147 Fun Facts About Superstitions

According to popular superstition, how many years of bad luck will you experience if you break a mirror?

Seven years, a figure often tied to the old Roman idea that life renews itself in seven-year cycles, so a shattered reflection was thought to spoil the whole cycle.

Which curse is believed to be cast by a malicious or envious stare?

The Evil Eye is a widespread supernatural belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually inspired by envy. Amulets and talismans, often eye-shaped, are used to protect against it.

By superstition, what action 'undoes' the gift of a knife, thought to sever ties?

Exchanging a small coin: a knife given as a gift is said to cut the bond between giver and receiver, so the receiver hands back a coin, turning the gift into a purchase.

To avert the bad luck of spilled salt, a pinch of it is traditionally tossed over which shoulder?

The left shoulder: the pinch is meant to hit the Devil, imagined lurking on the left (sinister) side. The belief that spilling salt is an ill omen goes back to ancient Rome.

Which lucky object features in the legend of Saint Dunstan?

Horseshoe: in the legend Dunstan nails one to the Devil's foot and pulls it off only when the Devil promises never to enter a house with a horseshoe over the door.

Which bird is the subject of the rhyme 'One for sorrow, two for joy'?

Magpie: the rhyme counts the birds as omens, and by English tradition a lone magpie is greeted or saluted to ward off the sorrow it is said to bring.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, which household chore is avoided so that good fortune isn't lost?

Sweeping the floor: brooms are put away on New Year's Day so the newly arrived luck can't be swept out, after a thorough clean in the days before to clear away the old year's bad luck.

Across much of East Asia, buildings often skip floors with which number, whose word sounds like 'death'?

Four: in Mandarin 'four' (sì) sounds like 'death' (sǐ), an echo shared by Japanese and Korean, so a building may jump from the third floor to the fifth or relabel the floor '3A'.

In Britain and Ireland, what does folk tradition say happens when a black cat crosses your path?

It brings good luck: in British and Irish lore a black cat crossing your path is a lucky sign, the reverse of the ill omen it carries in much of continental Europe and the United States.

Performers avoid wishing each other good luck outright, and say what instead?

'Break a leg': stage superstition holds that wishing good luck outright invites the opposite, so performers wish for a mishap instead, much like the German 'Hals- und Beinbruch', 'neck and leg break'.

The lucky four-leaf clover is a rare mutation of a plant that normally has how many leaflets?

Three: the clover genus name Trifolium means 'three-leaf', and a fourth leaflet is a rare developmental variant that folklore turned into a luck charm.

Which Norse god is said to have been the uninvited thirteenth guest at a Valhalla feast?

Loki: in the folk explanation of unlucky 13, he crashed a banquet of twelve gods and engineered Baldr's death by a mistletoe shot from the blind god Höðr.

Which order's mass arrest on Friday, October 13, 1307 is tied to the Friday the 13th superstition?

The Knights Templar: Philip IV of France had the order's members arrested on Friday 13 October 1307, though no record links Friday and 13 as jointly unlucky before the 19th century.

In Hispanic and Greek cultures, which day of the week paired with the 13th is considered unlucky, not Friday?

Tuesday: 'martes 13' in Spanish-speaking countries and Triti 13 in Greece. The day belongs to Mars/Ares, god of war, and Constantinople fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday 29 May 1453.

In Italy, which date makes a Friday unlucky rather than the 13th?

17th: one explanation is that its Roman numeral, XVII, rearranges into VIXI, Latin for 'I have lived', which is to say 'my life is over'.

Which player's sale to the Yankees in 1920 began the Red Sox's 86-year title drought?

Babe Ruth: the drought was only branded the 'Curse of the Bambino' seventy years on, by Dan Shaughnessy's 1990 book, and the tale that his sale paid for the musical No, No, Nanette doesn't fit the dates.

From which ballpark were tavern owner William Sianis and his goat ejected in 1945, starting the Cubs' curse?

The goat, named Murphy, was bothering fans during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series at Wrigley Field; the Cubs went on to lose that Series to the Detroit Tigers.

Actors call which Shakespeare tragedy 'the Scottish play' to avoid saying its title inside a theatre?

Macbeth: saying the title inside a theatre is held to bring disaster, so actors say 'the Scottish play' or 'Mackers', and an offender must leave the room and perform a ritual before returning.

The taboo on whistling backstage traces to which group, who used coded whistles for scene changes?

