• If you break a mirror, seven years of bad luck will follow.
• If you drop a fork, a man will come to visit you.
• If you drop spoon, a woman will come to visit you.
• If a bird flies into your house a death will occur.
• If you sweep under someone's feet, they will never marry.
• If you peel an apple without breaking the peel i.e. cut around the apple so that the peel is in one long piece, you should throw the peel to the ground and if it lands in the shape of a letter of the alphabet then it is the initial of the person you will marry.
• When you peel an apple say the alphabet and the letter that you are on when the peel breaks is the initial of the person that you will marry.
• When your palm itches, you will come into some money.
• Two deaths in the community will be followed by a third.
• Never say "thank you" when someone gives you a plant or it will die.
• If you carry a hoe, spade, or shovel in the house, you must carry it out the same door you came in by, or a death will follow. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• In southeastern Ky, one goes like this: Two things that can come to no good end, a whistling woman and a crowing hen. My great-grandfather considered it extremely bad luck for a woman to whistle and any hen that crowed like a rooster (some actually did) was killed.(Joe Wright)
• If all the food on the table is eaten it will be a clear day tomorrow. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• If all of the biscuits were gone before the next day, the weather would be fair. (Oleen Pollard)
• If you start to go somewhere and come back for something you will have bad luck. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• If you count the number of rigs in a funeral procession you will soon have a death in your own family. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• If two forks are laid at a plate with no knife you will be invited to a wedding. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• Cats go crazy when a death occurs in their environment and consequently are kept out of the house on such occasions. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• If you drop a dish towel on the floor, a worse housekeeper than yourself is coming to visit you. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• Never begin a task on a Friday that you can't finish that week, or expect ill. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• If your ears itch or burn, someone is talking about you.
• A peculiar noise heard three times in succession at night, means someone will die. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection.)
• If you spilled some salt, you picked some of it up and threw it over your left shoulder to stop bad luck from coming. (Kay Blanton)
• When a black cat ran across the road in front of you, you would say BREAD & BUTTER ON MY TABLE, CUT IT WITH A BUTTER KNIFE if you could not turn around and go another way, or bad luck would come to you. (Kay Blanton)
• Dirt was never swept out the front door after the sun went down or bad luck would come to your home. (Kay Blanton)
• If a sparrow flew into the home, it had to be killed or someone in the family would die. (Kay Blanton)
• You never walked under a ladder or bad luck would come to you. (Kay Blanton)
• You could not step on a crack in the sidewalks, because it would break your mothers back. (Kay Blanton)
• If salt was borrowed from anyone, you paid it back with sugar or bad luck would come to you. (Kay Blanton) 
• A baby was never allowed to look in a mirror before it was a year old or it would die. (Kay Blanton)
• You always say so long or I'll see you later, & never goodbye, when leaving family members or you might never see them again. (Kay Blanton)
• If a woman was pregnant she never went to a funeral or she would mark her baby. (Kay Blanton)
• You never tickled a baby's feet because it would make it stutter. (Kay Blanton)

Weather Predictions

• When leaves on trees turn up, a storm is coming.
• When chimney smoke goes to the ground, bad weather will follow.
• The number of fogs in August predict the number of snow storms the following winter.
• A ring around the moon means that rain will come in three days.
• If big black storm clouds came up you take an axe, hold it up towards the sky and bring it down. This cut into the clouds so they would go away. (Kay Blanton)

Planting Signs and Superstitions

• Plant peas on February 14th.
• Plant vegetables which grow underground, i.e. potatoes and carrots, in the dark of the moon and plant vegetables which grow above ground, i.e. corn and beans, in the light of the moon.
• On New Years day, the gender of the visitors into the home would determine whether the Spring chicken hatching was roosters or pullets. Female visitors meant pullets and male visitors meant roosters would be born. If the company was mixed, say 1 male and 2 females the greater percentage of chickens hatched would be pulletts. (Oleen Pollard) 
• Plant green beans on good Friday.(Carol)

© Martha Short 1998-2002.