Superstitions

Good and bad omen

Sakunam / Shakunam / Sagunam (omen)

Before undertaking a journey, it is common in some parts if India to look through the path which is likely to be followed. In that process, certain things are seen and satisfied as good omens and others bad. This is called shakunam paarththal or Sakunam nokkal.

Good Omens (nalla sakunam/nalla shakunangal):

Overhearing a pleasant conversation, hearing of musical instruments.

Seeing a good blaze of fire, an umbrella, fans, mirrors, a harp, diamonds, gold, weapons, fruit , flowers, bangles, Curd, raw rice, honey, cow’s ghee, lead, sulphur, metal filter, ringing sound of a bell, lamp, lotus, uncooked fish, meat, sweets, group of dancing girls or young women, elephant, horse, bullock, corpse, two Brahmins (Brahmans), Sudra holding a stick, a cow with rope, and many more.

Hearing the braying of an ass from the east, south, north or north-east.

Passing of a crow, parrot, stork, heron, or a jackal from left to right.

Passing of a kite, hawk, owl, iguana, deer, musk-rat, dog, or mongoose from right to left.

Crying of a lizard from right or from overhead.

Dreaming a corpse, blaze of fire, flowers, or fruit.

Bad omens (Ketta sakunam / Ketta shagunangal):

Seeing a widow, new pot, whirlwind, drops of rain, bundle of firewood, single Brahmin, oil-monger, pariah, lame man, men quarrelling, men in suffering, buttermilk, oil, empty pots, grass, bones, bundle of dirty clothes, handicapped person , blind, salt, donkey, pieces of rope, broken vessels, screaming sounds, deep yelling, sneezing, cursing, shivering, falling and many more.

A black cat running or jumping across.

Seeing an ass either to the west, the north-west, the south-west or the south-east with its head hanging down and braying.

Seeing a crow, parrot, stork, heron, or a jackal pass from right to left.

Dreaming red colour.

Gift a gift according to numerology

Present a suitable presentation

It is believed that life partner may be given gifts as suggested by numerology.

The suggestion:

Number 1:

Watch, painting, tie, jewel box, briefcase, cookware, space saver, slide projector, and tool set.

Number 2:

Tea-pot, hobby set, purse, perfume, radio, stationery, stoneware, sheets, calculator, and plants.

Number 3:

Clothing, dishes, CD, CD player, flatware, skillet, furniture, grill, and hair clipper.

Number 4:

Fruit bowl, VCR, computer, blanket, kitchen appliances, microwave, tool set, chess set, watch, mini-cam, and electronic games.

Number 5:

Travel kit, calculator, VCR, spice set, bath oil, book, skates, and skis.

Number 6:

Gloves, perfume, painting, decorative piece, bake-ware, silverware, furniture, copper, and comforter.

Number 7:

Teapot, stationery, hobby set, bracelet, robe, bedding, camera, jacket, silverware, book, painting, and reading lamp.

Number 8:

Gift certificate, step stool, toiletries, raincoat, bake-ware, scale, iron, radio, blouse, and flatware.

Number 9:

Clock, juicer, skates, crock pot, computer, rocker, towel set, humidifier, heater, and electronic gadgets.

Several Superstitions

· A bat in the house is a sign of death.

· A beginner will always have good luck: beginner's luck.

· A bird that comes in your window brings bad luck.

· A cat has nine lives.

· A cat will try to take the breath from a baby.

· A cricket in the house brings good luck.

· A drowned woman floats face up, a drowned man floats face down.

· A forked branch, held with a fork in each hand, will dip and point when it passes over water.

· A hat on a bed will bring bad luck.

· A lock of hair from a baby's first haircut should be kept for good luck.

· A person cannot drown before going under three times.

· A rabbit's foot brings good luck.

· A sailor wearing an earring cannot drown.

· After receiving a container of food, the container should never be returned empty.

· An acorn at the window can keep lightning out of the house.

· An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

· An itchy palm means money will come your way.

· Animals can talk at midnight on Christmas Eve.

· At the end of a rainbow is a pot of gold.

· Cats can physically see spirits, so they make excellent guardians against evil spirits. They also love to play with friendly or beneficial spirits.

· Clothes worn inside out will bring good luck.

· Cold hands, warm heart.

· Crossing your fingers helps to avoid bad luck and helps a wish come true.

· Crows are viewed as a bad omen, often foretelling death. If they caw, death is very near.

· Eat an apple on Christmas Eve for good health the next year.

· Eating fish makes you smart.

· Evil spirits cannot harm you when you are standing in a circle.

· For good luck, wear new clothes on Easter.

· Friday the thirteenth is an unlucky day.

· Garlic protects from evil spirits and vampires.

· Goldfish in the house bring bad luck.

· Goldfish in the pond bring good luck.

· If a bird flies through your house, it indicates important news. If it can't get out, the news will be death.

· If a bird flies towards you, bad fortune is imminent.

· If a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck.

· If an owl looks in your window or if you see one in the daylight, bad luck and death awaits you.

· If the bottoms of your feet itch, you will make a trip.