Sailors: early stage crews were hired from ships in port and used coded whistles to fly scenery, so a stray whistle could drop a backdrop on someone's head.

Which name is given to the lone bulb that superstition says must stay lit on an empty theatre stage?

The ghost light: a single bare bulb left burning on an empty stage, practical protection against stepping into the orchestra pit and, by lore, a courtesy to the theatre's ghosts.

Which poem's narrator dooms his ship by shooting an albatross?

In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge's narrator shoots the albatross and is forced by his shipmates to wear the dead bird around his neck.

Which fruit is traditionally considered bad luck to bring aboard a boat, especially a fishing yacht?

Bananas: one rationalisation is that the ethylene they give off makes other produce ripen and spoil too quickly on a long voyage.

Seafarers call a person who brings bad luck to a voyage by the name of which biblical prophet?

Jonah: in the Book of Jonah the prophet's shipmates throw him overboard to calm a storm sent on his account, so 'a Jonah' became any passenger who brings a voyage ill luck.

Which gemstone gained its unlucky reputation from Sir Walter Scott's 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein?

Opal: in the novel a few drops of holy water quench an enchanted lady's opal, she collapses and is soon a heap of ashes, and readers began to link the stone with bad luck.

In the bridal rhyme, what coin goes in the bride's shoe after 'something blue'?

A sixpence: the rhyme ends 'and a silver sixpence in her shoe', a token of prosperity; the blue item stands for fidelity and the borrowed one should come from a happily married couple.

In Britain it is considered lucky for a bride to see which tradesperson on her wedding day?

A chimney sweep: many British sweeps still hire themselves out to attend weddings on the strength of the belief, and marzipan sweeps are a New Year's luck gift in Germany.

Which anatomical name is given to a bird's wishbone?

Furcula: Latin for 'little fork', the bone flexes like a spring as the bird flies, and two people tug it apart so that whoever keeps the larger piece usually gets the wish.

The palm-shaped hamsa amulet, worn against the evil eye, is also known as the hand of which figure?

Fatima: usually taken to be the Prophet Muhammad's daughter. The amulet's Arabic name, khamsa, means 'five', and Jews know it as the Hand of Miriam and Levantine Christians as the Hand of Mary.

The blue-and-white eye-shaped bead sold across Turkey to ward off the evil eye is called what?

Nazar: the bead is meant to take the hit, so one that cracks is said to have absorbed a powerful evil eye and is replaced; Greeks call the same charm máti, 'eye'.

Omamori, small brocade-bagged amulets sold for luck, come from shrines in which country?

Japan: omamori are sold at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, mamori meaning protection; the brocade bag holds a prayer or inscription and is sold regardless of the buyer's religion.

According to tradition, a maneki-neko lucky cat with its left paw raised is meant to attract what?

Customers: a raised left paw beckons people into a shop, while the right paw invites money; colours matter too, with black warding off evil and pink for romance.

The dreamcatcher originates in the culture of which people, whose word for it means 'spider'?

The Ojibwe: their word asabikeshiinh means 'spider'. The willow hoop and web were hung over cradles as a protective charm for infants long before the craft was commercialised.

In Japan, people hide which body part when a hearse drives past, to protect their parents?

Their thumbs: the Japanese word for thumb, oyayubi, literally means 'parent-finger', so tucking the thumbs into a fist is thought to shield one's parents from misfortune.

In Japan, sticking chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice is taboo because it is done only at what occasion?

A funeral: a bowl of rice with chopsticks standing upright is offered to the dead at the altar, so doing it at a meal evokes death; passing food chopstick-to-chopstick likewise mirrors the handling of bones after cremation.

Which Russian custom must the whole household observe just before someone leaves on a long journey?

Sitting down in silence: travellers and everyone seeing them off sit quietly for a moment before leaving the house, a pause often explained as a last chance to recall anything forgotten.

According to Russian superstition, what happens to someone who whistles inside a house?

They lose money: whistling indoors is said to whistle your wealth out of the house; other rules include never toasting with an empty glass or putting an empty bottle back on the table.

Which shape does the red Italian amulet worn against the evil eye take?

A horn: the cornicello ('little horn') is usually red coral, gold or silver; red ones resemble a chili pepper, but the horn shape long predates chilies reaching Europe.

Which book of the Bible gives 666 as the 'number of the beast'?

