Superstitions

Superstitions are generally something you pick up from your ancestors. As for me, my grandmother has spoken a lot about these beliefs. She also has taught me a lot concerning my ancestral country, India. I have learnt that India is can be considered as a country with a lot of superstitions, in fact; their lives are strongly 'controlled' by these superstitions.

A superstition that strikes me the most would be concerning cats in general as there are many superstitions related to this creature. One omen or warning when it comes to cats is that one should not continue their journey if a black cat passes you, if you do; then harm can come upon you. Therefore, if this happens to you; it best to either stop your journey or take a different route. Some people seem to think that it is because the cat that you are harmed, others assume that these cats are meant to warn someone of what may happen if you continue on that path. There were some that actually believe that it does not necessarily have to be black cats instead a variation of this superstition holds it to be true to all cats.. Another superstition relating to cats is that when a cat places its paw behind its ears when it scratches, it means it will rain soon. Something else that I find very mind boggling is the superstition that says that one should never leave a cat alone with a baby as it will suck the breath out of the baby.

As scary and absurd some of these superstitions sound, it really has many people especially Indians holding on to it. Though India is a progressing country with many educated citizens, superstitions are still a big part of their life. To me, a superstition only happens when one believes in it. It is similar to a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you keep on thinking that something is going to affect you then your actions might cause it to happen indirectly. My opinion is that the reasoning part behind the origin of these cultural beliefs and superstitions has never been firm. That is exactly why most of these beliefs appear unsubstantiated. However, in reality, some superstitions have logic behind them but in the passage of time; has turned out to look like it is purely false and ridiculous.

I guess in some ways why people practice these superstitions because they have encountered good things in it. In other words, it acts as a positive reinforcement. For example, some people actually believe that when a cat sneezes near you, you will be lucky on that day. Therefore, when something good actually