Hello again and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope. 闲话英伦Hello Anlan.

Hello everybody.

This is our Halloween special.

Yup.

But unlike last year, we're not going to talk about something that's super spooky because some of you complained. So this year we're going to just talk about superstition.

Yeah.

Um, superstition is kind of like a belief in things that is not necessarily logical, but people believe something's good luck or bad luck.

Yeah, as is the superstitions, every culture has them and sometimes they are related to religion or sometimes they're just traditional or in many cases, people just forget where they come from. People not that sure.

But before we start with the superstition topic, let me ask you: so Halloween, do you have any plans?

Personally no, Um, not really this year.

What about back in the UK? Would you go out? Is there, do people generally celebrate Halloween?

Well, they do, but it's not as popular as America. In United States, Halloween is a very big deal. You have lots of people going trick or treating, you have lots of parties, but in the UK, not so much. Some children might go trick or treating or go to parties. It is mostly for the kids.

Mostly for kids or perhaps university students.

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Yeah, it's not really a big deal.

So let's get back to superstition. What are some of the common superstitions? I've heard of things like, for example, no open umbrella indoors.

Yeah you can take an umbrella indoors, but it's very bad luck to open an umbrella indoors. So to be honest, when I first come to China, I saw lots of people, if it was particularly rainy, they would leave their umbrellas open inside.

In a hallway to dry.

Yeah. And it always made me feel a little bit uneasy, a little bit queasy.

Bad luck is going to come.

Pretty much.

Why is that though?

Well, same as most superstitions, people not really sure. Some people say that it comes from ancient Egypt. Other people say, well, if you open a big umbrella indoors, probably something bad would happen in terms of accident, knock something off a wall or knock something out of the way.

And I can kind of understand that because there's so much rain in the UK, and then I would imagine you need to use umbrella a lot of the times. Yeah. So a lot of it is related to the local reality and I've also heard things like no walking under the ladder.

Yeah, in the UK and also many other countries as well, if you walk under a ladder, it's considered bad luck.

I always thought it's just common sense, I mean, if you walk under the ladder, it might fall, or something might fall from the ladder and hurt you.

Well people feel so, I think it's common sense as well. You know, you don't walk under a ladder. Some people say that also comes from ancient Egypt because the ladder makes the sign of a pyramid which is sacred.

So you're not supposed... okay, that's interesting.

Uh some other people say that it's because criminals were forced to walk under a ladder on their way to execution.

Wow that's a bit more gruesome. One other thing I need a little bit of clarification from you is once I had this British friend who when I was trying to put a new pair of shoes that came in a shoe box on a table and he just freaked out. He's like no, no, no, no, no no new shoes on the table. What is that about?

That is quite a British superstition. And to be honest, it's something that I would never do. So for example, if I get a parcel and it might be new shoes, you will be very careful to make sure you don't put them on a table on the surface. You leave them on the floor because it's considered bad luck.

Where does that come from, though?

Well, one explanation is that it comes from coal mining.

Okay.

Because when a miner was killed in an accident, their shoes were placed on the table.

Oh, so it's kind of like a memorial thing.

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Yeah.

Oh, I never thought of it that way. So those are just some very common British superstition or just in English speaking world perhaps as well. And then let's move on to animals. What's lucky? What's not?

Well, I would say one example of an animal that is both lucky and unlucky is a magpie.

Magpie is a bird right? 喜鹊, in China that's definitely lucky. We believe magpie brings good fortune.

We believe that magpies bring good fortune if they're in pairs.

OK. So if you see a single magpie, that's not good?

Uh no, one magpie symbolizes sorrow or misfortune because magpies are social birds. They like to fly around in groups or pairs.

OK.

So the understanding is if you see a single magpie, it's probably because their partner may be died or went away.

Aw... so a single magpie, then that is bad luck, or at least that's sadness.

Yeah.

What would you do?

Well, what we would do, or I'm not sure if it's actually more of a family thing or I have seen some other British people do it, but you would salute it.

Salute means like, wave your hands say hi?

Yeah, or you greet it at least. So salute is actually what you do in the military.

Oh, like 敬礼, to salute a magpie. Okay. To be honest, I've also heard some rhyme. I don't know if it's true. It says to see magpies, count their numbers and then it's one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver...

Six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told.

Okay. So I don't know if you have really a lot of chances where you can see seven magpies all at the same time.

I have never seen seven magpies all at the same time.

Um, but it's fun too. I think in Chinese we have a lot of those rhymes as well about superstition. It's interesting to think that each culture carries with it, a lot of the things that's buried in the past. I'm sure these beliefs all had roots.

Oh, absolutely. I would say moving on we could talk about black cats.

That's unlucky, right?

