If you sit with your shadow thrown on the water, you will not catch fish.

If someone broke something onto which the shadow or reflection appeared, people believed that their soul was harmed. 

Shadows are a representation of the soul or even a manifestation of the soul itself.

The Ancient Greeks believed that whomever entered the sanctuary of Zeus on Mount Lycaeus would lose his shadow and therefore was doomed to die within the year. The Greeks believed that the shadow contained the soul and that none could live very long once the soul was separated from the body.

It was a custom for magicians on the Indonesian isle of Wetar “to injure a man by stabbing his shadow with a spear or hacking it with a sword.”Here the shadow is used as some sort of witch-doll or voodoo-doll, but instead of using pins, spears or swords were used to cause the victim great pains.

The shadow was used in magic also by Gypsies. As he writes: “There is a superstition among the gypsies that if the shadow of a cross on a grave falls on a woman with child she will have a miscarriage, and this seems to be peculiarly appropriate to girls who have ‘anticipated the privileges of matrimony’.”

Another curious practice can be found among people in south-eastern Europe. The people of Greece sometimes use shadows as a sacrifice when the foundation of a new building is being laid. This can be done by laying the foundation-stone upon a man’s shadow. The sacrifice is believed to give stability and strength to the building. The man however, whose shadow is secretly used for sacrifice, will die within a year.

In many folk tales the soul appears as a shadow long after the person or better said, body, has died. There are many legends which describe how graveyards are haunted by grey and black shades at night. Shades which clearly have the silhouette of human beings and move around like humans as well but have no other human features. In some cases these shadows were seen as an omen of death. The person who encountered such a shadow was thought to die within a few days or someone very close to him would die.

In a Dutch folk tale in which a couple of men are ice-skating and think they are being followed by devils or demons. They go faster and faster but the ‘devils’ keep chasing them. As it turns out at the end the so-called devils chasing them are their own shadows.
 

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The Irish have always believed that rocking an empty rocking chair welcomes evil spirits into the home. The spirits fill the empty seat that you’re rocking and fill the home with dark forces and bad luck.

Rocking an empty rocking chair will bring the spirits, but a rocking chair that moves by itself might already have a spirit in it.

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Some believe that if guests come to a house where a horseshoe is above the door, they must leave by the same door through which they entered or they will take the luck from the horseshoe with them from the house.

To assure good luck for the New Year, one should sleep with a horseshoe under his pillow on New Year’s Eve.

The crescent shape of the horseshoe can ward off the evil eye.

Suspected witches who were tried and buried upon their deaths had horseshoes nailed to their coffins to prevent them from returning to life or resurrecting again as witches.

Finding a horseshoe is very lucky if the open space is facing toward you.

If you dream of finding a horseshoe, good luck will come to you.

Toss the horseshoe over the left shoulder and spit after it to increase the good luck that will soon arrive.

Sailors used to nail a horseshoe to the foremast of their vessels to keep witches and wizards from cursing the voyage or damaging the ship.

Should the Horseshoe Opening Face Up or Down?

Almost everyone who attributes power to a horseshoe will say that nailing a horseshoe to the threshold of one’s home helps to bring good fortune to the family. The best position and direction varies from one telling to another. Some say the horseshoe, tacked in place with three nails and the open end down, wards off evil.

Some believe that hanging the horseshoe with the opening pointing upward like a “U” holds in all the good luck and the powers it brings. Hanging it upside down would allow the powers to spill out. Others think that hanging it with the opening pointing down allows all of the good luck, protective powers and good fortune to shower upon you and surround the home.

A common belief says a horseshoe hung in the bedroom will keep nightmares away. If the horseshoe is hung with the opening pointing up, the sleeper’s masculine powers will be increased. If the sleeper is female, her latent powers will be awakened if the opening points down.

Nails in the Horseshoe

If you find a horseshoe, look to see how many nails still remain in the holes. The number of remaining empty holes determines how many weeks, months, or years (this varies) it will be before they will become rich or will be married.

