Superstitions what are they based on?

Black cats crossing our paths, Friday the 13th bad luck day, walking under ladders, the number 13, 7 years of bad luck if you break a mirror... where do these superstitions come from? Are they based on facts? or is it all fiction? Why does everyone avoid these things?Are they all misinformation and old wives tails?

Does anyone have any information on these I would love to find out the history of superstitions and find out where they came from, are there any websites or other info that I can read about?

The 7 years bad luck Is the first intenialy made stupid stichion . Back in the old days thous being 100 years agaio making a mirro was very expencive .
So in order to get the kids to be more carful with them parents and bussiness came up with the brake a morro get 7 years bad luck idea.
Black cats are a nother easy one .Wile 3000 years agaio egyptions thought cats were GODS or god like and worshiped them in the 11 and 12 centry Wich hunts started up . Now no man in his right mind went looking for The foxie Girls to be wiches as the wiches were generaly killed they looked for the old woman with little family these people usaly kept animals for capanship so the WICH ovesly mad this familer to SPY on people and of corse the pet of choice for these old woman was the cat as it requires almost NO care and will even hunt its own food. So cats were seen more and black is ovisly EVIL so the worst was the black cat followeed closly by orange.
wile I dont know were the unlucky 13 came from i conjucter it was started from the Bread bakers. A true bakers dozzon is 13 but ovesly if you can make people belive 13 is bad luck then you can lower the number to 12 and make more money.
Now tell me what the Idea is behind the 1.99$ thing? gas for instance is aloways the cost of lets say 1.81 plus .9 reading like this 1.81.9 9 10ths of a cent. like your saving BIG bucks by lowering the cost of gas by a tenth of a cent? lol
why not just make it 1.82 ? lol Of corse every info mercial is aloways 19.99 of 14.99 or what ever .99 .If you by ten gallons of gas you it cost you one cent less because of the tenth of a cent thing.

[Bless You @ sneezes If a person sneezes you are supposed to bless them. This came about during Roman times when people believed that a sneeze could release your soul to the world. They believed that you were having some sort of internal struggle to hold onto your soul and offering you a blessing was a way of helping out. "God Bless you" became the materialization of that assistance. When the Black Death plague came about in 1348 AD sneezing became a sign of the sick and infected. It meant the person was going to die so it became customary and law to bless the sneezer.

Bad luck to walk under a ladder. This came from the early Christian belief that a leaning ladder formed a triangle with the wall and ground. You must never violate the Holy Trinity by walking through a triangle, lest you be considered in league with the devil. (And you all know what good Christians did to people they suspected of being in league with the devil.)

[b]Thirteen Supossedly, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden on a Friday, Noah's flood started on a Friday, and Christ was crucified on a Friday. Christians also noted that twelve witches plus one devil are present at Satanic ceremonies so Friday and 13 make a deadly combination. Which of course, being a Witch, I know this is absurdly ridiculous!

Knocking on wood The habit of knocking on wood to prevent bad luck was first a Roman custom, to communicate with the dryads, or tree spirits. So when one said something good about oneself or one's luck, one would also knock on the wood of a nearby object because it was also good luck to have the dryads in one's favor. (And being remembered in the wood was nice.)








Birthday Spankings There are a few suspected origins to this tradition.
The Romans had "Lupercalia" in the spring in which they had a custom of switching young girls in belief that it would give them longer life and fertility. The ancient Germans were a bit more intense by whipping women/young girls for the same reasons as the Romans. And, the Druids also did the same thing for the same reason. As a result, in *some* homes today, on a person's birthday they gently get a spanking on their rear for each year they were born (so far) + one to grow on, one to be good on, one to live long on, one to have a good marriage on...etc.

Horseshoes The horseshoe is considered a super witch repellent because of it's shape being crescent and resembling the new moon. This crescent shape is feared also by "little people" aka goblins. All horseshoes should be hung above a doorway with the ends facing up so that good luck can not run out.

In answer to your question Simcity4rushhour, about item pricing ending in 99-it is the retailers way of letting you think you are spending less there is a word for it but I can't remember what it is. They did all sorts of studies on this and people would rather spend 1.99 then 2.00.