Superstitions & customs

Everyday habits and things people do or avoid: knocking on wood, walking under a ladder, toasting. 56 signs.

• Bad luck comes in threesA rule that lets people stop bracing once the third thing arrives
• Bananas on a boatThe one snack a charter captain may toss straight overboard
• Bringing flowers home from a funeralWhat to do with more sympathy than one house can hold
• Buying jade for yourselfThe green pendant you love, and the worry about paying for it yourself
• Buying yourself an Italian hornA small red horn on a chain, and the question of who should pay
• Celebrating your birthday earlyThe party falls on Saturday, the birthday on Tuesday
• Closing a pocket knifeA borrowed blade comes back open, and someone hesitates to fold it
• Covering mirrors after a deathA cloth over the glass that tells everyone the house is grieving
• Cutting your hair at nightA family rule about crows, clippings and the harvest
• Doing laundry on New Year's DayThe basket waits, the machine stays still, the year begins at rest
• Empty fortune cookieYou crack it open and find nothing but cookie
• Finding the baby in the king cakeA tiny plastic baby in your slice, and a cake you now owe everyone
• Friday the 13thTwo old fears that meet on the calendar one to three times a year
• Giving a handkerchief as a giftA present made for bad days, and feared as a way of summoning them
• Giving a mirror as a giftA wrapped frame of glass, and the face that will look into it each day
• Giving a wallet as a giftA new wallet, and the first coin someone chose for it
• Giving a watch as a giftA gift glanced at all day long, and a word that sounds like farewell
• Giving perfume as a giftA present that only finishes on someone else's skin
• Giving shoes as a giftA pair that fits well might carry someone away from you
• Keeping ashes in the houseAn urn on the shelf, waiting for a decision nobody wants to make yet
• Leaving chopsticks in riceUpright sticks in a bowl look like an offering for the dead
• Measuring yourself with a tapeA tape around the waist, or a pencil mark on the door frame
• Moving on a SaturdayThe one free day for the truck, the friends and the folklore
• Passing someone on the stairsA squeeze on a narrow staircase, and an old stage fear
• Passing the saltA shaker held out across the table, with an old rule about whose hand pours
• Pointing at a rainbowThe arm goes up before you think, and someone tells you not to
• Pouring your own wineAt some tables, the bottle is always passed to your neighbor
• Putting keys on the tableThe jangle that tells the house you are home
• Putting your purse on the floorUnder the restaurant table, beside the car seat, or never at all
• Renaming a boatSanding off the old name before anyone says the new one
• Saying Macbeth in a theaterThe one title many actors will not say inside the building
• Saying rabbit rabbitA two-word ritual to open each new month
• Seeing a hearseA long dark car goes by, and the street seems to hush for a moment
• Seeing the bride before the weddingA moment of first sight, kept back until the music starts
• Sitting at the corner of a tableThe squeezed-in seat that, girls were told, kept you from marrying
• Splitting a poleTwo walkers, one lamppost and the words "bread and butter"
• Stepping on a crackThe sidewalk game you invented at six and never quite stopped playing
• Stepping over someoneA long stride over legs on the carpet, and a sharp "don't!"
• Taking lava rocks from HawaiiA black stone in the suitcase, and a package mailed back with an apology
• Taking out the trash at nightA short walk to the curb in the dark, and your lit windows from outside
• Taking the Christmas tree downOrnaments boxed, the stand dragged out, and needles everywhere
• Telling your dreams before breakfastWhere a bad dream should go in the morning
• Three people in a photoThe middle spot goes to whoever holds the group together
• Throwing a coin in a fountainA coin over the shoulder at the Trevi, so fate returns you to Rome
• Throwing away photosWhy the hand hesitates over a picture but not over a receipt
• Toasting with waterA raised glass of water, a hesitant clink and a story from Bath
• Trying on someone's engagement ringA ring sized for one hand, held out for a moment to another
• Walking over a graveYou step back from the headstone and realize where you were standing
• Walking under a ladderDuck under it or step off the curb: a small old dilemma
• Wearing a deceased person's jewelryA ring warm from someone else's years, now on your hand
• Wearing black to a weddingOnce the color of mourning, now the safest dress in the closet
• Wearing clothes inside out by accidentSeams on the outside, a tag at your neck, and someone deciding whether to tell you
• Wearing opalsA stone full of moving color, and a reputation it never earned
• Wedding day of the weekSaturday, Friday or a quiet Tuesday: the old rules never agreed
• Whistling at nightA tune that carries farther in the dark than you intended
• Wishing on an eyelashA wish that often begins with someone else noticing