Revelation: yet some of the oldest surviving copies of the passage, among them Papyrus 115, appear to give the number as 616 instead.

By tradition, a lucky rabbit's foot must come from which of the animal's feet?

It must be the left hind foot, and the stricter versions add that the rabbit must have been shot or captured in a cemetery, or by a cross-eyed man.

In the Bloody Mary legend, the ghost is summoned by chanting her name repeatedly while looking into what?

A mirror: chanting 'Bloody Mary' into a darkened mirror is the modern ritual; an older divination version had young women climb stairs backwards by candlelight, mirror in hand, hoping to glimpse a future husband's face.

One explanation for the ladder taboo is that a ladder propped against a wall resembles what?

A gallows: one theory says a ladder propped against a wall looked like one, another that the ladder, wall and ground form a sacred triangle, so walking through it was a desecration.

Legend says that if which birds ever leave the Tower of London, the Crown and Britain will fall?

At least six ravens are kept, tended by a Ravenmaster; the tradition is popularly dated to Charles II, though historians suspect a Victorian invention.

In German Candlemas lore, which animal's shadow foretold more winter before the groundhog took over in America?

The badger: in German lore a badger that saw its shadow at Candlemas meant four more weeks of winter, and settlers in Pennsylvania, finding no badgers, handed the job to the groundhog.

A cobra reportedly ate which pet of Howard Carter's in 1922, fuelling curse rumours?

His canary: a cobra was found in the birdcage with the canary dead in its mouth, reportedly on the day the tomb was entered, and locals read it as the royal cobra from the king's brow striking back.

Which psychologist's 1948 experiment described 'superstitious' behaviour in pigeons?

B. F. Skinner: in 'Superstition in the Pigeon' (1948) the birds repeated turns and head-swings as if they controlled a food dispenser that actually ran on a fixed timer.

Which Roman statesman wrote that 'one does not destroy religion by destroying superstition'?

Cicero wrote it in De Divinatione, a dialogue arguing that divination doesn't work, although he was himself an augur, one of Rome's official readers of omens.

Steve Roud traces 'touch wood' to a 19th-century playground version of which game?

Tag: in 'Tiggy Touchwood', a 19th-century chasing game, players touching wood were safe from being caught; older theories invoke tree spirits or the wood of the cross.

Opening which everyday object indoors is traditionally held to bring bad luck?

An umbrella: opening one indoors is held to bring bad luck; one rationalisation is that stiff, spring-loaded Victorian umbrellas could injure people or break objects in a small room.

Kissing Ireland's Blarney Stone is said to bestow which gift?

Eloquence, 'the gift of the gab': to reach the stone, kissers climb to the top of the castle and lean over backwards on the edge of the parapet, holding on to guide rails.

Which number is a traditional lucky symbol in Chinese-influenced cultures?

Eight: bā sounds like fā, 'to prosper', so phone numbers and licence plates full of eights fetch high prices, and the Beijing Olympics were timed to open on 8 August 2008.

Which president is said to have broken the Curse of Tippecanoe by surviving his terms?

Ronald Reagan: legend has Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa cursing presidents after his 1811 defeat by William Henry Harrison; every president elected in a year ending in 0 from 1840 to 1960 died in office, until Reagan (elected 1980) survived.

Which institution did jeweler Harry Winston give the 'cursed' Hope Diamond to in 1958?

The Smithsonian: Winston bought the stone in 1949 from the estate of mining heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, toured it for years, then mailed it to the Smithsonian in November 1958 by registered post.

A 2014 Sports Illustrated cover correctly predicted which team's 2017 World Series win?

The Houston Astros: a June 2014 cover with George Springer declared them 'Your 2017 World Series Champs', and they won it; the magazine had already mocked its own jinx in 2002 with a black-cat cover.

Celebrating a 1985 pennant, Hanshin Tigers fans threw a statue of which fast-food mascot into an Osaka canal?

Colonel Sanders: the statue stood in for bearded American slugger Randy Bass, and the 'Curse of the Colonel' was blamed for a title drought that outlasted the statue's recovery from the river in 2009 and ended only in 2023.

Which lift maker estimated in 2002 that 85% of taller buildings fitted with its lifts had no floor numbered 13?

Otis: its estimate covered buildings of thirteen or more floors, where the usual dodges are to call the floor 14, 12A or 'M', the thirteenth letter, or to close it off as a mechanical floor.

Painting porch ceilings 'haint blue' to keep ghosts out began with which people of the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry?

