Popular Beliefs and Superstitions

At work, some of our volunteers found this really fantastic book about beliefs and superstitions of our state. They are quite entertaining and have explained why I am still single.* They also make you fairly glad that none of the believers in said beliefs and superstitions are your medical practitioner. For weird reasons, back in the day skinning various animals and putting them on your belly was a common cure for all that ails you.**

Anyway, I was tempted to purchase a copy of said book, but it costs about $50 used and it isn't a small little volume, so all in all it seemed like a lot to burden myself with for years to come. Instead I did some searching to see if other states or regions had a version, and lo and behold I found Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans and Kentucky Superstitions for free on Google Play. (There is also a 2 volume book on beliefs and superstitions of North Carolina for Kindle and a 3 volume compendium of beliefs and superstitions in the US, but they are a bit pricey, so I'm sticking with the free entertainment for now).

Now, the Pennsylvania Germans were much less obsessed with skinning animals in their medical practice, thank goodness. And they have some interesting medical advice, such as:

• Prevent headaches by putting your right sock on first.
• Go cross-eyed to prevent sneezing
• And, to prevent sickness in the family, don't pay all of your doctors bills

For what it's worth.

In the child-rearing department, there are a number of perks to carrying your new baby upstairs before you carry it downstairs. If you do so, your youngster will

• go to heaven
• amount to something
• live long
• sing high notes
• and be quickwitted

Unfortunately, your kid will also be conceited and vain, but hey--high notes! Totally worth the trade off, right? And, as a tip, you should burn it's first diaper for luck.

As far as romance goes, if you marry in a snowstorm, you'll be rich. However, if it snows on your carriage while you are in it, you and your new spouse will separate. And, if your nose itches, you'll be kissed. Or you'll get a letter. Practically the same thing.

Apparently, my aunt, who had seven boys and no girls, missed the memo that there are never seven children of the same sex in succession in a family.

Some practical advice that I am totally on board with?

• Jump out of bed immediately on getting awake and you will have a fall during the day. (See? No sense in rushing to get out of bed in the morning. Let's all just take it slow and prevent falls). 
• Meeting geese is a sign of bad luck. (Undoubtedly. Don't even get me started on the Canadian geese that invaded my apartment complex when I lived in the Midwest). 
• If you eat a donut on your birthday, you'll live for another year. (Can mine be a cake shaped like a donut? Or a donut of ice cream? Nothing against donuts, but it's my birthday. The ice cream is a must).
• And a word of warning to you obsessive furniture movers. Moving your furniture around makes you poor. (See? It's not laziness or lack of creativity that keeps me from rearranging my house. It's fiscal responsibility). 

And finally, one last piece of advice that may be particularly useful to any chicken farmers (but it doesn't specify you have to own the chickens): Burn your eggshells to prevent bewitched chickens. Because, if there is one thing the world really doesn't need right now, it is bewitched chickens.


*I sat on a table and ate the last dessert on the tray, which happened to be a piece of pie and I ate it starting with the tip. 
**I think the point of half of old medicinal recipes was to provide a cure that was so bad, the ailment seemed preferable.