This week calls for writing about superstitions. Don’t walk under a ladder. Beware the path of the black cat. Don’t step on a crack in the sidewalk or you’ll break your mother’s back. Be careful with praise.
I wrote about wearing the red ribbon to ward off the Evil Eye. I thought this was just an old Yiddish thing, but Italian-American poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan, with whom I take poetry workshops, wrote about the red ribbon too. I researched the origin of this superstition, and it’s attributed to both the Kabbalah, about which I know nothing, as well as to Lilith, the first baby-stealer, which might also explain the practice of not buying any baby furnishings until after the baby is born.
What superstitions did you grow up with?
The Whole Megillah 