Have you ever not wanted to jinx something? Do you find yourself knocking three times on wood after saying something negative? Then you understand where we are coming from, except... we take it to a new level.

Some of our superstitious are known to the whole world – if you break a mirror, you will be unlucky for 7 years, if you walk where a black cat crossed a road you get bad luck, and if you take your bins out after sunset you get the same bad luck. I guess when you are unsure about the exact consequences of something, bad luck is an all entailing easy way out. I should also try making one up - why haven’t I submitted my tutorial work? – I am pretty sure it would bring me bad luck…

Some are more precise though – if you ever visit Romania and you must play with either knives or fire, pick knives. If you play with knives, the angels run away from you, but if you play with fire, they pee in your bed! If you ask me, the choice is pretty easy unless you really badly want to encounter some Romanian angels.

In Slovakia, it is a very difficult job being the head of the household – your responsibilities include ensuring your wife is happy, grounding your young daughter and making sure her window is high enough that she can’t climb out of it, teaching your son how to fish even if you hate the activity yourself, but far more importantly, the happiness of your whole family lies on your choice of an apple. You see, at Christmas, the father of the family picks an apple and cuts through it. If inside, the seeds form a star pattern, the family will have luck the following year, but if you happen to pick a disformed apple, they will hardly forgive you and then you will indeed have a very unlucky year.

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Of course we could not talk about superstitions and not give some girl specific advice, it’s time to listen, ladies, if you want to succeed in life, here you go:

• Never leave any food on your plates as then you will have an ugly husband (our trustworthy sources have revealed that this was not made up by your grandmother, this came way before her)


• When you are pregnant, never wear a scarf as then the baby will have the umbilical cord wrap around its neck (it is much better for the baby if you get a cold!)


• Rain and tears bring good luck at weddings, so if you don’t feel like crying yourself, make sure to be mean to someone on your big day


• Never beat animals during your pregnancy, or your baby will be born very hairy. Also may be take some anger management classes before becoming a parent…

Some of the more positive superstitions are:


• If you cut a branch of willow and it flowers in your house before Easter then someone in the household will get married


• Everyone who has a dimpled chin was touched by a cupid


• If you dream yourself with false teeth (very common dream in Eastern Europe), you will have unexpected help for your problem