Old Wives' Tales

 

An old wives' tale is 
a type of urban legend, 
similar to a proverb,
which is generally passed down by old wives to a younger generation.
Such "tales" usually consist of superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details. Today old wives' tales are still common among children in school playgrounds. Old wives' tales often concern pregnancy, puberty and nutrition.

Examples of old wives' tales include:

• Ice cream leads to nightmares.
• It's bad luck to give a pair of gloves to a friend unless you receive something in exchange.
• Toes pointed up signify low blood sugar.
• High heart rates lead to female fetuses.
• If you step on a crack you'll break your mother's back/step on a line and break your mother's spine.
• Breaking a mirror will earn a person seven years of bad luck.
• Don't swallow gum or it will stay in your stomach for seven years.
• Various other stories, all resulting in "seven years" of something.
• It's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors.
• Making silly faces when the wind direction changes will make the silly face permanent.

^{source: wikipedia}

"(...) Old wives' tales are perhaps as old as language itself. They're part of our oral tradition, originating long before pen and ink, books and movies, and certainly before the Internet. (...)

Many old wives' tales, especially those surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, have been proven false or irrelevant by advances in medicine and technology. One example is the use of prenatal ultrasound to detect the sex of a fetus instead of dangling a ring suspended on a string over the expectant woman's belly. According to the tale, if the ring swings from side to side, it's a girl, and if it swings in a circle, it's a boy. An ultrasound reading may not be as much fun, but the test results are certainly more accurate.



Some old wives' tales about health and sickness have some basis in fact, whereas other, newer ones seem to reflect a kind of technophobia, such as those related to watching television. Though some old wives' tales are true, most are harmless — and at least one described here is dangerous.(...)"

source:  kidshealth.org


"Some more old wives tales...
Superstitions, folk lore and old wives tales
were serious business many years ago!"

Here you'll see a small sampling of these old fashioned beliefs,
taken from the OldTips blog. 

Wish
If you make a wish while throwing a coin into a well or fountain, the wish will come true.
Wish I may,
Wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.
If you tell someone your wish, it won't come true.

Old Fashioned Superstitions

• If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake with the first puff you will get your wish.
• To prevent an unwelcome guest from returning, sweep out the room they stayed in immediately after they leave.
• If the first butterfly you see in the year is white, you will have good luck all year.
• To cure a cough: take a hair from the coughing person's head, put it between two slices of buttered bread, feed it to a dog, and say, "Eat well you hound, may you be sick and I be sound."
• For good luck throughout the year, wear new clothes on Easter.
• Cut your hair on Good Friday to prevent headaches in the year to come
• Pulling out a gray or white hair will cause ten more to grow in its place.
• If you knit one of your own hairs into a garment, it will bind the recipient to you.
•  If a young girl catches a ladybug and then releases it, the direction in which it flies away will be the direction from which her future husband will come.
• If you catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn you will not catch a cold all winter.
• A mirror should be covered during a thunderstorm because it attracts lightning.
• If your nose itches, someone is coming to see you. If it's the right nostril, the visitor will be a female, left nostril, male
• An onion cut in half and placed under the bed of a sick person will draw off fever and poisons.
• If you use the same pencil to take a test that you used for studying for the test, the pencil will remember the answers.
• A wish made upon seeing the first robin in spring will come true - but only if you complete the wish before the robin flies away.
• A spider is a repellent against plague when worn around the neck in a walnut shell.
• A watermelon will grow in your stomach if you swallow a watermelon seed.
• Knock three times on wood after mentioning good fortune so evil spirits won't ruin it.

Shooting Stars
All wishes on shooting stars come true.
Star light, star bright
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.

Sty in the Eye
To cure a sty, stand at a crossroads and recite
Sty, sty, leave my eye
Take the next one coming by.

Wishbone
Two people pull apart the dried breastbone of a chicken or turkey until it cracks and breaks, each one making a wish while doing so. The person who gets the long half of the wishbone will have his or her wish come true.

First Flower of Spring
The day you find the first flower of the season can be used as an omen:
Monday means good fortune,
Tuesday means greatest attempts will be successful,
Wednesday means marriage,
Thursday means warning of small profits,
Friday means wealth,
Saturday means misfortune,
Sunday means excellent luck for week