Luck Facts

Two people breaking a wishbone is said to lead to good luck for the person with the larger piece.

When you speak of good or bad luck, many people knock on wood to ward off misfortune or preserve good fortune. While popular folklore attributes this to ancient Celtic beliefs in wood spirits, the practice most likely evolved from a 19th-century British children's game called 'tiggy touchwood,' where touching wood made players safe from being tagged.

It's bad luck to leave a house through a different door than the one used to come into it.

Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven years of bad luck. According to superstition, you can reverse this curse by burying the broken shards under moonlight. This belief originated in ancient Rome, where mirrors were thought to reflect a person's soul, and the Romans believed life renewed itself every seven years.

An acorn should be carried to bring luck and ensure a long life.

If one walks underneath an open ladder it is said to bring bad luck. Sometimes it is said that this can be undone by immediately walking backwards back underneath the ladder.

The superstitious symbolism of a black cat crossing one's path is dependent upon culture: some cultures consider this a sign of impending bad luck, while some cultures consider this a sign of impending good luck.

At times, a horseshoe may be found above doorways. When positioned like a regular 'U' it supposedly collects luck. However, when it is positioned like an upside-down 'U' the luck supposedly drains.

It is bad luck to put new shoes on a bed (or a table) (comes from the tradition of dressing a corpse in new clothes and shoes and laying them out so everyone can give their respects) - (UK)

Placing keys on a table is considered unlucky in Sweden, a superstition rooted in historical social contexts.

Placing a hat on the bed is, apparently, bad luck. (South Carolina)

A single magpie is considered a sign of bad luck. A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar recites an old proverb concerning the incidence of bad weather when magpies forage alone and a possible scientific explanation for this.

An Australian man was declared dead for 14 minutes and lived unscathed. To celebrate, he bought a scratch card and won a car worth $27,000. For a news report, he was asked to re-enact winning the scratch card, so he bought another card and won a $250,000 jackpot.

In 2005, a fortune cookie company correctly foretold lottery numbers, resulting in 110 winners and an investigation.