Good luck, bad luck

Superstition ain't the way! Why we concluded these things bring bad luck

Do you have rules you follow "just in case"? Some of us avoid walking under ladders, hesitate before opening umbrellas indoors, or instinctively knock on wood after saying something… But

where did these rituals come from? Why did some everyday accidents, animals, or gestures get labeled "unlucky"? Let’s explore some of the answers and whether they have to do with psychology, religion, history, or plain old common sense!

For one, there’s the safety concern: Why would you walk under a ladder if you could avoid the –albeit low– risk of it falling on you?

However, this superstition is also linked to the medieval Christian belief that interrupting a shape resembling a triangle was a way of insulting the Holy Trinity. Again: Why risk it?

Have you ever shattered a mirror and winced at the thought of years of bad luck? This goes back to ancient Greece and Rome. There, reflections were thought to be linked to the soul. Destroying a mirror was considered an affront to the gods watching over your spiritual self.

The "seven years" bit comes from the Roman idea that the human body renewed itself in seven-year cycles.

"You’ll jinx it!" is a common reaction when someone celebrates before their actual birthday. This superstition appears across several European traditions, where marking a milestone before it arrives was seen as presumptuous, even disrespectful to fate.

In eras when illness and mortality were real daily concerns, reaching your birthday wasn’t guaranteed… so celebrating early felt like counting blessings before earning them.

In ancient Egypt, black cats were revered and associated with protection and prosperity. What happened to their reputation, then? Simply put, in medieval Europe, when fear of witchcraft ran rampant, cats (especially the poor black ones) became linked with witches.

However, beliefs vary widely: in Britain, Ireland, and Japan, black cats can signify good luck or fortune, and sailors once welcomed them aboard ships to ensure safe voyages.

In many Western traditions, both Fridays and the number 13 had separate unlucky connotations long before they were combined: Friday was sometimes seen as ill-fated in Christian lore (Jesus’ crucifixion is said to have been on a Friday), and 13 was viewed with suspicion in Norse myth (where Loki’s unexpected arrival as the 13th guest at a feast led to chaos).

When early umbrellas with stiff metal frames first became popular in Britain and Europe, they were hard to fold and easy to jab into furniture, lamps, or unsuspecting family members. That made opening one inside genuinely hazardous, and turning it into a superstition was a tidy way to say, "Please don’t do it."

Almost everyone does this reflexively: you say something hopeful and then tap wood to "keep the luck going." One theory ties this to pagan traditions in Europe, where people believed protective spirits lived in trees; knocking on the trunk was a way to call on those spirits or to secure their goodwill.

Salt was once very precious: it preserved food, flavored meals, and even served as currency in parts of the ancient world. Spilling it meant waste, and waste invited misfortune. But, of course, everyone knows the fix: throw some over your left shoulder.

"Step on a crack, break your mother’s back." This ominous-sounding rhyme isn’t ancient at all; it rose to popularity in the early 20th century, spread through schoolyards rather than folklore. Of course, there is no logical explanation to back it up. But if you are superstitious… why would you risk it?

"One for sorrow, two for joy"... In British and Irish folklore, seeing a single magpie was thought to signal misfortune, loneliness, or bad news. The belief probably just pointed at how unlikely it is to see only one of these beautiful birds. To counter the bad luck, people developed rituals: tipping a hat, greeting the bird politely, or even saluting it.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.