But refuse profane and old wives\u2019 fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2014I Tim. 4:7<\/i><\/p>\n
6258<\/b> Rabbit\u2019s Foot<\/b><\/p>\n
An estimated 20 million Americans in this age of science and sophistication, carry a rabbit\u2019s foot or other good-luck charms. <\/p>\n
6259<\/b> Presidential Assassinations<\/b><\/p>\n
Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy, probably didn\u2019t know it, but Kennedy\u2019s death continued the sad tradition that, since William H. Harrison, every American president elected in a year ending in \u201c0\u201d had died while in office. <\/p>\n
They included Harrison (1840), Lincoln (1860), Garfield (1880), Mckinley (1900), Harding (1920), Roosevelt (1940), and Kennedy (1960). Four of these\u2014Lincoln, Garfield, Mckinley, and Kennedy\u2014were assassinated. The deaths are coincidental, of course; but there might be some superstitious candidates unwilling to be elected in 1980. <\/p>\n
6260<\/b> Numbers In Japan<\/b><\/p>\n
Tokyo (UPI)\u2014Planes flying into Tokyo international airport will never taxi up to a Gate 4 or 13. <\/p>\n
In the old section of Tokyo University Hospital, the room numbers contain no 4\u2019s, 9\u2019s or 19\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Tokyo\u2019s 36-story World Trade Center has nothing on its 13th floor but air-conditioning equipment and generators. <\/p>\n
And even Japanese telephone numbers reserve the digits \u201c42\u201d for service, public and temporarily-installed phones. <\/p>\n
Americans may shudder at broken mirrors and black cats, but the Japanese vent most of their superstitious energy on numbers, above all the number four. <\/p>\n
Four in Japanese is \u201cshi\u201d. Shi also means death, and so the Japanese studiously avoid words that can be pronounced Shi (she). <\/p>\n
The situation becomes even more complicated because of the ominous combinations that are possible with Shi and other numerals. <\/p>\n
Although most hospitals have rooms numbered 13, many hotels and airlines, as a concession to their foreign clients, leave thirteen out of their numbering systems. <\/p>\n
Japan Air Lines planes leave no seats numbered 13, although they have seats numbered 4. And at the famed Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, bellboys never wear tags on their uniforms with a 13 on it. <\/p>\n
In Osaka, the high-rise Hotel Plaza has no 13th floor, and about-to-open Osaka Royal Hotel reserves the 13th floor for its unlucky employees. <\/p>\n
6261<\/b> Borrowed Days Of February<\/b><\/p>\n
The 12th, 13th and 14th of February, are said to be borrowed from January. If these days prove stormy, the year will be favoured with good weather; but if fine, the year will be foul and unfavorable. <\/p>\n
\u2014E. Cobham Brewer<\/p>\n
6262<\/b> Friday The Thirteenth<\/b><\/p>\n
The thirteenth of the month falls on Friday more often than on any other day of the week. In 440 years\u2014a basic and recurring calendar unit\u2014there will be 688 Friday the thirteenths, as compared to 687 Sundays or Wednesdays, the next highest number<\/p>\n
6263<\/b> Lucky Day Friday? <\/b><\/p>\n
William Churchill says, \u201cFriday is my lucky day. I was born, christened, married, and knighted on that day: and all my best accidents have befallen me on Friday.\u201d In Scotland, Friday is a choice day for weddings. Not so in England. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday. Sorrow follows in the wake of joy.\u201d The line is taken from Racine\u2019s comedy Les Plaideurs<\/i>. <\/p>\n
6264<\/b> Tbe Ship Disappeared<\/b><\/p>\n
Traditionally, the U.S. Navy will not launch a new ship on Friday, or on the 13th. <\/p>\n
There is a story that the British Admiralty once tried to disprove that Friday is a bad-luck day. It had the keel of a new ship laid on a Friday, named the ship Friday<\/i>, launched it on a Friday, let it sail on a Friday, with a Captain Friday in command. Ship and crew just disappeared at sea, never to be heard of again. <\/p>\n
\u2014Reader\u2019s Digest<\/i><\/p>\n
6265<\/b> Man Who Bought The Black Sea<\/b><\/p>\n
A Russian nobleman, Prince Urussoff had a family superstition initially very expensive but ultimately very profitable as well. While he and his beautiful young bride were honeymooning on the Black Sea, the wedding ring slipped off her finger and disappeared beneath the waves. The prince, remembering the family belief that the loss of a wedding ring caused the loss of the bride herself, did the only thing he could. He bought both shores of the Black Sea from hundreds of owners for more than $40 million. He reasoned that if he owned both shores he owned the sea itself and everything that lay at its bottom. <\/p>\n
When the prince died, his heirs no longer needed to own the ring. So they sold the Black Sea for $80 million. <\/p>\n
6266<\/b> Wrong Side Of Bed<\/b><\/p>\n