The Gullah, descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans: the blue mimics water, which 'haints' were said to be unable to cross, or the sky, so that they drift on through.

Modern statues of Ekeko, Bolivia's god of plenty, have a mouth opening for what offering?

A cigarette: Ekeko is offered a lit cigarette, his mouth moulded to hold it; the mustachioed figure, loaded with miniature goods and banknotes, headlines La Paz's Alasitas fair every 24 January.

In Scottish first-footing, who is the ideal first visitor after the New Year bells?

A tall, dark-haired man: one theory links the preference to the Viking age, when a blond stranger at the door meant trouble; he brings gifts of coal, salt, shortbread and whisky.

Belief that sleeping with a fan running in a closed room can kill you is strongest where?

South Korea: in 2006 the Korea Consumer Protection Board listed 'asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners' among the top five summer accidents, and Korean-market fans commonly carry sleep timers.

The Filipino superstition 'sukob' warns siblings not to do what in the same year?

Marry: sukob holds that one or both marriages would turn out unlucky, so families have one sibling wait for the next year; a wedding in the year of a close relative's death is avoided too.

In 2014 at Rosyth in Scotland, the Queen named HMS Queen Elizabeth by smashing a bottle of what, instead of champagne?

Islay whisky: a Bowmore single malt was chosen because the carrier was put together in Scotland, and her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales was later named with Scotch whisky too.

The 'dead man's hand' of aces and eights is tied to the 1876 murder of which gunfighter?

Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead at a poker table in Deadwood in 1876, but the aces-and-eights version of his last hand was only fixed in the popular mind by Frank Wilstach's 1926 biography.

Which habit did umpire David Shepherd keep up whenever a cricket score stood on 111, or 'Nelson'?

Lifting a leg off the ground: Shepherd hopped or stood on one leg until the score moved on, and crowds cheered when they spotted it; a 1990s survey found most wickets actually fall on 0.

A County Clare whitethorn was spared by motorway builders in 1999 because it was said to belong to whom?

The fairies: storyteller Eddie Lenihan warned of the punishments that befall anyone who harms their meeting place, the Latoon bush, and the road plan was altered to spare it.

Which Chinese festival has families burning paper money and leaving empty seats at dinner on the seventh lunar month's 15th night?

Hungry Ghost Festival: the whole seventh month is 'Ghost Month', when the gates of the underworld are said to open, so the front row at street operas is also left empty for the visiting dead.

In Chinese culture, which gift is taboo because its phrase sounds like 'attend a funeral'?

A clock: 'giving a clock' (sòng zhōng) is a homophone of 'sòng zhōng', seeing a parent to their death; the taboo is strongest with elderly recipients, for whom the pun lands hardest.

Instead of 'good luck', ballet dancers traditionally wish each other which French word before a show?

Merde: the custom is said to date from horse-drawn carriage days, when a pile of manure outside the theatre meant a full house; theatre people have borrowed the word too.

The Koh-i-Noor diamond is said to bring misfortune to which wearers?

Men: the legend says the stone curses any man who wears it, so since Queen Victoria it has been worn only by queens and queen consorts, set since 1937 in the Queen Mother's crown.

How does Thirsk Museum keep the 'cursed' Busby Stoop Chair so that nobody can sit in it?

Hung from the ceiling: the museum has kept it out of reach since 1978. Murderer Thomas Busby supposedly cursed it before his 1702 hanging, yet a furniture historian has dated the chair to about 1840.

Whose death turned a cluster of rock deaths at 27 into the '27 Club' idea?

Kurt Cobain: after his death in April 1994 his mother was quoted saying he had 'gone and joined that stupid club', and the press ran with it.

Per Schoenberg, which composer started the 'curse of the ninth' by disguising a symphony?

Gustav Mahler: he left Das Lied von der Erde unnumbered after his Eighth, then wrote a Ninth and died with the Tenth unfinished; Beethoven and Schubert had likewise died before completing a tenth.

The 'Superman curse' cites Christopher Reeve's 1995 paralysis, which he suffered while doing what?

Riding a horse: his mount stopped dead at a routine fence during a cross-country event in Virginia and threw him; talk of a curse had begun with TV Superman George Reeves, found shot dead in 1959.

Japanese children hang teru teru bōzu dolls outside windows to bring what?

Sunny weather: the name means 'shine, shine monk', and the children's song promises the doll sake if the next day is fine and decapitation if it rains.

