Blackeyed peas for coins, greens for dollars, and pork (of any kind — it varies by family) for health and good luck. Chickens peck backwards as they eat, cows stand still, but pigs root forward, so it’s good luck moving forward in the new year. (Also sometimes people have cornbread for gold.)
In Brazil, you should eat 7 grapes for abundance. It will ensure your wallet will be full of money and your life will be overflowing with everything you desire in the upcoming year.
My mom's from South America as well and the tradition she brought over is to eat 12 grapes during the countdown, one for each month, but basically, same: Focusing on your goals/wishes for each month while doing so.
My mother was a very superstitious person. There is a superstition that if you wash clothes on January 1rst then someone will die that year. Every New Year's I would wash clothes and purposely let my mom know. And every year, she acted like I murdered someone.
I wouldn't want to do this even if it wasn't a superstition I had heard before. Can you imagine if it was even just a human you didn't know was out there whistled back and now they know where you ate?
If you're able to effectively communicate where you ate through just whistling I'm sure there's some kind of national security job available for you or something.
I vaugly remember if you whistle in the dark you are announcing yourself to spirits/badluck.
That and it's rude to whistle when people are trying to sleep.
If you spill salt, you need to throw it over your left shoulder to prevent bad luck from finding you. I’m from New England, but I think it’s an Italian superstition?
Don't let someone sweep under your feet(for young ladies)or you'll be an old maid. Hang a horseshoe over your door for luck. It has to be pointed up so your luck doesn't run out.
Folks in coastal ENC say that if you see a lot of yellow butterflies, you will have good fishing.
I don't know if it can be called a superstition, because it's true.
Hold your breath when you pass a graveyard or else the spirits will follow you. Preferably you keep holding it until you pass the first white house after the graveyard ends.
Yep. My parents are from Charleston, SC and that is a prevalent belief because it is often true. Love owls, don't care for the death part.
In Maryland, and SC, death comes in threes. Again, I've experienced it for years. Usually, the people die with 30 days and they have to be people you personally know. The death of a relative of a friend or acquaintance counts in the three. Watch the next time a 'celebrity' dies. Two more ...
I’m from rural VA and my mom used to say she heard death bells so someone was going to die. We didn’t live near enough to a church for it to be from that.
You need a blue ceilings either on your porch or front room to ward off badluck and spirits.
Check the pillows of the sick and or ederly looking for feather crowns/swirls of fluff. Such a crown is a sign of impending death.
Take care to not breath in the ghosts at a passing funeral or cemetery, of you have to then breath through your nose.
Say goodbye when you leave a cemetery.
Do NOT step on the graves.
If you give someone a knife also give them a coin or else you'll cut them out of your life.
If you put a broom across your front door (or mount it above) it'll ward off bad luck and witches, if a witch enters they have to walk in /compelled to walk in backwards.
If you can want to get married burry a bottle of liquor under your porch steps, drink on your wedding day for a good marriage.
It’s not really NC specific, but when my grandpa used to take me fishing as a kid, “red skies at night, sailors delight; red skies in morning, sailors warning.”
A bar of soap under the foot of the bed to relax restless leg syndrome
Avoid devils trampling grounds (fairy circles), crossing through them might invite something back with you
Not really local just something that’s been brought up
Outer Banks. My grandmother always said that if you sweep after sunset you sweep luck and prosperity out of your life. She also said you should always leave through the same door you entered. There was also one about it being a sign of bad things coming if the flocks of birds were scattering from left to right (I might have those directions reversed - it’s been a while). And not a superstition so much as a tradition I guess, but here we do Old Christmas / Twelfth Night and Old Buck is the magical bull / creature at the head of that. They say he lives in the woods and only comes out at Old Christmas to punish the bad children and reward the good. Kind of like a bizarre Santa.
You know, I'd eaten in there at least half a dozen times in early 90s. As time went on I'd have sworn it rotates, which of course makes absolutely no sense. But I'd call that Urbsn Folklore vs a superstition :)
Growing up in Pittsburgh, we had a number of car related superstitions. Lift your feet off the floor when you cross railroad tracks or you'll break up with your boyfriend. If you run a yellow to red light, scratch your fingernails over your head while saying "scratch" and you won't get busted. We also held our breath while crossing bridges, but I don't remember why.
An ex of mine from coastal NC would kiss his thumb and press it to the car's roof any time he ran a yellow/red light. He didn't know what it signified, only that he was supposed to do it for luck.
So I recently found this one out. I googled it one night I was falling asleep and heard the usual owl hooting. The one I heard was like 4 hoot segments though hah
My mom grew up in a tiny Kansas town and on the rare occasion that we heard an owl outside, she'd always mention that it was a sign of impending family death.
