6 Weird Relationship Superstitions You Didn’t Know

No matter how much people would like to imagine that they are completely rational and have left the age of superstition behind, this is simply not true. Anyone who plays or watches sports can attest to the fact that people are still convinced that wearing a certain pair of socks or watching a game from a certain chair can affect which team wins or loses. This, of course, is no more realistic than the idea that you are going to have terrible luck because your neighbor’s black cat happened to walk in front of you. That said, superstitions continue to linger on in the modern world. Some people enjoy taking part in superstitions because they find it entertaining, and others follow through with superstitious behaviors both because it cannot hurt and because of a lingering concern that what if the superstition is true?

Superstition runs rampant when it comes to predicting whether your relationship will be happy, sad, long-lasting or short lived. Many strange superstitions about relationships have died out over the centuries, but there are some that remain whispering in the backs of people’s minds today. Here are six weird relationship superstitions you did not know.

No Weddings in May

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When a couple is trying to decide on a wedding date, there are a number of factors to take into consideration. First, how long do you need to plan the wedding? If you are looking to have a small, intimate ceremony with only your immediate family and closest friends, you may not need more than a few months to plan everything out. On the other hand, you might need a full year to finalize the logistics for a massive party that includes friends dating back to your high school days and all those extended family members you have not seen since you were five. You also have to consider if there is a specific venue or date you want to use. Some people like to tie the knot in the same place where he proposed or on the anniversary of their first date. Still others like to base their wedding date on what they want to do for their honeymoon. A winter wedding, after all, does not make much sense if you want a tropical honeymoon. Regardless of your reasoning, superstition says that you should never get married in May. Those who do will have an unhappy marriage, hence the phrase “marry in May and rue the day.” Admittedly, May can be hit or miss weather wise, so maybe it is best to wait until June, just in case.

Counting White Horses

One of the hardest parts about relationships is knowing how long it will last. Your date could end up being the person that you one day tie the knot with, or they could be a complete waste of your time. Since it can be maddening attempting to figure out how long someone will be part of your life, there are a wide variety of superstitions that supposedly help someone find their future spouse. One of these involves counting white horses. The superstition claims that if you count 50 white horses, the next person you shake hands with is the person you will marry.

There are a variety of different versions of this superstition. Some claim that you need to count 50 white horses and a mule, while others say you must count 60 white horses, 40 black and a mule before finding your true love. Still other versions claim that it needs to be 99 horses that you encounter by accident, and one version states that the horse color does not matter, but the mule must be white. The specifics would certainly make testing this one difficult in a city today.

Never Accept a Knife

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Nice knives are expensive, and most people would be delighted to be given a good set, especially if then enjoy cooking. According to superstition, however, accepting a knife as a gift is a terrible mistake. It might save your wallet, but it will doom your relationship.

Knives and other sharp objects have long been seen as able to cut through more insubstantial things. Before epidurals and anesthesia, women often put knives under the mattress when they went into labor in hopes of “cutting” down the pain of birth. While a less painful labor would have been a boon in those times, the mysterious cutting power of knives also extended to things that you did not want to see severed. In this case, accepting a gifted knife meant that your relationship would be severed, and you would be cut off from your partner. Not what Aunt Jackie likely had in mind when she bought those fancy blades.

When a Toad Crosses the Road…

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When a toad crosses the road, superstition says you should be grateful for your good luck and keep a very close eye on any future travelers you meet. One of them might just be your future spouse.

In a lingering homage to the classic fairy tale “The Frog Prince,” toads are apparently supposed to be excellent indicators of when you will meet your future spouse. According to superstition, if you are out traveling and a toad crosses your path, you need to pay close attention to any other travelers you meet. The toad means that your future lover will cross paths with you sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, the toad is not more specific than the fact that you will meet. There is no word yet on whether you have to kiss the toad to get a more specific answer or if that sort of thing only works on frogs.

Never Be a Bridesmaid Thrice

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Most women are honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid for a friend. They may have to politely refuse if they do not have the time or money to participate in the wedding itself, but most people do their utmost to make things work if a friend or family member has reached out to them and asked them to be part of the wedding party. This means that a lucky girl with lots of close friends might be a bridesmaid half a dozen times or more. According to superstition, however, that lucky girl has doomed her chances of ever finding a man for herself. Bridesmaids were originally meant to protect the bride from demons, evil spirits and curses. Bridesmaids looked like the bride, so the ill-intentioned creatures or hexes became confused, and the bridesmaids absorbed the nastiness in order to spare the bride. If a woman went through this three times, however, she was believed to have internalized so much evil energy that she would never be able to find a spouse for herself.

Smile at the Spider

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There are very few people on this planet who like spiders. Most people, however, see something with eight legs and scream, grab for a shoe or do some combination thereof. The majority of people would also be in agreement that finding a wolf spider lurking in your bathroom or a golden orb weaver merrily spinning a web on your car’s side mirror is bad enough. Finding an arachnid in your clothing would be enough to give you the heebie-jeebies for years. According to superstition, however, one of the luckiest things to find on a couple’s wedding day is a spider in or on the bride’s wedding dress. The spider on the wedding dress is a good omen and means that the couple will be happily married for years to come. Why the spider was chosen as the harbinger of good fortune is unknown. It may have to do with the strong, beautiful webs they spin symbolizing a strong bond between spouses. It could also have simply been a frantic fib in order to calm down panicked brides who found something with eight eyes peeking at them from the folds of their dress.