Ever wonder why some people avoid black cats and broken mirrors?
SUPERSTITION: Black cats are bad omens.
THE BACKSTORY: Despite centuries of royal treatment (Egyptians worshipped them; the Norse goddess Freya rode in a chariot pulled by them), cats took a big hit to their reputation in the 1200s, when Pope Gregory IX, waging a culture war on pagan symbols, damned cats as servants of Satan. As a result, cats—especially black ones—were killed across Europe. One unintended consequence, according to some historians: The cat-deprived continent may have allowed disease carrying rodents to flourish and spread the bubonic plague of 1348.
Rumours that the feline’s fangs and fur were venomous persisted, and by the witch-hunting days of the 1600s, many Puritans believed black cats to be ‘familiars’—supernatural demons that serve witches—and avoided them (to borrow an apt phrase) like the plague.
SUPERSTITION: Never walk under a ladder.
この記事は Reader's Digest India の February 2018 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Reader's Digest India の February 2018 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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