· If the flame of a candle flickers and then turns blue, there's a spirit in the room.

· If you blow out all of the candles on your birthday cake with the first breath you will get whatever you wish for.

· If you can remove one white hair off an all black cat, without getting scratched, you have a very powerful good luck talisman.

· If you feel a chill up your spine, someone is walking on your future grave.

· If you shiver, someone is casting a shadow on your grave.

· If you walk under a ladder, you will have bad luck.

· If your left palm itches, it means you will soon receive money; if your right palm itches, it means that you will lose or have to pay money.

· It is bad luck to chase someone with a broom.

· It is bad luck to sing at the table.

· It is bad luck to sleep on a table.

· It is unlucky to rock an empty rocking chair.

· Open an umbrella indoors and bad luck will "rain" on you.

· Our fate is written in the stars.

· Smell dandelions, wet the bed.

· Step on a crack break your mother's back.

· The superstition of knocking on wood for good luck originates from pagan beliefs in regards to trees.

· The wedding veil protects the bride from the evil eye.

· To break a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck.

· To cure a sty, rub it with a gold wedding band.

· To drop a dishcloth means bad luck is coming.

· To drop a fork means a woman will visit.

· To drop a knife means a man will visit.

· To drop a spoon means a child will visit.

· To find a four-leaf clover is to find good luck.

· To find a horseshoe brings good luck.

· To find a penny heads up brings good luck.

· To give someone a purse or wallet without money in it will bring that person bad luck.

· To have a wish come true using a wishbone, two people make a wish, then take hold of each end of the bone and pull it until it separates. The person with the longer end gets his or her wish.

· To kill an albatross is to cause bad luck to the ship and all upon it.

· To make a happy marriage, the bride must wear: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

· To open an umbrella in the house is to bring bad luck.

· To refuse a kiss under mistletoe causes bad luck.

· Toads cause warts.

· Warm hands, cold heart.

· Washing a car will bring rain.

· Wearing an opal when it is not your birthstone is bad luck.

· Wearing your birthstone will bring you good luck.

· When a dog howls, death is near.

· You can break a bad luck spell by turning seven times in a clockwise circle.

· You must get out of bed on the same side you got in on or you will have bad luck.

· You must hold your breath when you go past a cemetery or else you will breathe in the soul of someone who has recently died.

· You must knock on wood three times after mentioning good fortune or the evil spirits will ruin things for you.

Dead man married dead girl

Bride: Vishalakshi

Bride groom: Yadav

Yadav, an unmarried soldier in the Indian Army, died in 2003.

Vishalakshi, an unmarried daughter of late Parameshwara Poojari and Honnamma died in 1986.

Both the families had been advised by Boothas (minor deities), Kolas (divine rituals) and astrologers to arrange marriage of the dead in their families in order to resolve their problems.

The strange marriage was conducted by the residents of a Badagabellur village near Polali in the outskirts of Karnataka's Mangalore District at the groom’s house.

The spirit of a girl, who died 19 years ago, was married to the spirit of a man, who died eight years ago, at a marriage held in Polali, Mangalore, on Sunday night (01 Aug 2010) to remove obstacles for the nuptials of unmarried men and women in the families of Vishalakshi and Yadav. It is believed that dead bachelors live as evil spirits in the area and disturb the relatives.

According to Hindu tradition, auspicious ceremonies like marriages are not performed in the month of Ati or Ashada.

The groom got dowry!

Lavish feast was provided.

Superstition Quotes

Religion without morality is a superstition and a curse, and morality without religion is impossible.

Mark Hopkins

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

Pope John Paul II

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

Adam Smith

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Helen Keller

Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science.

Hal Clement

Superstition is foolish, childish, primitive and irrational - but how much does it cost you to knock on wood?

Judith Viorst

Superstition is only the fear of belief, while religion is the confidence.

Countess of Blessington

Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of.

Joseph Joubert

Superstition is the poetry of life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Superstition is the poison of the mind.

Joseph Lewis

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

Edmund Burke

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

Voltaire

Superstition? Who can define the boundary line between the superstition of yesterday and the scientific fact of tomorrow?

Garrett Fort

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

Rod Serling

They that are against superstition often times run into it of the wrong side. If I wear all colors but black, then I am superstitious in not wearing black.

John Selden

This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition.

Polly Toynbee

This is the great object held out by this association; and the means of attaining it is illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason which will dispell the clouds of superstition and of prejudice.

Adam Weishaupt

Thou ought to be nice, even to superstition, in keeping thy promises, and therefore equally cautious in making them.

Thomas Fuller

To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.

William Ralph Inge

When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.

Denis Diderot

You'll find superstition a contagious thing. Some people let it get the better of them.

Curt Siodmak

Young men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.

Henry James

The devil divides the world between atheism and superstition.

George Herbert

The left sees nothing but bigotry and superstition in the popular defense of the family or in popular attitudes regarding abortion, crime, busing, and the school curriculum.

Christopher Lasch

The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.

