it is called something else. Now in reality, whatever they call it, it is still the 13th floor and I am sure people stay on it without any negative things happening.

[Krma]

Hi everybody!!!
I only like to share with you, that I'm not supertitious!!!! I don't believe in this kind of things.... and about the number 13 ,, I have a sister who borned in Aug 13th, so I think that that day it couldn't be bad....

My score in the last test was 9 questions right... I think that is a good score... Do you think so?

I'll write you soon,,,,

By the time, that's all...

karmen

[Lebrian]

In my view, there are some phenomena we may not explain. ex: ghost, a man can speak other languages after he recovered from an accident, necromancy(talking with the dead)... they are still controversial issues that related to superstitious to some extent. I'm trying to search them but no appropriate answers.
If you consider superstitious is sth like not walking under a ladder, not going outside on Friday 13th... I'm not superstitious. I don't care these things. bad luck may happen everyday not only on that evil day. why do we have to worry about that? sometimes we let some good chances go away just due to our superstitious. ex: a very big company invites me to interview on Friday 13th. If I were superstitious, I'd refuse or insist them to change the schedule. I may lose a good job.
thank you, I'm very happy to share my opinion.

[Hellokareem]

Some phenomena we may not explain. ex: ghost, because there is no ghost, then how will explain? man can speak other languages after he recovered from an accident?!!
he cannot speak anything unless it store in his brain.

[Lebrian]

oh, it's going to have a new topic. as I said, they are still CONTROVERSIAL issues. It may exist or just be imagination. I'm not sure. because I am not an expert. I'm not like you, Hellokareem. are you sure what you typed?
thank you for your reply, hellokareem.