Have you ever noticed that most beds in hotels are placed so that their left sides are against the wall? This is done because of an ancient superstition, so that patrons will not be able to \u201cget up on the wrong side of the bed.\u201d Ancient people believed that the gods and forces of good lived within the right side of the body, while the devil and all the forces of evil dwelt within the left side of the body. <\/p>\n
With this belief, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/i>, if a person got out of bed on the left side, he would be giving the advantage to the forces of evil for that day, and could expect misfortune and bad luck! <\/p>\n
6267<\/b> Right Foot First Into House<\/b><\/p>\n
It was thought unlucky to enter a house or to leave one\u2019s chamber left foot foremost. Augustus was very superstitious on this point. Pythagoras taught that it is necessary to put the shoe on the right foot first. \u201cWhen stretching forth your feet to have your sandals put on, first extend your right foot.\u201d Iamblichus tells us this symbolized that man\u2019s first duty is reverence to the gods. <\/p>\n
6268<\/b> Boy At Door<\/b><\/p>\n
In Rome a boy was stationed at the door of a mansion to caution visitors not to cross the threshold with their left foot, which would have been an ill omen. <\/p>\n
\u2014E. Cobham Brewer<\/p>\n
6269<\/b> The Fairy Tree<\/b><\/p>\n
The country council of Donegal, Ireland, decided to construct a new road through the mountains to the Atlantic coast. The road was started and there was every prospect of its being finished, when, behold! the construction crew came to a skeog, or fairy tree, and there the highway stopped. According to a newspaper clipping, \u201cNot a soul in all Ireland can be found to cut it down. The reason is Ireland\u2019s firm belief that disaster can come to those who harm a fairy tree.\u201d<\/p>\n
6270<\/b> To Fool A Ghost<\/b><\/p>\n
An old funeral custom that prevailed in Scotland until recent times was to carry out the casket of the deceased, not through the front door, but through an opening made in the side of the house which was walled-up immediately after serving its purpose. Thus, the ghost was prevented from re-entering the house because the only door that it knew was gone. <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
6271<\/b> Jewish Burial Beliefs<\/b><\/p>\n
Some of the Jewish rabbis taught that it was necessary to be buried in the Holy Land in order to have a part in the resurrection which would precede the Messiah\u2019s reign upon earth. They even taught that the bodies of the righteous, no matter where on earth they might have been buried, would roll back, underground, to Israel and be raised there. <\/p>\n
6272<\/b> A Service For Suicide<\/b><\/p>\n
The verger of the English village church of Great Barton, Suffolk, hanged himself in the bell tower. The church was immediately closed until a curious and unusual service had taken place. From the Middle Ages it has been held that blood shed in a church causes a breach between God and the worshipers, and that this can be healed only by \u201can act of reconciliation.\u201d The Bishop of Dunwich conducted the necessary service at which the Archdeacon of Sudbury explained that he considered the procedure binding, and the church was reopened for worship. <\/p>\n
\u2014Christianity Today<\/i><\/p>\n
6273<\/b> Uranium And Green Ants<\/b><\/p>\n
Prior to 1974 the aborigines of Gabo Diang in Australia\u2019s remote North regarded ants found in their district to be the descendants of the godlike green ant, one of the spiritual beings who established all the patterns of human life and can still influence them for good or ill. <\/p>\n
But Queensland Mines wanted to mine what may be the world\u2019s richest uranium deposit. Since the ore was less than 200 yards from the home of the sacred green ant, the aborigines feared the wrath of the great green ant if its hallowed resting place was desecrated. Drought and famine might wreck havoc on mankind, they claimed. <\/p>\n
For four years the aborigines refused to allow the green ant to be disturbed. Finally, however, a settlement was reached: Queensland Mines agreed to pay the aboriginal people a total settlement of $8.3 million! <\/p>\n
6274<\/b> Lucky And Unlucky Signs<\/b><\/p>\n
The following signs are supposed to herald good luck: horseshoes, toadstools, piglets, four-leafed clovers, lady-birds, forget-me-nots, mistletoes at Christmas, a cobweb in the room, yew trees, money spiders, a spring of heather, two shooting stars in one night and so on. There are also proverbs like, \u201cSee a pin and pick it up, all the day you will have good luck\u201d, and, \u201cSomething old, something new, something borrowed, something blue\u201d\u2014to bring the bride luck. <\/p>\n