Another variation states that the number of nails remaining determine the length of time before good luck arrives.

Another says the number of nails left in the horseshoe equals the number of years of good luck you will receive.

Some say not to bother with a found horseshoe unless it still has some nails left in it.

Horseshoes were originally made from iron, which may also account for the superstitions that are associated with this object. Iron was considered magical because it was able to withstand fire and was much stronger than other metals. The superstitions for iron are thought to originate in prehistoric times. It was used as a charm to ward off evil spirits.

Another aspect of the horseshoe that added to it’s good luck was the fact that it was commonly held in place by seven iron nails. Since ancient times, the number seven was considered very important.

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• On Valentine’s Day, the first man or woman’s name you read in the paper or hear on the TV or radio will be the name of the person you will marry.
• If you find a glove on the sidewalk on Valentine’s Day, your future beloved will have the other missing glove.
• If you see a squirrel on Valentine’s Day, you will marry a cheapskate who will not spend money on you.
• If you see a goldfinch on Valentine’s Day, you will marry a millionaire.
• If you see a flock of doves on Valentine’s Day, you will have a happy, peaceful marriage.
• If a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor.
• If a woman sees a sparrow, she will marry a poor man and be very happy.
• In Great Britain, a woman would write down the names of her sweethearts’ on pieces of paper and attach them to clay balls. She would then drop the balls into water and the first name that surfaced would be her destined future husband.

Throughout time, romantics throughout the world have had different legends pop up, all basically with the same end result, discovering your future mate’s identity. In England many traditions have been practiced. Ladies were supposed to pin bay leaves to her pillow on the Eve of St. Valentine’s Day. If she did this she was believed to see her future mate in her dreams that night. Another Valentine’s Day tradition occurred a hundred of years ago where children would dress up as adults and go door to door singing a Valentine song to celebrate the holiday. In Wales, people carve wooden spoons and embellish them with ornate keys, key holes and hearts, this symbolically meaning, “unlock my heart”. These spoons would be given to the valentines as gifts.

From the Middle Ages, women would write their names on pieces of paper and they would be put into a jar. If their name was drawn by an eligible man he would take her paper and pin it on his sleeve for the week and he would be her Valentine. This is where it is believed the phrase “Wearing one’s heart on his sleeve” comes from.

In England, if a young women was curious enough, and brave enough, she could summon the appearance of her future spouse by visiting a graveyard at midnight on the Eve of St. Valentines Day and singing a prescribed song while running around a church 12 times

Valentine’s Day History and Legend

St. Valentine, as he has become known, was a Catholic priest in Rome during the times of Emperor Claudius II. Claudius, who was known in his times as “Claudius the Cruel” had decreed that men were no longer allowed to marry. It was Claudius’s belief that single, men without families were the best soldiers. Valentine found this law absurd and went against the law, marrying couples in secret. This was soon discovered by Claudius II and Valentine was taken to prison and ordered beheaded.

It is said that in his final days in prison, Valentine wrote a letter to his jail keepers daughter who had been visiting him during his imprisonment. He signed the letter, “From your Valentine”. This is what is now thought of as the first Valentine card. St. Valentine is said to have died on February 14th and this is why we celebrate the holiday on this day. Others say it was in conjunction of the belief in Roman times that birds picked their mates on February 14th. Valentines cards, as we know them today, are said to have been around since the Victorian Era. Originally they were all handmade and decorated with pictures of hearts, flowers, birds and LOTS of lace. Traditionally they were also sent anonymously, even going as far as to go to another town so that they receiver of the card would not know where it was mailed from.

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If the first butterfly you see in the year is white, you will have good luck all year.

Changing your undershirt or underwear on New Year’s Day can cause boils.

It is believed that babies born on New Year are extremely fortunate and lucky. It is said that babies born on the first day of the New Year will have good luck in their life and bring good luck to the family they are born in.