Under Japan's yakudoshi system, which age, readable as 'shi-ni', is counted the unluckiest for a man?

42: a man's 'great-calamity year', so many people entering such a year go to a shrine for a purification rite called yakubarai; for women the worst age is 33.

The Russian phrase 'born in a shirt', meaning born lucky, refers to being born how?

With a caul, a piece of the birth membrane still covering the head: cauls were prized as charms against drowning, so seamen paid well for them, and Italians say 'born with a shirt' for the same luck.

Folk belief held that hot cross buns baked on Good Friday would do what for a whole year?

A bun baked on Good Friday would never go mouldy for the following year, the belief ran; in 1592 London banned selling spiced buns except at burials, Christmas and Good Friday.

On Java's south coast, wearing which colour is said to anger sea goddess Nyi Roro Kidul?

Green: swimmers on the south coast avoid the colour lest the Queen of the Southern Sea claim them; the Samudra Beach Hotel at Pelabuhan Ratu keeps room 308 furnished in green and reserved for her.

Which trophy do superstitious NHL players refuse to touch, waiting for the Stanley Cup?

The Campbell Bowl, the Western Conference trophy (its Eastern twin is the Prince of Wales Trophy): captains pose beside it without touching it, though some teams have hoisted it and won the Cup anyway.

In the 1980s a US First Lady secretly had Joan Quigley vet the president's schedule; what was Quigley's profession?

An astrologer: Quigley, a San Francisco astrologer, vetted the president's schedule for years; the arrangement stayed secret until ousted chief of staff Donald Regan revealed it in his 1988 memoir.

Which symbol did early Christians supposedly invoke by overlapping the index and middle fingers?

The Holy Cross: the crossed-fingers gesture is said to have begun as a discreet sign of the cross among early Christians; children later appropriated it as a way of excusing a white lie or cancelling a promise.

Why did soldiers call it unlucky to light three cigarettes from one match?

It gave a sniper time to aim: the first light was said to catch the enemy's eye, the second to let him aim and the third to draw the shot; match tycoon Ivar Kreuger is wrongly credited with inventing the belief.

An old English rhyme gives which day 'no luck at all' for brides?

Saturday: the rhyme ends 'Saturday for no luck at all' and calls Wednesday the best day, yet official figures show Saturday was the most popular wedding day in England and Wales in 2019.

Rings go on the ring finger because a 'vena amoris' was believed to run from it to where?

The heart: the 'vein of love' was thought to run straight from the fourth finger to the heart, a notion the Roman writer Aulus Gellius traced to Egyptian anatomists; Harvey's circulation work later showed every vein leads there.

The tale of storks delivering babies was popularised by an 1839 story by which author?

Hans Christian Andersen: his 1839 tale 'The Storks' spread the idea across Europe; older German folklore had the birds find infants in caves or marshes and drop them down the chimney.

Roman commanders took omens before battle from the feeding of which sacred animals?

Chickens: the sacred chickens travelled with the army under a keeper called the pullarius, and if they ate so greedily that food fell from their beaks it was a 'tripudium solistimum', the best possible sign.

Under the old kissing rule, bad luck fell on any woman who did what beneath the mistletoe?

Refused a kiss: any man could kiss a woman caught standing under the mistletoe and bad luck was said to follow a refusal; the custom first caught on among servants in late 18th-century England.

On the Isle of Man, which animal is called a 'longtail' because its real name is bad luck?

The rat: the taboo began at sea, where Manx fishermen would not name a rat, hare or cat on board, and only later came ashore; older islanders used the Manx word 'roddan' without a qualm.

In Korea, writing a person's name in which colour of ink is thought to foretell death?

Red: a common explanation is that red ink was once kept for the names of the dead, so a living person's name written in it reads as a wish for their death.

Medals of which patron of travellers are kept in cars for protection on journeys?

St Christopher: legend has him carrying the Christ child across a river, hence the name 'Christ-bearer'; older Eastern icons give him the head of a dog.

Why do some insist a lucky horseshoe must hang with its ends pointing up?

So the luck can't fall out: with the ends up the shoe forms a cup that holds good fortune; blacksmiths traditionally hung theirs ends down so the luck would pour onto their tools and work.

Pearls in a wedding ring are said to bring misfortune because their shape suggests what?

Tears: pearls are said to foretell a marriage full of weeping, their shape recalling teardrops; a sapphire, by contrast, is supposed to bring happiness to the marriage.

