superstition

superstition, belief, half-belief, or practice for which there appears to be no rational substance. Those who use the term imply that they have certain knowledge or superior evidence for their own scientific, philosophical, or religious convictions. An ambiguous word, it probably cannot be used except subjectively. With this qualification in mind, superstitions may be classified roughly as religious, cultural, and personal.

Every religious system tends to accumulate superstitions as peripheral beliefs—a Christian, for example, may believe that in time of trouble he will be guided by the Bible if he opens it at random and reads the text that first strikes his eye. Often one person’s religion is another one’s superstition: the Roman emperor Constantine referred to some non-Christian practices as superstition; the Roman historian Tacitus called Christianity a pernicious superstition; Roman Catholic veneration of relics, images, and the saints is dismissed as superstitious by many Protestants; Christians regard many Hindu practices as superstitious; and adherents of all “higher” religions may consider Australian Aboriginal peoples’ relation to their totem superstitious. Finally, all religious beliefs and practices may seem superstitious to the person without religion.

Superstitions that belong to a cultural tradition (in some cases inseparable from religious superstition) are enormous in their variety. Many persons, in nearly all times, have held, seriously or half-seriously, irrational beliefs concerning methods of warding off ill or bringing good, foretelling the future, and healing or preventing sickness or accident. A few specific folk traditions, such as belief in the evil eye or in the efficacy of amulets, have been found in most periods of history and in most parts of the world. Others may be limited to one country, region, or village, to one family, or to one social or vocational group.

Finally, people develop personal superstitions: a schoolboy writes a good examination paper with a certain pen, and from then on that pen is lucky; a horseplayer may be convinced that gray horses run well for him.

Superstition has been deeply influential in history. Even in so-called modern times, in a day when objective evidence is highly valued, there are few people who would not, if pressed, admit to cherishing secretly one or two irrational beliefs or superstitions.