A Superstitious Mind

I don’t think of myself as a superstitious person, but I recently realized that I follow superstitions, lots of superstitions. A sampling of my superstitious habits—with my best effort at tracking their source—follows:

I don’t ever put a bag or purse on the floor. If I did so, all of my money would go away. (This is from Serbia.)

For good luck, I try to make ‘rabbit, rabbit’ the first words I say every month. (This is from J, making it an Iowan tradition?)

I generally don’t sit on the corner of a table, as it would be that I never marry (in Serbia) or that I will be infertile (in Romania). Except, with certain friends I fight over the corner seat because none of us are too eager for spouses or babies.

And all of the alcohol-related ones:

I always look into someone’s eyes when I am clinking glasses with them (what is the word for ‘clinking glasses?’ Toasting is the best I can come up with, but it seems like a speech should be involved. Some English speakers I hang out with have coined the term ‘živeliing’ as živeli is what you say in this part of the world when you clink glasses.) My friend M told me that failing to make eye contact will result in 7 years of bad sex. I have no idea where he picked that up, possibly The Netherlands.

I never živeli with something that isn’t alcohol. I can’t remember who told me that or what the threat of noncompliance is, but I stick to it.

I always take a sip from my glass after živeliing before putting the glass back on the table. I have been told that in certain parts of Slovakia and Ukraine one must put one’s glass back on the table before drinking from it.

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In sum, I am ridiculous.