Seeing a nun
Seeing a nun in everyday places such as an airport, a store or a ball game makes many people look twice, because a religious habit tells strangers a whole story at a glance. That second look says as much about our assumptions as about her.
What it may mean
Few kinds of clothing announce as much as a religious habit. A woman in a veil buying apples or cheering at a baseball game draws glances, and in those glances strangers fill in a whole life: strict, gentle, sheltered, holy, old-fashioned, depending on what each of them was taught. Most of it is guesswork. The woman herself may be a nurse, a lawyer, a school principal or a scientist, with opinions about the game. Old travelers' lore went further and made meeting a nun an omen for the trip ahead. The surprise of the sight shows how much we read into a uniform before a word is spoken, and how much others may read into ours, whether it is scrubs, a suit, a hard hat or a ponytail and sneakers.
Depending on how you saw it
A nun in a supermarket or an airport
Religious sisters shop, travel, stand in line at the bank and wait at the gate like anyone else, and the habit makes ordinary errands look unusual. Strangers sometimes smile or nod without knowing why. What ordinary side of your life would surprise people who only know your role?
A nun in everyday clothes
Since the 1960s many orders have traded the full habit for simple clothes and perhaps a small cross or veil, so many sisters pass unnoticed in a crowd. Others keep the traditional dress. Which outward sign of who you are have you kept, and which have you let go?
Meeting two nuns on the way
Old travelers' omens advised turning back after meeting two nuns face to face, warning of disappointment at the journey's end. Most travelers today simply hold the door. When has an unexpected meeting at the start of a trip shaped how you felt about it?
Why it happens in nature
Strictly speaking, nuns belong to enclosed communities that live largely inside a monastery, while religious sisters work in schools, hospitals and parishes, but most people call both nuns. Since the 1960s many orders have adopted simpler dress, so a sister in a full traditional habit is less common than it once was.
What folk beliefs say
China
Among the Chinese, a 1903 collection says, meeting a nun on the street was taken as unlucky for the errand you were on.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 902. View the page
England (Yorkshire)
The Middleton family of Yorkshire, the same collection says, were said to be warned of a coming death by the appearance of a Benedictine nun.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 3 (1903), vol. 3, p. 1207. View the page
To reflect on
What do people assume about you from your uniform or role before they know you?