We kiss those dearest to us at midnight not only to share a moment of celebration with our favorite people, but also to ensure those affections and ties will continue throughout the next twelve months. To fail to smooch our significant others at the stroke of twelve would be to set the stage for a year of coldness.

Make sure to do — and be successful at — something related to your work on the first day of the year, even if you don’t go near your place of employment that day. Limit your activity to a token amount, though, because to engage in a serious work project on that day is very unlucky.

At midnight, all the doors of a house must be opened to let the old year escape unimpeded. He must leave before the New Year can come in, says popular wisdom, so doors are flung open to assist him in finding his way out.

According to widespread superstition, evil spirits and the Devil himself hate loud noise. We celebrate by making as much of a din as possible not just as an expression of joy at having a new year at our disposal, but also to make sure Old Scratch and his minions don’t stick around. (Church bells are rung on a couple’s wedding day for the same reason.)

At midnight on Dec. 31, Buddhist temples strike their gongs 108 times, in a effort to expel 108 types of human weakness.

Italian people welcome the New Year in an extremely interesting way, by tossing old things out of their windows! Old things are tossed out in an effort to make room for the new and lucky to enter their households and lives in the year to come.

Food Superstitions:

In parts of the South, it’s traditional to eat hog jowl and black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day in order to bring good fortune.

The Pennsylvania Dutch eat sauerkraut to get rich.

A tradition common to the southern states of the USA dictates that the eating of black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day will attract both general good luck and money in particular to the one doing the dining. Some choose to add other Southern fare to this tradition, but the black-eyed peas are key.

Also from the south comes the custom of eating greens such as cabbage, collard greens, mustard greens, kale or spinach to bring money.

One more from the Southerners: eating cornbread will bring wealth.

Hoppin’ John is a traditional New Year’s Day dish in the South. Legend has it that it must be eaten before noon to guarantee good luck.

In some families, a coin is buried in the rice and peas just before serving, ensuring a fortunate year for the finder.

Eat black eyed peas and greens (spinach will work) on New Year’s Day — the peas are for good luck, the greens are for fortune (money!).

Lucky foods which should be consumed on New Years Eve is lentil soup and pork.

Chicken should not be eaten on the first day of the year or you will have financial difficulties for the rest of the year.

Spanish Tradition: Twelve grapes are eaten at midnight, each grape symbolizing a different month. If your grapes are very sweet, then it means that specific month will also be sweet and pleasant. If your grapes turn out sour, then you know the month will also be sour, so hope that the grapes are sweet!

Pennsylvania Dutch New Year’s Superstitions:

• To keep yourself healthy in the New Year, eat smoked sausage.
• For good luck in the New Year, eat boiled cabbage.
• For overall good health, wealth and happiness in the New Year, you should eat pork and sauerkraut.

Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes “coming full circle,” completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.

Cabbage is another “good luck” vegetable that is consumed on New Year’s Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency.

In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year’s Day.

In Greece, One of the traditional foods served is Vassilopitta, or St Basil’s cake. A silver or gold coin is baked inside the cake. Whoever finds the coin in their piece of cake will be especially lucky during the coming year.

The Italian people eat a traditional New Year dish called cotechino con lenticchie: pork sausage served over lentils. This New Year food is eaten because of the presence of fatty rich pork sausage and lentils in it. Cotechino sausage is a symbol of abundance because they are rich in fat; while lentils symbolize money (being both green and coin shaped). This New Year food promises a double-packs of luck!

Weather Conditions on New Years Day:

A windless New Year’s day indicates a dry summer;

A decent breeze foretells a good summer rain fall;

Floods will occur if the first day of the year is violently windy.

Examine the weather in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

If the wind blows from the south, there will be fine weather and prosperous times in the year ahead.

If it comes from the north, it will be a year of bad weather.

The wind blowing from the east brings famine and calamities.

