1. Never let a black cat cross your path.
2. Never walk under a ladder.
3. Cover your mouth when you yawn, or you may allow a demon to enter or your soul to escape.
4. Always throw a pinch of salt over your shoulder.
5. Never spill the salt.
6. Never break a mirror.
7. Don't ever tell someone in the theater "good luck" before a performance, simply say "break a leg."
8. Don't have anything to do with the number 13 or 666.
9. Eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day to bring you good luck.
10. A bride must wear the following on her wedding day for good luck:  something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
11. And for goodness sake, . . . never EVER watch the video featured in The Ring.  ; )

• Walking under a ladder is supposed to be bad luck, and it is if a tool falls on your head or if you dislocate the ladder and the person on the ladder falls down.
• If a black cat crosses your path, it is a sign of bad luck, the person should go the other way to avoid bad luck.
• An upright horse-shoe nailed to a gate post is supposed to be lucky.
• Spilling salt is unlucky, and if you do spill salt, you are supposed to get some of the spilled salt and throw it over your left shoulder.
• Sweeping dust out of the house on New Years Day is unlucky as it is throwing your money away.
• Eating certain foods on New Years day is supposed to bring health, wealth, and good fortune.
• On your wedding day wear something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new.
• Predicting the gender of a baby was done by suspending the wedding ring over the belly of the pregnant woman.  If it swung in a circle, the baby was a girl, if in a vertical line, the baby was a boy.  This worked for all three of my kids. Hmmm...maybe there is something to this?
• If you hear an owl hoot, someone will die.
• Knock on wood 3 times if you say something positive so as not to jinx yourself.

These are just a few of the superstitions I know from my life in rural Tennessee.  There are tons of superstitious beliefs about a variety of things ranging from sports to farming.  The main thing is that superstitious beliefs come from coincidental occurrences that are connected with an action thought to be related to the event. In reality, there is no connection between the superstition and the actual occurrence of an event.

That's an easy one for me, particularly b/c we are Spanish and we have loads of superstitions. Let's start with New Year's Eve

1. Eat 12 grapes to guarantee food on the table all year long

2. Gather water all day long, and at midnight throw the water out the window/door - purification

3. Throw four pennies at midnight and make a wish for each of "the four lucks": money, romance, health, fate

In the South (Alabama) we make a meal in which the ingredients are symbols: Black Eyed peas for luck, pork skin or pork for health/food on the table, collard greens for money

Other Spanish superstitions I can tell you of are:

4. Doing the cross sign each time we pass a cemetery to bless the gone

5. Doing the cross sign if we happen to hear the voice of a loved one (dead or alive) when they aren't present, for they may need us from wherever they are.

6. Saying "blessings" instead of "hello" (or both) when we call our loved ones.

7. Not keeping objects that come from the ocean (respect)

8. Naming a child after the Saint to which the day is dedicated

9. Of course, beware of broken mirrors.

10. If you are pregnant, stare at nice pictures of healthy babies all the time so your kids can adopt the traits.

----I can tell u about 10,000 more (literally)= Don't get me started, ha ha.

Different cultures have traditionally held differing superstitous beliefs, beliefs that are deemed "irrational."  Such beliefs go back to ancient cultures such as the Greeks and Romans, who believed that natural occurrences were a result of actions of the gods.  Such fear of the gods, deisidaimonia, was what the Romans meant by supersitition.

In Western cultures, some superstitions actually caused more bad luck such as the belief in England that cats were witches and that they were the cause of the Plague.  By killing off the cats, the English caused the rat population to flourish, and, thus increase disease.  Of course, cats have been part of superstitious beliefs for ages.  The black cat crossing one's path denotes bad luck, for example.  Cats are also supposed to suck the breath away from babies, killing them.

Many superstitious beliefs are connected to religion.  For instance, if one holds out a cross or wears one, the person can ward off evil.  Certain talismans worn or hung in houses, were to have warded off evil.  Saint Gregory I the Great ordered that people say "God Bless You" when someone sneezed in order to ward off disease.

One of the oddest superstitions seems that of wishing an actor to "break a leg" when one wishes him/her well. But, at one time someone said, "Good luck" and the actor broke a leg.  So now people in the acting field say the opposite in order to ward off bad luck.  At any rate, at least this one makes sense when one knows its origin.