Unlucky signs include: a hunchback or an old woman crossing one\u2019s path in the early morning, crossing arms when shaking hands, burning green twigs in the garden, losing one\u2019s wedding ring, two spoons in a saucer, rocking an empty cradle, seeing a magpie, spilling salt, crossing one\u2019s knife and fork, the ace of spades and the four of clubs, a string of pearls, etc. It is also supposed to be unlucky to meet a funeral procession on one\u2019s wedding day, to let one\u2019s washing boil over, to give away something pointed, to have a parson on board ship, to open an umbrella in the house and so on. <\/p>\n
6275<\/b> Spitting For Luck<\/b><\/p>\n
Boys often spit on a piece of money given to them for luck. Boxers spit upon their hands for luck. Fisherwomen not frequently spit on the first money they take for luck. Spitting was a charm against fascination among the ancient Greeks and Romans. Pliny says it averted witchcraft, and availed in giving to an enemy a shrewder blow: \u201cThrice on my breast I spit to guard me safe from fascinating charms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Theocritos<\/p>\n
6276<\/b> Special Days, Special Acts<\/b><\/p>\n
In Wurzburg, Germany, I heard that many people wash their purses out on New Year\u2019s Eve in one of the fountains of the town. This is to ensure that they don\u2019t run out of money during the coming year. <\/p>\n
Habits and ideas and customs like this exist everywhere. Some people for example place eggs under their hens on Good Friday in order to get more chicks. Others say that if a girl wants to get married she is to cut a twig from a tree on the 4th of December, and she will have a bridgroom before it blossoms. At Christmastime people shake the trees for good luck. To eat an apple on New Year\u2019s day or on Whit Sunday will make one healthy. <\/p>\n
Another custom is to fetch water from a stream on the night before Easter Day and to sprinkle it on the sick. April 1st is an unlucky day. May 1st is a lucky day. Children born on a Sunday will be lucky, and May-children should also meet with good fortune. Friday-children are supposed to be unlucky. <\/p>\n
Many framing laws are also based on such customs and people predict the weather in the same way. For example if it rains on St. Swithin\u2019s day it means it will rain for the next 40 days. Fog too early in April means floods in June, and so we could go on. Yet the words of the apostle remain unaltered, \u201cYou observe days, and months, and season, and years! I am afraid I have laboured over you in vain\u201d (Gal. 4:10\u201311). <\/p>\n
\u2014Kurt Koch<\/p>\n
6277<\/b> Selling Worshippers\u2019 Dust<\/b><\/p>\n
There is a man named Uonosuke Yamamoto, whose daily vocation for fifty years has been to gather up and to sell at a high price all the dust which is left in the Kannon temple in Asakusa by the thousands of visitors who daily go there to worship. <\/p>\n
The superstitious purchasers sprinkle small patches of this dust in front of their own doors, believing it will bring them blessings and immunity from plague and famine. <\/p>\n
6278<\/b> Wearing Amulets<\/b><\/p>\n
The custom of wearing amulets has gone on for thousands of years all over the world. The native wears a tiger\u2019s claw to gain the animal\u2019s strength. The European nails a horseshoe over his door for luck. There are people who wear lucky charms on their watch chains. In Switzerland some of the men wear small, gold earrings as protection against eye infection. The driver carries a mascot or talisman with him in the car, while the pilot takes a small animal such as a dog or canary on board with him for luck. Many soldiers used to carry letters of protection about with them in the hope that this would make them bullet-proof. These are just pitiable efforts to compensate for a lack of faith in God. <\/p>\n
6279<\/b> And So On \u2026 <\/b><\/p>\n
It is supposed to be unlucky to buy raffle tickets on the 13th day of the month. One should not sow an even number of beans together. An odd number of chicks gets on better than an even number. It is unlucky for a ship to sail on the 13th day of the month. To be the third person to light a cigarette from a match is considered to be unlucky. To put three crosses over a doorway or window is thought to be lucky. And so we could go on. <\/p>\n
See also:<\/b> Fear ; Occultism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But refuse profane and old wives\u2019 fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. \u2014I Tim. 4:7 6258 Rabbit\u2019s Foot An estimated 20 million Americans in this age of science and sophistication, carry a rabbit\u2019s foot or other good-luck charms. 6259 Presidential Assassinations Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy, probably didn\u2019t know it, but … Continue reading “SUPERSTITIONS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}