Strangest of all, if the wind blows from the west, the year will witness plentiful supplies of milk and fish but will also see the death of a very important person.

If there’s no wind at all, a joyful and prosperous year may be expected by all.

House Cleaning and Household Chores:

Whatever a person does on this day will influence his activity for the rest of the year. Therefore to wash clothes will bring a year of hard
work. Washing may also cause a relative’s death.

In Tennessee, it’s said if you wash your clothes on New Year’s Day, you’ll wash someone out of your family.

From Hawaii: Don’t sweep the house on New Year’s Day.

German farmers say livestock will be safe from witches if the stables are cleaned between Christmas and the New Year.

Certain tasks were not to be done between Christmas and New Year’s Day–among them were knitting, sewing and doing the family laundry.

You clean your house before christmas and you don’t have time to clean it til after New Year’s — so no sweeping good luck out the door.

Do not wash dishes and do the laundry or there could be a death in your house that year. The theory behind it being that as you wash the dishes or laundry, you ‘wash away’ the person.

Also, do not do the laundry on New Year’s Day, lest a member of the family be ‘washed away’ (die) in the upcoming months. The more cautious eschew even washing dishes.

More New Year’s Do’s and Don’ts

DO:
To assure good luck for the New Year, one should sleep with a horseshoe under his pillow on New Year’s Eve.

All doors and windows must be opened at midnight to let out the old year. Keep doors and windows open at midnight to let the old year leave and usher in the fresh New Year.

Make lots of noise to scare away the evil spirits lurking around. People celebrate by bursting loud crackers to scare away the devils. Evil spirits hate loud noise and hence people explode fireworks and cheer aloud to send the evil spirits away. This is also the reason that church bells are rung at midnight, to ring in the New Year free from evil spirits.

It is believed that if you wear new clothes on the first day of the year, you will get many more new clothes during the year.

DON’T:
Do not break anything on this day as it sets the pattern for the entire year. Breaking things on this day is considered a bad omen as it signals destruction in the coming year. So be careful!

Crying on the first day of the year must be avoided. One must always be happy and in good spirits on New Year’s day. If you cry on New Years’ for a sad reason you will have sadness all throughout the year.

Stocking Up:

The new year must not be seen in with bare cupboards, lest that be the way of things for the year. Larders must be topped up and plenty of money must be placed in every wallet in the home to guarantee prosperity.

First Footing:

The first person to enter your home after the stroke of midnight will influence the year you’re about to have. Ideally, he should be dark-haired, tall, and good-looking, and it would be even better if he came bearing certain small gifts such as a lump of coal, a silver coin, a bit of bread, a sprig of evergreen, and some salt. Blonde and redhead first footers bring bad luck, and female first footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the household. Don’t let a woman near your door before a man crosses the threshold.

A southern US superstitions says that your first guest of the year is a sign of the marriage balance for the coming year. If a man walks thru the front door first on New Year’s Day then the husband has more umph for the year, if a woman, than the wife.

The first footer (sometimes called the “Lucky Bird”) should knock and be let in rather than unceremoniously use a key, even if he is one of the householders. After greeting those in the house and dropping off whatever small tokens of luck he has brought with him, he should make his way through the house and leave by a different door than the one through which he entered. No one should leave the premises before the first footer arrives — the first traffic across the threshold must be headed in rather than striking out.

First footers must not be cross-eyed or have flat feet or eyebrows that meet in the middle.

Nothing prevents the cagey householder from stationing a dark-haired man outside the home just before midnight to ensure the speedy arrival of a suitable first footer as soon as the chimes sound. If one of the partygoers is recruited for this purpose, impress upon him the need to slip out quietly just prior to the witching hour.

Nothing Goes Out:

Nothing — absolutely nothing, not even garbage — is to leave the house on the first day of the year. If you’ve presents to deliver on New Year’s Day, leave them in the car overnight. Don’t so much as shake out a rug or take the empties to the recycle bin.

