By- Praharsh Mishra
It was Friday, the 13th. She touched her locket for luck, a superstition she’d since childhood. There is a belief that the number 13 is unlucky. She thought that touching her locket will favour her and make her day a lucky one. But there are things which are destined to happen. The only thing one can do is to remove fear from mind and do their work. Was this just her credulous belief in supernatural or deviation of religious feeling? The fear of 13 is so piqued that people even skip labelling the 13th floor. Human beings have a tendency that when their brains cannot explain something they create such illogical stuffs. Taking this point into consideration we see that when life of humans started on earth they could not explain and know many things. They just believed it. Most probably they thought to be a supernatural force behind some phenomena’s ( rain, earthquakes) or events in their life. And these events had two outcomes which were either lucky or unlucky.
As the development of humans took place the superstition also increased. For India the roots of superstitions are very strong. But it is not only in India, superstitions can even be seen in USA, Rome, Greece, Turkey etc. If we take a more closer look then a woman is considered to be more superstitious than a man. You will even notice this at your own place. Superstitious people avoid certain things or events without a logical reason. For example: When someone is going outside for work or for an occasion and if someone sneezes then that person gets scolded and the person supposed to go outside is suggested to stop for a while. Now what you will call this? A logical suggestion or an illogical one.
If you are spooked by a black cat or even a cat crossing your path then you’re likely not alone, as we humans are superstitious a lot. This is an old belief which was supposed that witches and their animals used to take the form of domestic animals like cat. Now there are many who keep cats as their pets, so will they be scared all the time? Breaking a mirror is considered to be unlucky because there is belief that mirrors don’t just reflect your image but also hold bits of your soul. In USA they cover a mirror when someone dies. There are numerous examples like we should not walk under the ladder, owls are considered to be bad omens. These superstitious stuffs are still existing because we strongly believe in fate, we have a fear. A fear to happen something bad. How can some sort of prior events foretell future events?
Superstitions are beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy. It is an unscientific approach. These are seen in different religions but not practiced by the majority of a given society. If you identify something as a superstition then it is generally a pejorative. You may call it a ritualistic behaviour. Have you crossed your fingers to need an extra luck for your results or for an expectation? Have you been told that itchy hands have financial repercussions? These are all superstitions. Many superstitions stem from monsters and ghosts. Superstitious people find accidental things more significant and expect the outcome of an event from luck or fortune.
We even see a social evil where women’s are being killed by telling them that they are witches. Witch hunting is a very famous evil in India. Forget India we can even see it in other parts of the world. They are being killed by a group because they consider them to be a threat for the society. And these things happen due to lack of education, social crisis. The one who leads the witch hunting gets economically benefited, even selling the body parts of the murdered.
Excess of anything is not considered to be good. Now these things which I have discussed are the excess when we talk in the terms of superstitions. These excess things are threat to the society not the women’s who are referred as witches. We have to decide that whether we want to uproot swindlers from our society or root them to our society. We must not blindly believe in anything. The strong belief simply arises due to the fact of not knowing or explaining something by our own mind, even by fear from the outcome or future.
And the thing which is going on from centuries are still existing as a folklore. It is not so that superstition possess only cons. Considering the positive aspect we see that superstitions promote a positive mental attitude. It gives an illusion of control, especially in uncertain situations. Perhaps people feel safe and protected from negative outcomes. I personally think that it focusses on more positive things. It simply improves your performance by boosting your confidence. Superstitions like not breaking mirror or not walking under the ladder protects us from not even getting a scratch in our body. All together superstition arises where there is a doubt, a doubt of safety. Most probably one day we will unleash many doubts and understand this stuff which we consider unscientific.