a credulous belief or notion, not based on reason or

knowledge "old wives' tales" commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events

Good luck
to touch wood to find a clover plant with

four leaves white heather (bijeli vrijesak) a horseshoe over the door catch falling leaves in Autumn if you cut your hair when the Moon is waxing(getting larger in the sky, moving from the New Moon towards the Full Moon).

Bad luck
to walk underneath a

ladder to break a mirror to open an umbrella in doors the number thirteen to put new shoes on the table to pass someone on the stairs

 the expression 'Bless you' very lucky to sneeze at

exactly the same time as someone else you are with Sneeze 'once for a wish, twice for a kiss, three for a letter, four for something better

Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger. Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger. Sneeze on Wednesday, sneeze for a letter. Sneeze on Thursday, something better. Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for woe. Sneeze on Saturday, a journey to go. Sneeze on Sunday, your safety seekfor Satan will have you for the rest of the week!

 Unlucky to spill salt When finished eating a

If you drop a table knife

boiled egg, push the spoon through the bottom of the empty shell to let the devil out housewives used to believe that bread would not rise if there was a corpse in the vicinity to cut off both ends of the loaf would make the Devil fly over the house

expect a male visitor if you drop a fork a female visitor Crossed cutlery (knives) on your plate and expect a quarrel leave a white tablecloth on a table overnight and expect a death

 Bride and groom must not meet on the

day of the wedding except at the altar The bride should never wear her complete wedding clothes before the day For good luck the bride should wear something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new The husband should carry his new wife over the threshold of their home For brides to be kissed by a passing chimney sweep is very good luck

BAT bad luck if you see bats flying and hear their cries witches were closely associated with bats RAVEN An ill-omened bird, able to predict the future, particularly death If the Ravens in the Tower of London should be lost or fly away then the Royal Family will die and Britain will fall to an enemy To kill a raven is to harm the spirit of King Arthur SPARROW They carry souls of dead, unlucky to kill one if a sparrow enters a house it is an omen of death to one of the people who live there MAGPIE , 'One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy; five for sorrow, six for gold, seven is a secret never to be told, eight is a wish, nine is a kiss and ten is the bird you must not miss. CAT a black cat crossing one's path brought good luck If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it

 hare and white rabbit was

thought to be witch in disguise rabbit which crosses one's path in front is a good omen and one which crosses behind is a bad one unwise to shoot a black rabbit an old custom is to say 'Rabbits' or 'White Rabbits' either once or three times on the first day of the month, as a good luck charm

RABBIT'S FOOT a well-known lucky charm a symbol of fertility In Wales an old belief is that a new-born child rubbed all over with a rabbit's foot will be lucky for life