26Gifting Knife
Russian superstition considers it taboo to give a knife as a gift; however, the taboo can be broken if the recipient gives a coin in return, lest the relationship be severed.
27. Korean superstition prevents students from eating seaweed soup before a test so that information doesn’t ‘slip’ from the mind.
28. Lighting three matches is a purported superstition among soldiers. According to it, when the first soldier lights his cigarette, the enemy will see the light. When the second soldier lights his cigarette, the enemy would take aim and when the third soldier lights his cigarette, the enemy would fire and that soldier would be shot.
29. Mandrakes plants are real. According to one superstition, people who pull up the root will be condemned to hell. The mandrake root would scream as it was pulled from the ground, killing anyone who heard it. In the past, people tied the roots to animals and then used the animals to pull the roots from the soil.
30. The superstition of opening up an umbrella indoors stemmed as a health and safety hazard, as the first modern umbrellas were notoriously dangerous to open, with spring triggers and metal spokes. This could cause harm to people and damage to objects in the house, like jars or TVs.
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31The Superman Curse
There is a superstition known as "The Superman Curse" which states that anyone associated with the franchise is jinxed. George Reeve's suicide, Christopher Reeve's paralysis, and the creators of Superman not gaining any of the profits have all been attributed to the curse.
32. There was a long-held superstition that Medieval Irish bards were close to magicians, able to raise blisters on the faces of their victims by the power of their satire, and even 'rhyme rats to death.'
33. "Rabbit rabbit rabbit" is a superstition found in Britain and North America wherein a person says or repeats the words "rabbit", "rabbits" and/or "white rabbits" aloud upon waking on the first day of a month, to ensure good luck for the rest of it.
34. The "Sweater Curse" is a superstition that hand-knitting a sweater for your significant other will lead to them breaking up with you.
35. A common superstition in Japan is that blood type is an indicator of a person's personality; similar to the Western belief in the signs of the zodiac.
