(WYTV) – Scientific American tells us the chances of finding a four-leaf clover are one in 10,000, but the luck of the clover dates back to Adam and Eve.
Legend has it that as Adam and Eve were leaving the Garden of Eden, Eve plucked a four-leaf clover as a souvenir.
The Celtics believed that four-leaf clovers would help ward off evil spirits.
Many ancient cultures thought that death was contagious; you tried to avoid people who had been around a dead person. People wore black as a courtesy to others: “Stay away, I’m going to be contagious for a while.”
Do you knock on wood? The ancient pagan cultures believed spirits and gods lived in trees; knocking on a tree could ask them for help or good luck.
An opposite theory says knocking on wood scared away evil spirits.
“Step on a crack, break your mother’s back” has been around for a very long time. The superstition comes from European folklore: cracks are an opening between this world and another. Stepping or standing on a crack brings bad luck or bad health.
Cracks in walls allow spirits and ghosts to get into your home. Seal up the cracks, and don’t step on them.