Some people soften this rule by saying it’s okay to remove things from the home on New Year’s Day provided something else has been brought in first. This is similar to the caution regarding first footers; the year must begin with something’s being added to the home before anything subtracts from it.

One who lives alone might place a lucky item or two in a basket that has a string tied to it, then place the basket just outside the front door before midnight. After midnight, the lone celebrant hauls in his catch, being careful to bring the item across the door jamb by pulling the string rather than by reaching out to retrieve it and thus breaking the plane of the threshold.

Money:

Do not pay back loans or lend money or other precious items on New Year’s Day. To do so is to guarantee you’ll be paying out all year.
Keeping your purses and wallets full of money, and keeping cupboards stocked with food is said to bring prosperity and luck in the New Year.
Pay away all your debts before New Year’s Eve as the New Year should not begin with the household in debt. Clear away all your loans, bills and debts so that you do not have any debts left for New Year.

Do not also lend money or other precious items on this day as that would mean a year spent loaning out money.

References:
pinkfreud-ga
indiaparenting.com
pnwlocalnews.com

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Literally, "sanpaku-gan" (三白眼) translates to "three whites eyes". It refers to how the human eye can be divided up. Sanpaku is when you can see three whites: on the left side of the eye, the right side of the eye and either above or below the iris.

In his 1965 work You Are All Sanpaku, Ohsawa explained the concept:

In a healthy newborn child, the lower edge of the iris-the sphere of color at the center of the eye-rests below the lower eyelid like a rising sun. The eye has two white areas on either side of the iris. In the eyes of a dead man, the iris turns up into the skull. If it is visible at all it has three white sides. Sanpaku. As a man becomes old or ill, as he approaches death-whether he be seven years old or seventy-the colored portion of the eye-the iris-rises to disclose white between the lower lid and the iris.

Sanpaku, Ohsawa continued, would mean that something in the person’s entire being was out of balance. Being out of balance meant the individual was, according to the author, "sick, unhappy, insane, what the West has come to call ‘accident prone.’"

Continuing, Oshawa added, "The condition of sanpaku is a warning, a sign from nature, that one’s life is threatened by an early and tragic end…" Oshawa pointed to individuals with sanpaku eyes that ranged from Martin Luther King Jr. to Abraham Lincoln.

ABOVE OR BELOW?

The superstition goes on to specify different meanings if the white appears above or below the iris of the eye. If you have a white above your iris, that means that you are possibly a danger to the outside world and unable to control your emotions. If you have a white below your iris, that means the outside world could be a danger to you.

There is a notion that people with sanpaku eyes are apparently likely to commit crimes or are insane.

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Known scientifically as “Tridecaphobia,” fear of the number 13 is probably the most common of all superstitions. Buildings avoid numbering the 13th floor. Airplanes avoid the 13th aisle. And almost every North American knows that Friday the 13th is considered a bad luck day.

The origins of Friday superstitions are many. One of the best known is that Eve tempted Adam with the apple on a Friday. Tradition also has it that the Flood in the Bible, the confusion at the Tower of Babel, and the death of Jesus Christ all took place on Friday.

The modern basis for the Friday the 13th superstition stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against “the Knights Templar”. The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long. There Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested and before he was killed, was tortured and crucified.

Read More Here

• If you dig in the dirt on friday on the 13 you will see your blood by the end of the day. {submitted by Adreana Mcdaniel from Hayes, LA}

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Kalends (1st day of the month).
Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months).
Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months).

According to Plutarch, a seer had foreseen that Julius Caesar would be harmed not later than the Ides of March and on his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar met that seer and joked, "The Ides of March are come", meaning to say that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone." This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March." Julius Caesar was stabbed 33 times (three and thirty wounds) according to Shakespeare’s play (23 times, in real life).

Since then, the day has taken on a new meaning — a day when prophecies of doom are realized.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March 
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/63400.html

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