In Irish tradition, why are bells rung at weddings?

To drive off evil spirits: the chime was believed to keep them away and bring a happy marriage, so some brides still tie small bells into their bouquets or table decorations.

Lord Carnarvon's death in 1923, which launched talk of Tutankhamun's curse, began with an infected bite from which creature?

A mosquito: he nicked the bite while shaving, blood poisoning set in and he died in Cairo a few months after the tomb was found, and newspaper speculation did the rest.

Japanese maternity wards avoid which room number, because it can be read as 'stillbirth'?

43: read 'shi-san', it echoes 'shizan', stillbirth, so maternity wards skip it; Japanese hospitals also avoid 4 ('shi', death) and 9 ('ku', suffering) more generally.

Which tennis champion lined up his water bottles at every changeover with the labels facing the court?

Rafael Nadal: he called such routines a way to stay calm, and when a bottle fell over at the 2015 Australian Open a ball boy hurried to stand it back exactly as it had been.

India's lemon-and-chili charm hung outside shops wards off which goddess of misfortune?

Alakshmi, Lakshmi's elder sister and bringer of poverty: in one telling she craves sour and hot flavours, so the lime and seven chilies feed her at the door and she comes no further in.

In Greece, if a listener sneezes just as someone makes a claim, that person may say 'bless you and' what?

'I am speaking the truth': in Greek lore a sneeze while someone is talking confirms their words, an idea as old as the Odyssey, where Telemachus's sneeze confirms Penelope's wish.

Which chocolate bar is a popular exam good-luck gift in Japan because its name resembles a phrase meaning 'surely win'?

Kit Kat sounds like 'kitto katsu', roughly 'you will surely win', so the bars are posted to students as charms before university entrance exams.

Which Roman goddess of luck, whose Greek counterpart was Tyche, was often depicted holding a ship's rudder and a wheel?

Fortuna was often shown blindfolded as well, and Italian still pairs fortuna, good luck, with sfortuna, bad luck.

Which animal is a good-luck symbol in Chinese art because its Mandarin name, fu, sounds like the word for happiness?

Bat and happiness are both pronounced fu in Mandarin, so five bats together stand for the Five Blessings, and a bat shown upside down means happiness has arrived.

Which snack do engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory eat for luck before landings, a custom begun with Ranger 7?

Peanuts were passed round to ease the tension after failure upon failure in the Ranger programme; the probe reached the Moon, and the snack became a fixture of mission control.

Tradition says a coin tossed over the shoulder into which Roman landmark guarantees the thrower a return to Rome?

Trevi Fountain collects so many coins that the money is gathered up and given to the charity Caritas, and the custom inspired the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain.

In Irish folklore, the leprechaun who hides a pot of gold is usually said to practise which trade?

Shoemaker is the leprechaun's job in the old tales, where he is found working on a single shoe; one folk etymology even derives his name from the Irish for 'half brogue'.

Horace Walpole coined 'serendipity', a lucky find, from Serendip, an old Persian name for which island?

Sri Lanka lent the word its root in 1754, when Walpole borrowed it from a fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes kept stumbling on things they were not looking for.

In Germany, marzipan given as a New Year good-luck gift is traditionally moulded in the shape of which animal?

Pig-shaped marzipan is a prize too: at Christmas in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, whoever finds the single almond hidden in the rice porridge wins one.

Which legume, the base of the dish Hoppin' John, is eaten for luck on New Year's Day in the American South?

Black-eyed peas swell as they cook, which is why they stand for prosperity, while the greens served beside them stand for money.

Ancient Egypt's scarab amulets, linked to the sunrise god Khepri, were carved in the shape of which insect?

Dung beetle behaviour explains the choice: Khepri was imagined pushing the sun across the sky the way the insect pushes its ball of dung along the ground.

The song 'Luck Be a Lady', later a Frank Sinatra signature, was written by Frank Loesser for which 1950 musical?

Guys and Dolls gives the number to gambler Sky Masterson, who sings it over a bet he badly needs to win; in the 1955 film the singer was Marlon Brando, not his co-star Sinatra.

Where English speakers knock on wood to keep bad luck away, Italians traditionally say they touch which material?

Iron is what Italians reach for: 'tocca ferro' is meant to ward off a mishap, and the phrase is used especially after seeing an undertaker.

