ART AND CULTURE
ITALY
THE SUPERSTITION IN ITALY
BY ALESSIA AND STEPHANIE
Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality—that one event leads to the cause of another without any natural process linking the two events—such as astrology, religion, omens, witchcraft, etc., that contradicts natural science.
The word superstition is sometimes used to refer to religious practices (e.g., Voodoo) rather than the one prevailing in a given society (e.g., Christianity in western culture), although the prevailing religion may contain just as many superstitious beliefs.
It is also commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.
In Italy it is an important aspect of the folklore, especially in the South.
Now we are going to present some superstitions from our houses.
The salt
In the past the salt was a symbol of friendship and a cup of it was usually put on the table. The legend said that one day a guest knocked over the salt and the master of the house killed him. It seems that after this episode the superstition that knocking over the salt is a symbol of bad luck was born. To put away the bad luck It is necessary to throw the salt behind the shoulder.
Umbrella
It’s ominous to open the umbrella in a house and generally in a close space.