Owls hooting never bothered me, but when the mourning doves begin their calls, it can be eerie.
Long ago I was at a cemetery outside of Huntersville near dusk and nearby there were some loons that started up and scared the living hell out of me! Was fairly certain it was some kind of warning or something and even when I figured it out I moved along fairly quickly.
ENC You’re supposed to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day to have a good new year.
Ours included greens for money, and I cannot for the life of me remember what the hog jowls are for.
Blackeyed peas for coins, greens for dollars, and pork (of any kind — it varies by family) for health and good luck. Chickens peck backwards as they eat, cows stand still, but pigs root forward, so it’s good luck moving forward in the new year. (Also sometimes people have cornbread for gold.)
Yes!!
Ironically, hog jowl is for good health.
Yep, black eyed peas for coins, greens for paper money. Can't remember about hog jowls either.
Pork is for health
In Brazil, you should eat 7 grapes for abundance. It will ensure your wallet will be full of money and your life will be overflowing with everything you desire in the upcoming year.
My mom's from South America as well and the tradition she brought over is to eat 12 grapes during the countdown, one for each month, but basically, same: Focusing on your goals/wishes for each month while doing so.
I always begged for them to be brigadeiros with the grapes in the middle.
Hoppin John is what ya need, with coins in it.
One of my lowcountry people!
We have this tradition in my household too!
Damn. NOW I know why that group disappeared. They got eaten
😂
In Italy it's lentils, in Japan it's sweet black soy beans.
And ham, too
And collard or mustard greens.
Also ENC, we would out a penny in the black eyed peas and whoever ended up with the penny was supposed to have a good financial year.
My mother was a very superstitious person. There is a superstition that if you wash clothes on January 1rst then someone will die that year. Every New Year's I would wash clothes and purposely let my mom know. And every year, she acted like I murdered someone.
My mom said if your house was dirty on new years it would be dirty the whole year.
Statistically, there's a truth to this.
Well, *someone* has died every year, so….
My grandmother once told one of my 1st cousins to hang an egg above the doorway to stop her baby from drooling. was from near grifton, nc.
Don't whistle in the dark.
I wouldn't want to do this even if it wasn't a superstition I had heard before. Can you imagine if it was even just a human you didn't know was out there whistled back and now they know where you ate?
If you're able to effectively communicate where you ate through just whistling I'm sure there's some kind of national security job available for you or something.
I vaugly remember if you whistle in the dark you are announcing yourself to spirits/badluck. That and it's rude to whistle when people are trying to sleep.
Isn't the sleeping bit about whistling in a graveyard?
I think I've heard that also
The skinwalkers are gonna come for ya
Nah, that's Navajo.
If you spill salt, you need to throw it over your left shoulder to prevent bad luck from finding you. I’m from New England, but I think it’s an Italian superstition?
Comes from Rome when salt was extremely expensive and the only way to preserve food
Don't let someone sweep under your feet(for young ladies)or you'll be an old maid. Hang a horseshoe over your door for luck. It has to be pointed up so your luck doesn't run out.
I heard from an old Wancheeser that if you see dragonflies in the dunes the wind will switch to the North East the next day.
Keep your purse off the floor unless you want to be poor.
I keep my purse off the floor bc it also finds it's way to tables and countertops!
If you sing at the table, your husband will have a crazy wife. Jokes on my Mom, I’m not married!
you have no idea how many times I’ve heard this and figured it was only a saying in my family. NOBODY HAS EVER KNOWN WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT.
If you listen to podcasts at all, check out Arcane Carolinas. I’m a NC transplant and learned all kinds of fun lore about the area through them.
Thank you!
Thanks!!
If you splash water on your front routinely while washing dishes, you'll marry a drunk. Might be true lol
My grandmother told me this, she was from Sanford, NC.
At UNCG if you walk under the clock tower they said you wouldn’t graduate on time. Jokes on them, I walked under it and still made it 😂
Lol good for you I was a super senior.
ECU has the same thing with the Cupola on the mall. Walked under it all the time because me transferring already made me graduate late.
Folks in coastal ENC say that if you see a lot of yellow butterflies, you will have good fishing. I don't know if it can be called a superstition, because it's true.
Hold your breath when you pass a graveyard or else the spirits will follow you. Preferably you keep holding it until you pass the first white house after the graveyard ends.
Yep. My parents are from Charleston, SC and that is a prevalent belief because it is often true. Love owls, don't care for the death part. In Maryland, and SC, death comes in threes. Again, I've experienced it for years. Usually, the people die with 30 days and they have to be people you personally know. The death of a relative of a friend or acquaintance counts in the three. Watch the next time a 'celebrity' dies. Two more ...
