The other night, I heard an owl hooting right outside my bedroom window. My H and I live in a pretty densely-populated suburb, and although we have a lot of songbirds in our backyard, I’ve heard/seen an owl in our yard maybe three times in 30 years…so a pretty rare occurrence.
Anyway, I loved the sound - but my immediate thought was “someone is going to die.” I remember my grandmother telling me that hearing an owl hoot meant death, and the only way to ward off the bad fortune was to tie a knot in my bed sheet. (Which is supposed to scare off an owl and/or death because…they’re afraid of knotted sheets?!)
My husband thought I was nuts. I’m not a superstitious person, but I thought it strange that the owl-hooting-means-death idea popped into my head right away.
What strange superstitions do you find yourself drawn to? My husband may think I’M nuts, but I think HE’S crazy to wear his Lucky Socks every time the Packers play.
To be superstitious, you have to buy into a lot of magical thinking, or at least giving a lot of power to individuals to affect others. In your example above, you have the power to ward off death by doing fill in the blank. There is a superstition among nurses that if you say “it’s quiet tonight,” you have guaranteed a lot of emergencies. Yeah, so random nurse at some hospital can cause a car accident(s) or shooting by saying a particular word. A lot of nurses actually seem to believe this superstition.
At our lake house, we had an owl that visited a tree from time to time. No one ever died as a result.
I didn’t mean to imply that I am superstitious (I’m not) or that I believe in owls as harbingers of death (I don’t). I’m a scientist, and the only magical thinking I indulge in is the entertainment-kind from “Game of Thrones.” I just thought it odd that my first impulse when I heard the owl was a superstitious one. Maybe that speaks more to the power of childhood (and my grandmother) than it does to anything else.
Although - when I was in grad school, it was said that whenever Henry Gilman (famous organometallic chemist, long retired) entered the chemistry building, all the reactions set up that day would be successful.
I hear an owl hooting on the roof above my bedroom many, many nights. I’d be long dead by now if that old wives’ tale was true. Backyard rabbits didn’t fare too well, but I’m still kicking.
Not superstitious but this discussion made me think of “Murphy’s Law” which seems similar to a nurse saying, “It’s a quiet night tonight” and then it turns out to be a night full of emergencies. I sometimes think that Murphy’s Law is at play too often when I’ll say, x never happens and then, of course, it does. (Struggling to think of a good example at the moment.) I know me uttering words does not cause any kind of action but it does seem rather coincidental too often!
I don’t know if that’s a superstition, but it’s something that I’ve seen occur in my life. Not always, but often enough for me to state after two similar events occur.
I have to wear some purple on me everyday. To make it easier I’m thinking of getting a purple tattoo. It’s a long story. But it has worked for me. Lol.