Well, some people actually say it's lucky, but most people say it's, it's unlucky. So if a black cat crosses your path or walks in front of you, that's seen as a sign of bad luck.

I think that's because they think black cat is linked with witch.

Yeah.

But I've also heard black cats might be unlucky, but I've heard rabbits, especially rabbit's foot can be lucky.

Well, not for the rabbit.

Not so much, poor rabbit, but I think there was a tradition where people just carried one rabbit foot.

Yeah, it's quite old now people generally don't do that.

I wouldn't imagine now, it's pretty scary. So those were some animals. What about numbers? You know in Chinese or in China, you have been in China for so many years. You know our unlucky numbers are like four or fourteen, anything with four, pretty much. What about in English or in English speaking culture, in the UK, thirteen I know is unlucky.

Yeah. Well thirteen is unlucky because that was the number of disciples and Jesus at the last supper.

So one of them betrayed Jesus.

Yeah.

Okay that's the whole famous last supper thing. So that's easy to understand. But what about 666？You know six is a good number in China. It symbolizes good luck, it symbolizes fortune, but 666 in English is definitely not a good thing.

No, 666 is what we call the sign of the beast.

The beast?

According to superstition and according to the Bible and Christian belief that the anti-Christ, so the devil would have six six six on their body and that would show that they are the devil.

So for western tourists coming to China, if they see a hotel room numbered six six six, they probably wouldn't wanna stay in it.

No.

And so six six six, thirteen, both unlucky. What about a lucky number? I've heard lucky seven before.

Yeah. Seven, seven is better to be lucky. That also links to the Bible as well, that God created the earth in sixth days and rested on the seventh, and it's the idea of perfection and completeness, a little bit like nine in Chinese culture.

Oh, you also have in seventh heaven which is the highest form of heaven.

Yeah.

After talking about all these good luck and bad luck signs, let's move on to talk about what to do. People do different things to try to bring themselves good luck and try to fend off bad luck. For example, one thing I think a lot of our listeners would know is if you sneeze, people would say, bless you.

Yeah. So that's less of a superstition now, it's more just seen as something that you would say to be polite. But originally it was a superstition. Some people think that is related to the plague, the Black Death. So sneezing was the first sign of the plague.

Understandable.

And other people think it's because people in the past believed that the devil would enter your body if you sneezed.

I've heard the opposite, I've heard that it's the devil trying to get your soul out when you sneeze, so people say bless you to keep it in.

Yeah.

And of course there's knock on wood or touch wood if you try to fend off bad luck.

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Yeah, that's normally in situations where we say something is quite hopeful or positive, and we're trying to avoid any bad luck coming from it.

Would you actually touch wood if there's no wood around? What would you do?

You can only touch your head, top of your head.

So you basically just say touch wood.

Yeah. So let me give you an example. If I say I really hope I'm gonna pass the exam, people would normally say after that, touch wood.

To make sure you don't jinx it.

Yeah, that's the idea, it's about jinx it.

And also throwing salt over your shoulder for good luck to fend off evil.

Yeah. That's only really if we spill salt.

Ah so if you accidentally spill salt on the table, you throw it over your...?

Left shoulder.

Difficult to remember. And cross your fingers?

Yeah. Well, crossing your fingers is quite easy. It's a way of getting good luck and of course that originally comes from...

Shape of the cross.

Yeah, Christianity.

And sometimes to be lucky, all you have to do is to be a beginner. Because in English you have...

Beginner's luck.

Beginner's luck, for example, if you never learned how to play cards and you first learned it and you're winning, you're winning the whole night. That's usually people would say, oh beginner's luck.

Yeah, we believe that when a beginner starts something, generally they're a little bit lucky.

They're incredibly lucky. So for those of you who claim that you're beginners in English, well, you might have beginner's luck.

Absolutely.

So to wrap this all up, I just wanna ask, do you think British people in general are still very superstitious?

I believe to a certain extent. Obviously I would say the older generation are probably a little bit more superstitious than the younger generation, same as most countries. But I believe that there is a certain degree of superstition still there.

Perhaps just as part of the culture. It's like you said, some of these things people say and do just to fit into the cultural norm or they just want to be polite.

And it's also habit as well.

So do you still observe all these traditions that we just talked about?

Yeah. Very much so. I might not believe all the superstitions, but, you know, why risk anything?

Exactly. That's what I do. You know because I'm interested in different cultures, every time in a different culture, I learned new superstitions, I'll try to incorporate them into my daily life. So now I have so many superstitions. On that note we're gonna wrap up today. If you have any of the superstitions that you grew up with and you have observed in your culture or in other cultures, feel free to let us know in the comment section.

Can't wait to read all your comments and happy Halloween.

I actually say happy Halloween, oh, yeah, it is right on Halloween. So happy Halloween. We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.