Writing’s On the Wall…?

Are you superstitious?

Can a person be superstitious and not superstitious at the same time?

I don’t really believe that “bad luck” is caused by things such as breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder, or having my path crossed by a black cat. And yet I assiduously avoid all of those things. If a black cat runs across the road in front of the car in front of me, I breathe a sigh of relief that mine wasn’t that first car.

I certainly don’t believe in folk medicine. When I worked at the Historical Society of York County, I kept looking at a book about “Powwow,”* with a subtitle that indicated the contents contained Pennsylvania Dutch folk medicine. Eventually I bought a copy (and probably still have it somewhere), amusing myself by some of the rituals.

My favorite: cut a potato in half, rub it on a wart, and bury the potato under the eaves of your house. The wart will supposedly vanish, I imagine as the potato rots underground.

As a storm approached, my mother used to light a votive candle. That was Catholic superstition, a way of warding off the worst of a storm. By extension, in my belief system, all prayer falls into the category of superstition, along with all sacrifices—human, animal, and personal. When we were kids in Catholic school, we were encouraged to “give up something for Lent.” Don’t eat candy, or don’t drink soda, and offer that sacrifice up to God (which I always found to be an odd phrase).

And, as usual, as I do every year at this time, I celebrate having given up Lent for Lent.

---

* According to my Google search, the book was likely Powwows, or Long Lost Friend by John George Hohman, originally published in 1820. According to Wikipedia it also contains recipes “to make good beer” and other fun remedies, such as: