Superstitions

"Three on a match." "Knock on wood." "April Fool." The use of phrases such as these are such common occurrences today that few would begin to consider them superstitions. Yet each of these, and hundreds of other, benign statements and common practices like New Year's Day, Easter, and Christmas, are traceable to pagan rituals or the response of the early Christian church to them.

It has been claimed that "the true origin of superstition is to be found in early man's effort to explain Nature and his own existence; in the desire to propitiate Fate and invite Fortune; in the wish to avoid evils he could not understand; and in the unavoidable attempt to pry into the future." Indeed, our inability to explain or comprehend those things which happen around us provide for the perpetuation, rational or not, of superstitions and mythical beliefs. According to Maple,

The origins of our superstitions are lost in time and those beliefs which have survived are often relics of ancient cultures and long vanished ways of life. Above all, however, they remain outward expressions of the tensions and anxieties that rend humanity as it struggles down the corridor of life from birth to death, buffeted by the winds of chance.

In all superstitions or superstitious behaviors there exists an element of fear, a degree of ignorance, and enough contagion to allow for their adoption over time. Because "man's curiosity is in excess of his capacity to interpret Nature and life," ear

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closely associated with the solar New Year--Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox--which, according to Knowlson is "the day of the renewal of all things." The ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, and others "regarded the egg as an emblem of the Universe--a work of the supreme Divinity," and the coloring and ornamentation of eggs at Easter was likely adapted by the church, with red symbolic of the blood of Christ. Knowlson refers his readers to "a statement from Emilianne's Romish Monks and Priests," which describes priestly blessings given to "great chargers, full of hard eggs" on Easter Eve and Easter Day. Few individuals today are likely to be paralyzed by superstitious beliefs. And the distinction between "Christian" and "pagan" superstitions has been all but utterly dissolved with the passage of time. It is possible, however, to briefly investigate two particular lines of superstition which can be originally identified solely with either Christian or pagan traditions. The first of these is the various superstitions pertaining to the number thirteen, which most likely devolves from Christian antiquity. That thirteen is an unlucky number "is one of the mos

Category: Philosophy - S