christmas superstitions,new years superstitions

i was really really bored and since there was nothing else to do i just googled "something interesting" and stumbled upon this website called bored.com and they had this list of things to read or do when your bored including this list of superstitions.anyway here are the things you should/shouldn't do during christmas , christmas eve, new years day and new years eve. Category Christmas Superstitions
A Yule Log must not be bought and must be kept burning all night.

Christmas candles should be left burning until Christmas morning and should rest undisturbed from time of lighting until they are snuffed.

Look to the shadows cast by those gathered round the fire on Christmas night -- if any of these shades appears to lack a head that person will die within the year.

Difficulty lighting the fire on Christmas Day is particularly unwelcome, as this presages a bad year ahead.

Christmas cakes were usually eaten on Christmas Eve in the 19th century, though it was deemed most unlucky to cut into one (or any Christmas food) before that day dawned. A portion also had to be preserved until Christmas Day itself.

As many mince pies as you sample at different houses during the festive season, so you will have happy months in the year to come. Mince pies must not be cut, however, lest you cut your luck. None must be eaten before Christmas Eve nor after Twelfth Night.

If Christmas pudding is on the menu, then all present must take part in stirring it if the household is to prosper. Traditionally, one has to stir the mixture at least three times, seeing the bottom of the pot each time. Even tiny babies take their turn, with parents guiding a little one's hand on the spoon. Unmarried girls who forget to give the pudding its requisite stirs might as well forget about finding a husband in the upcoming year.

It's customary to make a wish while stirring Christmas pudding. Such wishes are kept secret until they come true - to speak them to anyone else jinxes them.

When making Christmas pudding, drop into a silver coin, a thimble, and a ring. He who is served the coin finds luck, he who retrieves the thimble brings himself prosperity, and he who comes up with the ring hastens a wedding in his family.

To find out who your future spouse will be, make a dumb cake at midnight on Christmas Eve. It is prepared in complete silence by one or more, with water, eggs, and salt is placed on the hearthstone with the upper surface of the cake pricked with the initials of one of those present. Provided the silence is unbroken, the future partner of the person indicated on the cake will appear and similarly prick his or her initials onto the cake. In some regions it is instead stipulated that a petitioner must walk backwards to their beds after eating the cooked cake, there to dream of her future spouse.

The doors of a home used to be flung open at midnight on Christmas Eve to let out any trapped evil spirits.

A Christmas candle left burning in the window all night guarantees the household's good luck in the coming year. If the candles goes out, it is bad luck.

The first member of the household to open the door on Christmas morning might well shout, Welcome, Old Father Christmas! to the empty street. In other homes, one might be expected to sweep the threshold with a broom to clear it of trouble.

Particularly good fortune will attach to the household if the first visitor on Christmas happens to be a dark-haired man. The arrival of a red-haired man is a bad omen, and it's utter catastrophe if the first foot is a woman.

First foots (the first Christmas visitor to your house) who bring evergreens (especially holly) or coal are prized for their thoughtfulness. When the first foot is a man, he should be welcomed with a drink and perhaps a bit to eat. A boy, however, should be given a coin or two. First foots often kiss all the women in the house.

It is very unlucky to send Christmas carolers away empty-handed, no matter how badly they sing. One could be a king in disguise. Offer food, a drink, or a bit of money.

Singing Christmas carols at any time other than during the festive season is unlucky.

Contrary to popular belief, wassailing has nothing to do with singing Christmas carols at people's houses and then getting drunk with them. Wassailing is the custom of honoring one's livestock and crops during the Christmas season in hope that this salute will increase yield in the coming year. Toasts are drunk to corn, cows, and fruit trees. Celebratory fires are lit in fields and cider drunk in barns and orchards while men shoot guns into the air to scare off evil spirits. A plum pudding might well be stuck on a cow's horn and the beast frightened into running until it tosses the pudding -- if the pudding falls forward, a good harvest is predicted, but if it falls backwards, the harvest will be poor.

In parts of Scotland at Christmas time, ale is poured into the waves to entice the deep to yield up her fishes in the coming year.

Stockings are hung by the chimney at Christmas, in remembrance of the largesse of St. Nicholas. Out of compassion he was said to have tossed three coins down the chimney of the home of three poor sisters. Each coin fell neatly into stockings left drying by the hearth. We therefore leave our stocking out in hopes that a similar bit of good fortune will befall us.

Dogs that howl on Christmas Eve will go mad before the end of the year.

It is unlucky to do any unnecessary work on Christmas Day. This day is deemed too holy for ordinary work.

Those born on Christmas day will never encounter a ghost, nor will they have anything to fear from spirits. They are also protected against death by drowning or hanging.

Mistletoe is considered lucky to hang in the house at Christmas. Mistletoe is not allowed to be used as a church decoration because it is associated with paganism.

It is good luck to kiss under the mistletoe. It is bad luck to deliberately to avoid doing this.

Take three leaves of holly and on them prick the initials of three of your admirers. On Christmas Eve place the leaves under your pillow, and it is said that the one whom you will marry will appear to you in a dream.

Sew nine holly-leaves on to your nighttime clothing, borrow a wedding ring and place it on the third finger of your left hand, and then go to bed. During the night, your future husband will appear to you in a vision.

