The Soothing Superstition

Magic of Superstition

Reading horoscopes, wishing on a wishing star as it tails off in the sky, and crossing fingers for good luck are examples of the many types of unreasoned rituals that are becoming more common now a days. This is what superstition is all about. It is about incoherent fallacies and customs carried out with increasing popularity, by people all around the globe. Its essence lies in fallacious beliefs and habits that are scientifically unexplainable, but are still practiced in spite of evidence (Mead, 1970). Although superstition may appear to be ridiculous at times and is taken less seriously than religion is, it still has some competency in people's everyday life, for it evokes memories of a certain culture (Mead, 1970) or a dear deceased person (Pogrebin, 1996), undertakes towards a personal achievement and protection from a slip of luck (Mead, 1970), and provides inner security and reassurance.

Religion and superstition are of two distinct categories. Religious beliefs are facts and truth that are strongly adopted by people. Even though they lack an actual demonstration, they remain as subjects of faith and principles of fidelity to believers (Mead, 1970). On the other hand, superstitions are considered customs and manners that have been scientifically rejected for being incoherent with logic and reason. However, despite all of their contradictions, superstition and religion may adhere in situations related to god such as the sacred belief that god does exist, but is invisible for the reason that the eyes of us mortals cannot be exposed to divine vision and, therefore, god's invisibility is there for our own protection.

Some people view superstitions and folk beliefs as absurd, meaningless rituals, while they ignore the magic of superstition in their everyday life. The evanescent effects of those "absurd" folklores work their way through our days whether it was in a conversation or in any act towards achieving a goal. A very delightful effect of superstition is the arousing of old memories that have been hidden inside us and which bring along feelings of security and intimacy. Many times in a day, we tend to be reminded of our cultural habits and customs by simple incidents that we would not pay attention to and would only, for a split second, think about our grandparents and their insignificant responses to those situations (Mead, 1970). At other times,