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The scientific reason you still believe in superstitions
Superstitions provide reassurance
Superstitions can provide reassurance and help to reduce anxiety. The actions associated with superstitions can also develop into a habit and failure to perform the ritual can cause anxiety.
This is even though the actual outcome of the situation is still dependent on known factors.
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What superstition is
Superstition can be described as the belief in supernatural forces, such as fate, to describe unpredictable factors. Psychologists found that superstition comes from the assumption...
Positive and negative superstitions
- Some superstitious beliefs help promote a positive mental attitude, although they can lead to irrational decisions, such as trusting in good luck and destiny rather than sound decision making.
- Carrying charms, wearing certain clothes, preferring specific colours, and using particular numbers are elements of superstition.
- Superstitions can also give rise to the idea that objects and places are cursed. Many buildings do not have a 13th floor. In some countries, such as Italy and Brazil, the typical unlucky number is 17.
Sporting superstitions
Superstition is also prevalent within sport. It has been shown to reduce tension and provide a sense of control over unpredictable factors.
Personalized actions and behaviors include wearing lucky clothes, kit, and charms.
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Luck And Chance
Like the flip of a coin coming up with heads or tails, chance is what happens out there, and is an aspect of the physical universe. Luck, on the other hand, is a perceived value of...
Getting Luckier
People try to change the chance outcomes, and thereby their luck by using blind superstition or old ritual to affect the outcome, but there is no evidence of them working.
Luck can be increased with hard work, though what can happen out there is still anybody’s guess. The prepared mind that is able to act with speed and direction has more favourable chances than the one who is not paying attention.
Luck and Our Perception On Life
Being lucky or unlucky often is our own perception and outlook towards life.
If we survive a car accident, we consider ourselves lucky to be alive or to be unlucky to be involved in the accident in the first place, ruining our vehicle.
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Ancient Origins of Halloween
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, in the area that is now Ireland. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the gho...
All Saints' Day
- On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.
- The influence of Christianity spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was probably done to replace the Celtic festival.
- All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas, and eventually, Halloween.
Halloween Comes to America
The celebration of Halloween was limited in colonial New England, but as the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with Irish immigrants, fleeing the Irish Potato Famine. This helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.