DelBloggolo: IT COMES IN THREES

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

IT COMES IN THREES

The composition teacher asked the class to write about an unusual event that happened during the past week. Little Johnny got up and read his essay. It began, "Daddy fell into the well last week..."
"My goodness!" the teacher exclaimed. "Is he all right?"
"He must be," said the boy. "He stopped yelling for help yesterday."

There is an old superstition that death comes in threes. If someone you know either personally or from say the entertainment world dies, you start counting. If you get stuck at two… don’t bother to count any more but make an immediate appointment with your doctor.

I don’t think there really is any truth to the idea, but I have counted myself, and when it is someone you don’t know who passed, then you sigh a relief and go on living. I’ve heard this superstition from childhood, so ingrained it lends itself to your mind and doesn’t go away.

Superstitions have pervaded the cultures of mankind since the dawn of time, creeping into everyday lives and causing us to rethink our plans. They started back in the days when there was a belief in mythology, and was made to appease the gods for favorable conclusions to life’s trials and tribulations.

There is the fear of the number 13, and a name for it: ‘Triskaidekaphobia’ as we;; as fear of Friday the 13^th; ‘Paraskevidekatriaphobia.’ Ever try to get off at the 13^th floor of a hotel?

The Chinese and Egyptians believe the number 13 is good fortune, and the Egyptians think of 12 stages of light and the 13th being eternal light. If you cut your losses, 7 is considered lucky. The 7 gods of astrology, the sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter Saturn, all considered part of superstitions. Greeks considered 7 to be extremely lucky and the Japanese consider 7 to be the perfect number.

Black cats, broken mirrors and open umbrellas all are harbingers of both bad and good luck, but don’t step under a ladder to consider it. I never do, knock on wood. As kids we walked to school, avoiding all cracks in the cement walks and sidewalks, for fear of breaking your mother’s back.

Horse shoes, four leaf clovers and crossed fingers all or: “Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck!”