Hi, I was thinking of asking this from fellow members... Here goes...

When you were growing up, as a kid, as a teenager. I am sure you were told or informed of some stories, or things by grown-ups that if you do not do this or that, and some things might happened to you...

A good example would be like this- if you don't wash youself properly, you might have potatoes growing from the back of the ears... things like that...

For starters, when I was a young boy, I was told that, when you eat, you should remain in one spot and not move around, otherwise you will have many wives... Kinda of scared me when I was a kid..., but now... that sounded kinda of kinky...

What about the rest of you good people. Seeing that we have many people from different parts of the world, lets see if we some that is commonly told to the young ones...

One of my mums favourites was, "Singing at your meals will bring trouble to your heels." Who the hell sings while they eat???

Make of this what you will, but this did happen. When I was a young boy I had an ugly wart on the little finger of my left hand near the nail. One of my mums friends relations was a pukka gypsy (not a pikey) who said she would "charm" the wart away. I sat beside her absolutely terrified in case she turned me into a frog while she did her "charming" the wart away. About a week later the wart fell off and never grew back.

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

One of my mums favourites was, "Singing at your meals will bring trouble to your heels." Who the hell sings while they eat???

Make of this what you will, but this did happen. When I was a young boy I had an ugly wart on the little finger of my left hand near the nail. One of my mums friends relations was a pukka gypsy (not a pikey) who said she would "charm" the wart away. I sat beside her absolutely terrified in case she turned me into a frog while she did her "charming" the wart away. About a week later the wart fell off and never grew back.

Wow... that was really mind boggling, I wonder how she managed that.... For us asians, one of the reason why you may have a wart on your finger was you may have pointed your finger at a full moon, or had chicken blood splased on it, as some Malay folklore goes...

Thanks, Opa Brit...

In India there is this superstition that if you are going for some purpose and a cat come across then it is suppose to bring bad omens or your purpose will be incomplete.

I have one superstition while playing cricket,if i am an opening batsmen then i make sure to never face the first ball or else could get out cheaply.

How about ghost stories? i mean real experiences if any of you had.
personally never had any of such till now,but my friends claim to experienced one.

Originally Posted by zhaldev

In India there is this superstition that if you are going for some purpose and a cat come across then it is suppose to bring bad omens or your purpose will be incomplete.

I have one superstition while playing cricket,if i am an opening batsmen then i make sure to never face the first ball or else could get out cheaply.

How about ghost stories? i mean real experiences if any of you had.
personally never had any of such till now,but my friends claim to experienced one.

There is the same superstition here, but only if the cat is black. A broken mirror implies seven years of misery, and walking beneath a ladder is a bad thing. Then of course there is the number 13. There is also a superstition about the horse shoe if it hangs with the opening down the good luck will run out.

I like ghost stories, but I have never experienced any haunting.

When I went to public school, I had a friend who lived on a farm. He claimed that the barn was haunted by the old owner of the farm who had hanged himself in there.

He told me that their dog would not go in there and to prove it he called the dog and started walking towards the barn with the dog. When the dog discovered where it was going, it stopped, laid his ears back, put his tail between his legs and began howling and barking hysterically.

Whether it was something he had trained the dog to do or if it could sense something I don´t know but it was scary back then.

It is believed here that dogs can see ghosts/spirits and they have this power to ward of evil if it comes on the owner of the dog.People who are involved in black magic/voodoo kinda things usually keep dogs as pet.I've seen this myself when i used to stay as paying guest,the owner of the house used to practice occult things and kept 4 dogs as pet.I've seen him doing strange rituals which are not common,but never experienced any haunted.

Originally Posted by zhaldev

In India there is this superstition that if you are going for some purpose and a cat come across then it is suppose to bring bad omens or your purpose will be incomplete.

I have one superstition while playing cricket,if i am an opening batsmen then i make sure to never face the first ball or else could get out cheaply.

How about ghost stories? i mean real experiences if any of you had.
personally never had any of such till now,but my friends claim to experienced one.

Well, the mention of the cat is rather interesting, as in the West it is the black cat, as I recalled...

Yup, some sportsmen do have their quirks about certain things when they play. Gamblers do that too, for that matter. I have a friend who gambles and he will rather pissed if someone touches him on the shoulder on the day he wishes to gamble, when he enters the gambling place, he makes sure it is the left foot that crossed into the room first, otherwise no luck, he says...

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

There is the same superstition here, but only if the cat is black. A broken mirror implies seven years of misery, and walking beneath a ladder is a bad thing. Then of course there is the number 13. There is also a superstition about the horse shoe if it hangs with the opening down the good luck will run out.

I like ghost stories, but I have never experienced any haunting.

Those things that you've mentioned are rather the same in most European countries, does it not, 13. I would think they would be the same in the US, too.

For us Asians, hanging a mirror or a dried seahorse is suppose to attarct good fortune to the residence.

As for the number 13, these number is really puzzling- some people says it brings them luck, some says otherwise. I heard that even int eh Concorde seating arrangement, there is no number 13- can anybody confirm this?

Ghost stories...? It would seemed that in Asia, there is no shortage of it... I will come to that later...

Originally Posted by Freyja

When I went to public school, I had a friend who lived on a farm. He claimed that the barn was haunted by the old owner of the farm who had hanged himself in there.

He told me that their dog would not go in there and to prove it he called the dog and started walking towards the barn with the dog. When the dog discovered where it was going, it stopped, laid his ears back, put his tail between his legs and began howling and barking hysterically.

Whether it was something he had trained the dog to do or if it could sense something I don´t know but it was scary back then.

Well, Freyja, never known you to be scared of anything so far...

I am told by many that animals have a sense of hearing and smell that is much better than human, thats why I cannot get job at the airport sniffing luggage, always got beaten to it by a dog!

We had many instances that when death occurs at a certain place, and the nature of death is rather gruesome, people tend to have an aversion or fear of the unknown.

Here in the hospitals , we nurses have this thing about patient dying- when a patient in a ward dies, 2 other patients will somehow die too, wuithin a short time. I remember Opa Brit telling me that it happens at where he is staying... and we also believe, somewhat strangely, that if a patient is gravely (no pun intended) ill, we should switched beds, otherwise the one that occupys that bed will die instead. Seems stupid to say, but it has happened, for some unknown reason.