Make a chain of holly, mistletoe and juniper, and tie an acorn between each link. You need to have 2 other girls to assist you. At midnight on Christmas Eve the 3 of you must go into a room where a fire is lit, lock the door, hang the key over the mantelpiece and open the window wide. Then wrap the chain, which you have made around a log and sprinkle it with oil, a few pinches of salt and some earth. The log and chain must be placed on the fire and all lights turned out. Each girl sits around the fire with a prayer-book upon her knees, opened at the marriage service. As soon as the chain has been burnt, it is said that each girl will see the vision of her future husband crossing the room. If such a vision does not appear to a girl, she will never marry; or if she sees a phantom, such as a skeleton, which causes fear, it is also taken to be a sign that she will remain a spinster.

Tie a sprig of holly to each leg of your bedstead, and before you go to bed eat a roasted apple. Your future partner in marriage will come and speak to you in your dreams.

The yule log should be lit by a piece of the log used on the previous Christmas. Once that is done, no evil spirit can then enter into the house. The remains of the Yule log were also considered lucky, and would be a protection against lightning or fire.
Category New Years Superstitions
Empty pockets or empty cupboards on New Years Eve portend a year of poverty

If the first person to cross the threshold of a house after midnight on New Years is a dark-haird man and he carries a shovel full of coal, then a year of good luck will follow.

Its bad luck to let a fire go out on New Year's Eve.

You could ensure yourself good fortune by draining the last dregs from a bottle of drink on New Years!

The Weather: If the wind blows from the south, there will be fine weather and prosperous times in the year ahead. If it comes from the north, it will be a year of bad weather. The wind blowing from the east brings famine and calamities. If the wind blows from the west, the year will witness plentiful supplies of milk and fish but will also see the death of a very important person. If there's no wind at all, a joyful and prosperous year may be expected by all.

Loud Noise: Make as much noise as possible at midnight to scare away evil spirits.

Letting the Old Year Out: At midnight, all the doors of a house must be opened to let the old year escape unimpeded. He must leave before the New Year can come in, says popular wisdom, so doors are flung open to assist him in finding his way out.

To dance in the open air, especially round a tree, on New Year's Day is declared to ensure luck in love and prosperity and freedom from ill health during the coming twelve months.

Children born on New Year's Day bring great fortune and prosperity to all the household.

On New Year's Day if, on rising, a girl should look out of her bedroom window and see a man passing by, she may reckon to be married before the year is finished.

Clocks should be wound up immediately the New Year begins in order to endow the house with good fortune, while all daily cleaning and dusting should be completed early in the day of December 31 in order to avoid the danger of sweeping good luck from the house.

Breakage: Avoid breaking things on that first day lest wreckage be part of your year. Also, avoid crying on the first day of the year lest that activity set the tone for the next twelve months

Money: Do not pay back loans or lend money or other precious items on New Year's Day. To do so is to guarantee you'll be paying out all year.

New Clothes: Wear something new on January 1 to increase the likelihood of your receiving more new garments during the year to follow.

Work: Make sure to do -- and be successful at -- something related to your work on the first day of the year, even if you don't go near your place of employment that day. Limit your activity to a token amount, though, because to engage in a serious work project on that day is very unlucky.

Black-Eyes Peas: A tradition common to the Southern part of the United States says that the eating of black-eyed peas on New Year's Day will attract both general good luck and money in particular to the one doing the dining

A person who lives alone might place a lucky item or two in a basket that has a string tied to it, and then place the basket just outside the front door before midnight. After midnight, the lone celebrant hauls in his catch, being careful to bring the item across the doorjamb by pulling the string rather than by reaching out to retrieve it and thus breaking the plane of the threshold.

Nothing Goes Out: Nothing -- absolutely nothing, not even garbage -- is to leave the house on the first day of the year. If you have presents to deliver on New Year's Day, leave them in the car overnight. Don't so much as shake out a rug or take the empties to the recycle bin. Some people soften this rule by saying it's okay to remove things from the home on New Year's Day, provided that something else has been brought in first.

Just as the clock strikes twelve the head of the house should open the door in order to allow the Old Year to pass out and the New Year to come in.

Kissing at midnight: To ensure that those affections and ties will continue throughout the next twelve months. To not do this would be to set the stage for a year of coldness.

Stocking Up: The New Year must not be seen in with bare cupboards, lest that be the way of things for the year. Larders must be topped up and plenty of money must be placed in every wallet in the place to guarantee a prosperous year.

Paying Off Bills: The new year should not be begun with the household in debt, so checks should be written and mailed off prior to January 1st. Likewise, personal debts should be settled before the New Year arrives.

First Footing: The first person to enter your home after the stroke of midnight will influence the year you're about to have. Ideally, he should be dark-haired, tall, and good-looking, and it would be even better if he came bearing certain small gifts such as a lump of coal, a silver coin, a bit of bread, a sprig of evergreen, and some salt. Blonde and redhead first footers bring bad luck, and female first footers should be shooed away before they bring disaster down on the household.

First Footing: The first footer should knock and be let in rather than just using a key. After greeting those in the house and dropping off whatever small tokens of luck he has brought with him, he should make his way through the house and leave by a different door than the one through which he entered. No one should leave the premises before the first footer arrives -- the first traffic across the threshold must be headed in rather than striking out.

First footers must not be cross-eyed or have flat feet or eyebrows that meet in the middle

Squint-eyed, flat-footed, or red-haired men bring bad luck If they are first-footers, and so does a woman. But a man with a high instep, or one who comes on a horse, is considered particularly lucky.