37 Southern Superstitions you may or may not have known

Have you ever been curious about some superstitions that either have origins in the South or became a part of Southern folklore? Well here are a few. If you know of any you have grown up with, share in the comments

Southern Superstitions

• If someone rests his foot on your chair while gambling, it’s bad luck. If anyone attempts this, you must challenge them to a gunfight.
• If you are fishing, don’t stop to count how many fish you have caught that day because you will not catch anymore.
• It’s bad luck to light three cigarettes with the same match.
• If you bite your tongue while eating, you recently told a lie.
• A knife placed under a bed during childbirth will ease the mother’s labor pains.
• If bees create a hive on your roof, your house may burn down soon.
• To wear new clothes on Easter Sunday will bring good luck.
• The “playoff beard” ensures a sports team good luck as long as the players and fans do not shave until the team is eliminated or has won.
• A horseshoe hung in a bedroom will keep nightmares away.
• Pick a dandelion that has “gone to seed”, the white ones, and blow on it. Count the remaining seeds on the dandelion and that is how many children you will have.
• Cutting your fingernails on a Friday or Sunday will bring bad luck.
• A woman struggling to conceive can find success after hugging a pregnant woman.
• A wedding ring dropped during the ceremony will bring bad luck. If a ring is dropped, the couple should not pick it up, but the person performing the ceremony should.
• If a ferret, stoat or weasel jumps over the belly of a pregnant woman, the child will be born with a birthmark.
• If a cow lifts its tail, rain is coming.
• When you move, never take your broom with you. Buy a new one.
• A loaf of bread should never be turned upside down after it has had a sliced removed from it.
• Rub a penny on a wart and it will disappear.
• If your friend gives you a knife, you should give him a coin and your friendship will last forever. If not, it will be severed.
• If you kill a bee that is entering your home, it will bring bad luck.
• Cut an apple in half and count the seeds to see how many children you will have.
• If a girl sees a sparrow on Valentine’s Day she will marry a poor man and be happy; however, if she sees a goldfinch she will marry a millionaire.
• When eating cherries, keep the pits. Line them up, count them and recite: tinker, tailor, soldier, rich man, poor man, beggar man, their, doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief. When you reach the last pip, you’ll know your husband’s occupation.
• If an unborn child kicks the left hand side of the womb, it is a boy.
• Keeping a hat on the bed causes bad luck.
• Don’t eat both ends of a loaf of bread.
• Don’t cut a baby’s hair before his/her first birthday.
• Eating cabbage and/or black eye peas on New Year’s Day will bring good luck/health.
• Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.
• If your ear itches, someone is talking about you.
• Sleep with a mirror under your pillow and you will see your future husband.
• Dreaming of fish means someone is pregnant.
• It is bad luck to wash laundry on New Year’s Day
• If someone takes your picture, they are capturing part of your soul.
• If a picture of a person falls off a wall, it is a sign of death.
• Never buy your boyfriend or husband shoes as a gift, because he will walk out of your life with them.

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