Superstitions

A superstition is when someone has to do or wear something before competing, taking a test, going to a game etc. If they do not do or wear what they feel is lucky, then they will believe that bad luck will come their way. For example, if someone does not wear blue socks on the day of a football game and their team loses, then they will think it was because they did not wear blue socks.

In class, we took a tally of who has superstitions and every person raised their hand. For me, I always thought I was strange for having specific things I had to do before a game. Now that I know there are more people who do the same thing makes me feel a lot better.

Superstitions can also be viewed as a learned behavior. For example, I did not get into the habit of having a superstition until my freshman year of high school. It was my first high school basketball game and all of the upperclassmen gathered us together to do a very strange ritual in the locker room. They said we had to do it or we would lose. At the time, I thought superstitions were fake, until one game we didn’t have time to do the ritual and we lost. I now have a ritual before every race at my track meets. If it wasn’t for my basketball team getting me into superstitions I probably wouldn’t have one today.