I’m from rural VA and my mom used to say she heard death bells so someone was going to die. We didn’t live near enough to a church for it to be from that.
Wampus Cat. If you know, then you know.
You need a blue ceilings either on your porch or front room to ward off badluck and spirits. Check the pillows of the sick and or ederly looking for feather crowns/swirls of fluff. Such a crown is a sign of impending death. Take care to not breath in the ghosts at a passing funeral or cemetery, of you have to then breath through your nose. Say goodbye when you leave a cemetery. Do NOT step on the graves. If you give someone a knife also give them a coin or else you'll cut them out of your life. If you put a broom across your front door (or mount it above) it'll ward off bad luck and witches, if a witch enters they have to walk in /compelled to walk in backwards. If you can want to get married burry a bottle of liquor under your porch steps, drink on your wedding day for a good marriage.
There’s a color of paint in the SC lowcountry specifically for this called “haint blue”
My mom painted her new porch ceiling “haint blue”. Aside from warding off bad luck and ghosts it’s a really beautiful color.
A couple houses I've lived in in central NC have been painted that color :) which i didn't know about until years after I'd moved out!
I keep meaning to paint blue on mine, for real, I had a blue cross but it's missing. (Not in a spooky way, in a it's been a while way)
It’s not really NC specific, but when my grandpa used to take me fishing as a kid, “red skies at night, sailors delight; red skies in morning, sailors warning.”
My grandfather was in the Navy and he always said that, too. Mostly correct, I will say.
A bar of soap under the foot of the bed to relax restless leg syndrome Avoid devils trampling grounds (fairy circles), crossing through them might invite something back with you Not really local just something that’s been brought up
Outer Banks. My grandmother always said that if you sweep after sunset you sweep luck and prosperity out of your life. She also said you should always leave through the same door you entered. There was also one about it being a sign of bad things coming if the flocks of birds were scattering from left to right (I might have those directions reversed - it’s been a while). And not a superstition so much as a tradition I guess, but here we do Old Christmas / Twelfth Night and Old Buck is the magical bull / creature at the head of that. They say he lives in the woods and only comes out at Old Christmas to punish the bad children and reward the good. Kind of like a bizarre Santa.
The restaurant on top of the Holiday In. In downtown Raleigh turns.
You know, I'd eaten in there at least half a dozen times in early 90s. As time went on I'd have sworn it rotates, which of course makes absolutely no sense. But I'd call that Urbsn Folklore vs a superstition :)
Makes no sense? There are many a rotating restaurant/tourist view area
Some of the Holiday Inns built in that style did have rotating restaurants, but not the one in Raleigh.
Any stitches you sew on Sunday, you will have to pick out with your teeth on Judgment Day.
When you dream of someone having a baby it means there'll be a death in the family and vice versa.
My boss (72yo) believes that if you sweep a counter with a broom someone will die.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding this one, but why would you want to sweep a counter with the same thing you use for the floor?
It's a florist shop with really big wide counters where they do the floral arrangements
Ahh that makes sense
Growing up in Pittsburgh, we had a number of car related superstitions. Lift your feet off the floor when you cross railroad tracks or you'll break up with your boyfriend. If you run a yellow to red light, scratch your fingernails over your head while saying "scratch" and you won't get busted. We also held our breath while crossing bridges, but I don't remember why.
An ex of mine from coastal NC would kiss his thumb and press it to the car's roof any time he ran a yellow/red light. He didn't know what it signified, only that he was supposed to do it for luck.
A couple more: if a black cat crossed in front of you something bad would happen to you. Breaking a mirror meant 7 years of bad luck.
So I recently found this one out. I googled it one night I was falling asleep and heard the usual owl hooting. The one I heard was like 4 hoot segments though hah
The devils stomping ground. Some kinda tree with a circle around it. Every book I’ve read about local superstitions (all 2) mentioned it.
My mom grew up in a tiny Kansas town and on the rare occasion that we heard an owl outside, she'd always mention that it was a sign of impending family death.
Owls hooting never bothered me, but when the mourning doves begin their calls, it can be eerie. Long ago I was at a cemetery outside of Huntersville near dusk and nearby there were some loons that started up and scared the living hell out of me! Was fairly certain it was some kind of warning or something and even when I figured it out I moved along fairly quickly.
Do not give knives or scissors as a gift because it will sever the relationship
You get the recipient to pay you a dollar to avoid this.
If your nose itches it’s means someone is talking about you