Superstitions - Khushi Relan

 Superstitions

(By- Khushi Relan)

Back in my home country India, people believe in some senseless things and take it really seriously. For example, they say don’t cut your nails at night, don’t get your hair cut on Tuesday, don’t wash your hair on Thursday, don’t cross a road if a black cat already crossed your way, don’t sweep your floor at night and so on. And to my surprise, I unknowingly followed these things and maybe I still do. Many people don’t really call themselves superstitious, but they still say ‘Bless You’ when somebody sneezes. Why do we say it? It is believed that our ancestors used to think that devil tries to steal their soul during a sneeze, so they started saying ‘Bless You’ to protect themselves. People unknowingly are superstitious, like some buildings won’t have a 13^th floor. I can confidently say that because I have seen it. Like my mother she believed that 13 was a very unlucky number. She always tried to change it, but we always ended up facing it. For example, we got our American visa, both of the times on counter number 13, our flight was on 13^th December, Friday. We tried to change it but we just couldn’t. Number 13 never brought us bad luck, it always brought us something good.

Recently I watched a documentary on Netflix named, “House of Secrets: The Burari deaths”. 11 members of the same family committed suicide on the same night because they believed in something that scientifically could never happen. But they aren’t the only people who lost their lives because of it. There are so many variations of superstitions, that even if we want to, we can never get rid of them. It is something that disturbs me a lot, because I know there are a lot of people out there who are sacrificing themselves for literally nothing.

https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-superstition-and-why-people-believe-in-the-unbelievable-97043

Black Magic

or

Witchcraft.

(By- Khushi Relan)

People in so many countries like India believe and perform so many types of worshipping for superstitious purposes. There are so many people who’ll kill people just because a fake priest, a black magic priest would tell them that killing a number of people would bring them salvation, success or happiness. Like I mentioned a documentary before, ‘House of Secrets: the Burari deaths’, the main reason why they took a huge step to suicide was because the person (one of their family members) whom they trusted the most and found him extremely smart, told them to commit suicide with him. From my POV, he needed help because he was mentally ill. But many people in India would find it a shame to ask for help while suffering from depression, so no one took a step to help him. Before dying, all of them did a worship, which was apparently for their dead father. He believed that he could talk to his dead father and it was his (their dead father) idea to perform that superstitious ritual and suicide, and everyone believed it, no questions asked. All of them believed that they weren’t actually going to die because their dead father would come and save them. So ironic!

One of the significant reasons why people believe in it is because they think that they’ll get control of something which in actuality only God could control. It is so common in India that  almost out of every house, house owners would have either lemon and green chilies hanging on their front gate or a black object(to save themselves from the evil eye). These small superstitions actions aren’t harmful but sacrificing oneself is definitely harmful! Even if we believe in these,