Visitors to Abraham Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, rub which part of a bronze head of Lincoln for good luck?

Nose-rubbing keeps that one spot shiny, and the head is the work of Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who went on to carve Mount Rushmore.

The houseplant sold as 'lucky bamboo' is not a bamboo at all; which continent is it native to?

Africa is the home of Dracaena sanderiana, a plant from the asparagus family that only looks like bamboo; true bamboos are grasses.

Which Scottish moorland plant is counted lucky only in its rare white form, a belief Queen Victoria carried to England?

Heather in white is sold in sprigs as a charm and worked into bridal bouquets; Victoria picked up the custom at Balmoral.

Which beetle, whose English name honours the Virgin Mary, has long been treated as a symbol of good luck?

Ladybug is 'ladybird' in Britain, short for 'Our Lady's bird', and the spots of Europe's commonest species were said to stand for the Virgin's joys and sorrows.

What does the owner of a round, hollow Daruma doll do to it when first setting a goal?

Paints in one eye is the rule: the doll is sold with two blank white eyes, and the second is filled in only once the goal has been achieved.

Which NHL team of the early 1980s is credited with starting the unshaven 'playoff beard' superstition?

New York Islanders players grew the beards during their run of four straight championships, and Mike Bossy credited teammate Butch Goring with the idea.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics, a Canadian icemaker secretly buried which coin at centre ice for luck?

A loonie lay under the ice while both Canadian hockey teams won gold; it was then dug up and handed to Wayne Gretzky, who revealed the secret at a press conference.

Which given name, borne by several early popes, comes from the Latin word for 'lucky' or 'happy'?

Felix shares its root with 'felicity', and the Latin word could also mean fortunate, successful or even fruitful.

In Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which apostle is shown having knocked over the salt cellar?

Judas spilling the salt is often given as the origin of the bad-luck belief, but the omen is older than the painting, so Leonardo was drawing on an idea his viewers already knew.

Who died in Cairo in 1923 after an infected mosquito bite, launching newspaper talk of Tutankhamun's curse?

Lord Carnarvon had paid for the excavation, and Arthur Conan Doyle fed the legend by suggesting that 'elementals' set to guard the tomb had killed him.

Athletes who appear on the cover of which video game series are said to suffer an injury or slump soon afterwards?

Madden NFL 12 cover star Peyton Hillis blamed the curse for his poor season, though the publisher EA Sports says the players themselves do not believe in it.

Royal Air Force pilots of the 1920s coined which name for imaginary creatures blamed for unexplained aircraft faults?

Gremlins first appeared in print in a 1929 poem in a Malta aviation journal, and it was Roald Dahl, himself a former pilot, who made them known outside the air force.

Which actor's Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknamed 'Little Bastard', was said to be cursed after his fatal 1955 crash?

James Dean's wreck was bought by the car customiser George Barris, who put it on public display in 1956 and promoted the stories of its curse.

Which legendary ghost ship, never able to make port, is treated in ocean lore as a portent of doom?

Flying Dutchman lore reached the stage in 1843, when Richard Wagner turned the tale of the ship condemned to sail forever into an opera.

Which adage, named after an American aerospace engineer of the 1940s, says anything that can go wrong will?

Murphy's law grew out of a mishap during rocket-sled tests, and it spread after the project's head, John Stapp, used it at a press conference.

Baseball superstition says teammates must never mention which feat while a pitcher is still in the middle of it?

A no-hitter in progress is so taboo that some players will not go near the pitcher; in 1962 a Mets coach heckled Sandy Koufax about his, hoping to jinx it, and failed.

In Irish folklore, which female spirit warns that a member of a family is about to die by wailing or keening?

Banshee comes from the Irish for 'woman of the fairy mound', and in some legends she can only keen while combing her long hair.

Which bird do the Kikuyu of Kenya, the Aztecs and many Native American peoples treat as a harbinger of doom?

Owl lore runs the other way in the modern West, where the bird stands for wisdom, a link that goes back to Athena and the city of Athens.

Shenandoah park ranger Roy Sullivan holds a Guinness record for surviving which misfortune more often than anyone else?

Lightning strikes hit Sullivan again and again between 1942 and 1977, earning him the nicknames 'Human Lightning Conductor' and 'Human Lightning Rod'.

Soviet scientists opened which conqueror's tomb in Samarkand in June 1941, days before Germany invaded the USSR?

