Top 10 Superstitions We Indians Follow Blindly

We in a country where more than half the population literally thrives on baseless superstition. All of us have also been brought you with a set of weird superstitions and most of them simply defy logic. Yet, there are many who refuse to question their rationality and continue to live in blind faith.

Only Indian superstitions will tell you that crow shit is actually good for you. And it gets weirder than this! Here are some superstitions which don’t make sense, but we Indians blindly follow.

Cutting nails and hair on Saturdays brings bad luck

Cutting nails and hair

We believe that it’s inauspicious to cut hair and nails on Saturday because it angers planet Saturn (shani), which then brings bad luck. However, ask people who cut their hair and nails on Saturdays, and we bet they’ll tell you their hair looked better and their nails neater, and no planet hovered above them with bad luck.

If a black cat crosses your path, your tasks get delayed

a black cat

Poor black cats. They are blamed just for being black (no racist joke here). It’s a popular belief in the west too that, if a black cat crosses your path, it’s a bad omen. For the west, the origin of this superstition came from Egypt. Egyptian culture believed that black cats were evil creatures, whereas the Indian explanation is that black represents Shani and therefore brings bad luck. It is said that if a black cat crosses your path, then your day’s tasks get delayed or postponed. Which reminds me, when we were kids and went for our exams, and if a black cat crossed, never once was the exam delayed or postponed.

Omitting the 13th floor from the building.

Omitting the 13th floor from the building.

No explanation for this one, because number 13 is just considered unlucky. Ancient Christianity declared the number thirteen unlucky and therefore till date apartments and hotels skip the thirteenth floor.

Curse of 8.

Curse of 8.

According to numerology, the number eight is ruled by the planet Shani (again Shani!) and therefore if you’re ruled by the number eight then there shall be lots of obstructions, limitations and frustrations in your way.

Keeping knives under your bed will drive away bad dreams.

Keeping onions and knives under your bed will drive away bad dreams.

An onion and a knife is kept under a newborn child’s bed to drive away bad dreams. It is also believed that placing an onion under your pillow while you sleep will bring you great insight when dreaming about who your future partner in life will be. We suggest all single people try doing this to prove how wrong this belief is!

You lose your wealth, if you shake your legs.

You lose your wealth, if you shake your legs.

Shaking legs is not just a sign of nervousness. It also drives away your wealth. It is believed that if you shake your legs, prosperity will flow away from you. That explains, why we are so broke at the end of the month right!

You might get baldness after shaking the legs is also another superstition in most of the families.

Sweeping floors in the evening drives away Laxmi from the home.

Sweeping floors in the evening

Even if your room is filthy, your mom will not let you sweep the floor in the evening. That’s because Hindus believe that Goddess Laxmi generally visits homes during the evenings (specifically around 6-7 pm), and therefore sweeping will drive her away. This is, of course, assuming that Goddess Laxmi has a problem with basic hygiene.

Yet there is another issue about sweeping when there was no invention of light.  In evening there is too less light and we cannot find any small thing like gold earrings, nose pin,etc  at that time, while along with sweeping dirt we will sweep that small thing away and we will lost it unknowingly.  That is why we should not sweep our home at night or in the evening.  But in today’s ear we have lights then we can find any small thing at any time of the day.

Teen tigada, kaam bigada.

Teen tigada, kaam bigada.

According to the phrase, ‘teen tighada kaam bighada’, anything above two gets difficult to handle. And that a discussion is always better between two people rather than three. However, this was misinterpreted as 3 being unlucky.

Eye twitching.

Eye twitching

It is considered that the right eye twitching is good for men, and the left one brings good news for women.  It is commonly seen more in Maharashtra.  Ladies use their Mangalsutra to treat on their twitching eyes  and they assume that is the best treatment for eye twitching in this modern era of technology, doctors and scientists.

Crow shit brings luck.

Crow shit

We’re not making up shit if we tell you that crow shit is considered lucky. Hindus believe that crow shit brings ‘laabh’ and that money is on the way. If that was the case, then crows would’ve been the best pets no?

Actually crow cannot be a pet yet, like pigeon in all over the world.  Still we think and judge ourself in this manners of superstition and blind faiths.