There are many superstitions that have become well-established in society, like the seven years’ abd luck if one breaks a mirror or throwing the salt over one’s left shoulder to ward off the devil.
Superstitions are an ancient concept of human civilisation, though in many cases they still apply today.
“The basic notion is that humans live in an environment surrounded by good and bad supernatural beings e.g. spirits, fairies, goblins and entities, who try to benefit or harm us respectively. Through some ritual practices, humans try to expel evil and welcome good,” explains Manolis Varvounis, Professor of Folklore, Dean of the School of Classics and Humanities of the Democritus University of Thrace.
New Year and superstitions
There are many such superstitions that are associated with the new year, some common ones being the breaking of a pomegranate by the head of the household at the front door, and the “podariko” choosing someone to step foot through the door with their right foot.
These are both said to supposedly bring god luck for the year ahead.
“Houses that were once visited by death, disease, or disaster, also did the “podariko” superstition but it did not protect them. This is something that people see and know,” Professor Varvounis said to Athens-Macedonian News Agency.
He explained that despite this, people continue to practise this superstition out of custom as well as the potential concern of it potentially being true.
Enduring superstitions
To this day, people practise superstitions like avoiding cracks on the ground, primary school children throwing their baby teeth on the roof tiles and not cutting your nails on Wednesday and Friday.
The professor of folklore elaborated that the latter two have hidden magical concepts based on the theory that if we take part of a person’s body, we can use it to cause actions that affect the whole body.
“For example, if I find a tooth I can do magic and harm the one it came from, which is why they threw on the roof tiles,” he said.
“Also, if I find the fingernails on days when the people considered that magical acts are most effective, I can again cast spells on their owner, which is why they avoided cutting them on those days.”
“Η κυρά μας η μαμή” and warding off the evil eye (ξεμάτιασμα)
In the time when there was no scientific explanation for various things, superstitions thrived and slowly began to die out as science developed.
“There are many customs with superstitions about mothers and their newborn children aimed at driving away diseases that might threaten them, due to the great mortality rates in the past for both mothers and their newborns.
Over time, childbirth moved from the home to the hospital, the midwife replaced by the gynaecologist, medicine came and explained things, therefore these customs were discontinued,” he said, stressing that the 1958 Greek film “Η κυρά μας η μαμή” with Georgia Vassiliadou and Orestis Makris is a typical example of the fight between superstition and science.
While most of these customs were lost, new ones emerged to take their place, many coming from abroad that are of a more social or recreational nature e.g. bringing teddy bears, flowers, balloons or sweets when visiting a new mother and their baby.
Professor Varvounis stressed that this is common for customs to be replaced by new ones.
“It is a misconception that customs are stable throughout the centuries and have only recently begun to change. They have always changed and there is no break from it, because humans like their rituals,” he said.
According to the folklore professor, the ξεμάτιασμα (undoing the evil eye) is one superstition that has survived to this day
“It is wrong to claim the church espouses these things, and it is generally wrong to associate religious faith with superstitions.
“The church does admit they believe in the evil eye, though it is not solved by the ξεμάτιασμα bur with prayers from their prayer book, which is completely different,” Professor Varvounis said on the topic, which he has analysed extensively in his book “Introduction to religious folklore”.