Robert Bork

The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing one young soul with the superstition of the Christian religion.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The nations were awakened from the sleep of death, as the words of eternal life flowed from the Apostles' lips, - the temples of superstition were shut or destroyed, and churches were planted in every part of the civilized world.

John Strachan

The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.

Elbert Hubbard

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

Francis Bacon

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.

Jose Bergamin

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.

George Bernard Shaw

A superstition which pretends to be scientific creates a much greater confusion of thought than one which contents itself with simple popular practices.

Johan Huizinga

Ah, yes, superstition: it would appear to be cowardice in face of the supernatural.

Theophrastus

Although I myself don't go to church or synagogue, I do, whether it's superstition or whatever, pray every time I get on a plane. I just automatically do it. I say the same thing every time.

Barbara Walters

Conscience without judgment is superstition.

Benjamin Whichcote

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Bertrand Russell

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.

Isaac Asimov

I had only one superstition. I made sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run.

Babe Ruth

I have a superstition about saying too much about what I want to happen, just in case it all disappears, or someone else comes along and beats me to it.

Gil Gerard

I have only one superstition... Touch all the bases when I hit a home run.

George Herman

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

Anne Tyler

I'm a third done into a new book but sorry - I have a superstition about talking about it!

Joanna Trollope

If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser you will enter heaven. What many people call sin is not sin; I do many things to break down superstition, and I will break it down.

Joseph Smith, Jr.

Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical relation to each other.

James F. Cooper

In the absence of evidence, superstition. It's a Middle Ages thing. That's my theory anyway.

Tucker Carlson

It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.

Voltaire

Let this circumstance of our constitution therefore be directed to this noble purpose, and then all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish.

Adam Weishaupt

Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain.

John Calvin

My only feeling about superstition is that it's unlucky to be behind at the end of the game.

Duffy Daugherty

Birth stars and names of babies

It is believed that choosing the baby’s name based on her birth star plays a significant role in shaping its life, character and destiny.

Suggested letters to start the names as per the birth stars:

Aswini (Awasthi): Chu, Che, Cho, La
Bharani: Li, Lu, Le, Lo, Lee,
Krithika (Karthikai): Aa, Ee, Vu, Ai, A, I, Oo
Rohini: O, Va, Vi, Vu
Mrugasira (Makayiram): Ve, Vo, Ka, Ki
Arudra (Thiruvadhirai): Ku, Kam, Ja, Cha, Gha, Da,
Purnarvasu (Punartham): Ke, Ko, Ha, Hi
Pushyami (Pooyam): Hu, He, Ho, Da, Hu,
Aslesha (Ayilyam): Di, Du, De, Do, Dee, Me, Moo, Da
Makha (Magha, Makam): Ma, Mi, Mu, Me, Ta, Ti,
Purva Phalguni (Pooram, Pubba): Mo, Ta, Ti, Tu, Pa, Tho, Thoo
Uttara (Uttara Phalguni, Utram): Te, To, Pa, Pi, Na, Te
Hasta (Atham): Pu, Sham, Na, Ta, Pa, Poo, Ra, Tha
Chitta (Chitra, Chithira): Pe, Po, Ra, Ri, Tu, Thae,
Swathi (Chothy): Ru, Re, Ro, Tha, Roo,
Visakha: Thi, Thu, The, Tho, Te, Tu, Tae, To
Anuradha (Anizham): Na, Ni, Nu, Ne, Nee, Noo, Nae
Jyeshta (Triketta): No, Ya, Yi, Yu, Ye, U
Moola (Moolam): Ye, Yu, Ba, Bi, Yo, Bhi, Bha
Purvashada (Pooradham): Bu, Da, Bha, Da, Bhoo, Pha, Gha
Utharashada (Utharadam): Be, Bo, Ja, Ji, Bha, Bhe,
Sravana (Thiruvonam): Ju, Je, Jo, Ka, Khi, Khee, So
Dhanishta (Avittam): Ga, Gi, Gu, Ge, Gee
Sathabisham (Chathayam): Go, Sa, Si, Su, S, See,Su,
Purvabhadra (Purattathi): Se, So, Dha, Dhi, Di, Da
Uttarabhadra (Uthirattathi): Du, Syam, Zu, Dha, Tha, Doo, Jha, Na
Revathi: De, Do, Cha, Chi

Elephant related superstitions

It is good luck to see an elephant.

It is believed that elephants connect the heaven and the earth.

Of all elephants, the white coloured elephant is considered the most sacred.

Ornaments or pictures of an elephant with its trunk raised will bring good luck but only if placed to face a door to prevent possible damages to the house. The placing also brings happiness and prosperity.

According to superstitions, if you wear an ornament using elephant’s hair like elephant hair ring, elephant hair bracelet, you will be blessed with love. Also you will be happy, healthy, prosperous and rich.

It is said that elephants’ hair is gathered from areas where these animals rub their tails up against trees.

Elephant’s trunk curling up is good luck and down is bad.

Trunk raised stores good luck and dropped down dispenses good luck to others.

If you buy a statue, picture or anything of an elephant for you, you don’t expect good luck. Presenting such thing to others brings good luck for them. Receiving from others will get you good luck.