Timur's tomb was rumoured in Samarkand to carry a curse on whoever opened it, and the invasion that followed within days made the story famous.

Which Portuguese football club is said to have been cursed by coach Béla Guttmann when he walked out in 1962?

Benfica had just won back-to-back European Cups under Guttmann; after he quit over a refused pay rise, the club lost each of its next few finals in that competition.

Philadelphia's sports curse of 1987–2008 was blamed on a tower topping the City Hall statue of which colonial founder?

William Penn's statue was overtopped by One Liberty Place in 1987; the title drought ended in 2008, after a small copy of the figure was fixed to the top beam of a newer, taller tower.

The 'Unlucky Mummy', a painted Egyptian coffin lid with a reputation for misfortune, belongs to which institution?

British Museum curators acquired it in 1889, and one tall tale has it going down with the Titanic on its way to New York; it is not even a mummy, just a wooden board.

Ancient Greeks and Romans who wanted to curse a rival scratched the spell onto a thin sheet of which metal?

Lead tablets were rolled, folded or pierced with nails, then buried in graves or thrown into wells, where the powers of the underworld could read them.

British superstition warns that placing which items on a table brings bad luck, a taboo linked with coal mining?

Shoes, one northern English belief holds, were set on the table as a mark of respect when a miner was killed underground, so doing it at home looked like tempting fate.

In Yiddish humour the clumsy schlemiel spills the soup; what is the name for the unlucky person it lands on?

Schlimazel is the born loser of the pair: the schlemiel causes the accident and the other man simply has the bad luck to be sitting in the way.

Stewardess Violet Jessop, 'Miss Unsinkable', survived the loss of the Titanic and of which sister ship in 1916?

Britannic was serving as a hospital ship when a German mine sank it in the Aegean in under an hour; Jessop was nearly killed by the propellers as they shredded lifeboats.

Physicist Robert Matthews won an Ig Nobel Prize for studying why which dropped breakfast food tends to land face down?

Buttered toast sliding off a table has time for only about half a turn before it hits the floor, so it lands upside down; tossed high in the air, it comes down either way equally often.

Which comet, shown as a star on the Bayeux Tapestry, was taken in England as an omen before the Battle of Hastings?

Halley's Comet blazed over England in 1066, and before the year was out King Harold was dead and William the Conqueror had the throne; the tapestry's caption simply calls it a star.

Medieval Europe prized 'unicorn' relics as proof against poison; which Arctic animal did they really come from?

Narwhal tusks were sold across Europe as unicorn horn, and drinking cups made from them were believed to guard against poisoning.

Medieval bestiaries advised tying which animal to a mandrake root so that it, not the gatherer, would die?

Dog and root were tied together and the gatherer hurried away; the animal followed, pulled up the plant and died in its owner's place, since the root's scream was said to kill all who heard it.

In the medieval ordeal by cold water, which outcome was taken as proof that the accused was guilty?

Floating meant guilt and sinking meant innocence; the same test was later turned on suspected witches, who were 'swum' on a rope so that an innocent sinker could be hauled out.

Medieval kings of England and France were said to cure which disease, 'the king's evil', by touch alone?

Scrofula, a tuberculous swelling of the neck glands, was touched by the monarch, and from the 15th century English rulers also hung a gold piece called an Angel round the sufferer's neck.

Which treatise on witchcraft did the German clergyman Heinrich Kramer first publish in Speyer in 1486?

Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as 'Hammer of Witches', became the best-known treatise on witchcraft, and Kramer presented it as the official position of the Catholic Church.

Anglo-Saxon medical texts blamed sudden shooting pains in people and cattle on invisible arrows fired by which beings?

Elves gave the complaint its name, elfshot; a modern doctor would more likely diagnose rheumatism, arthritis, a stitch or cramp.

Gerald of Wales and medieval bestiaries claimed that which birds grew from shellfish instead of hatching from eggs?

Geese of the barnacle kind nest far to the north, so nobody in medieval Europe saw their eggs, and some clergy let them be eaten in Lent as 'fish'.

The medieval Paris medical faculty blamed the Black Death on a conjunction of which heavenly bodies?

Planets in conjunction were said to have caused 'a great pestilence in the air'; a poem of 1350 pinned the blame on Jupiter and Saturn in particular.

Under the medieval test called cruentation, what was a murder victim's body expected to do when the killer came near?

Bleed afresh from its wounds was the expected sign, and it was read as God's own verdict that the accused was guilty.