SUPERSTITIONS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 292, 4 August 1932, Page 7

SUPERSTITIONS

MARY

ANNE.

INSTILLED IN US ALL. "Of course, I'rn not superstitious, but I am sure that some things are lucky and some are not, and I would not go on a journey without my lucky halfpenny for anything." It is the kind of remark you may hear from a younfg or even middle-aged, woman in her drawing-room any day, and it sums up a great deal of rambling and inconsequsnt kind of • end«avour to dissoeiate thought from action. "Well, it is not much that I believe, but nothing would induce me to walk under a ladder," and then one begins to wonder how far this kind of credulity in these enlightened days enters into'daily life. Another says, "Opals are my horror," yet another answers that she "never knew any good fortune till she wore an opal ring." So what are you to believe. It is peeuliar how people will be inveigled into having their fortunes told, gaze into the erystal bowl and believe implicitly the outeome of these ventures. It is colossal the number of women who p'ay their fee to listen to the predictions of illness three years hence, and a distant journey to have a very important influenee on life, and so on, through a host of stereotyped phrases. Minds dwell on sueh things and can easily persuade themselves into expectation of their reality, with the result that they lose health, magnify trifling incidents, and alienate those whose help and counsel are best worth having. Especially in coloured raees do we see the grip of superstition so firmiv embedded — in fact, their whole life centres round a weird superstitious j belief in good and evil, and this is j the most important education of their j life. Among superstition they live, - and even after their death it still | pcrsists. To study the superstitions • of thc Japanese people is a great and immensely interesting undertaking and just reading about them gives an insight irjto how much this race : is guided and governed by this belief. It is uncanny and yet no doubt they thinlc likewise of some of our beliefs. i There are shops which' make an ab1 solute trade on peoples' superstition, i selling queer little images and mas- ! cots 1-eputed to bring "good luek." , It sounds funny, but we follow blindly the forebodings of the dealer and : become very angry if one laughs at j our inconsistency. We do things unj conseiously displaying the supersti- | tious strain within us and one often ; hears the phrase, "Well, just for i luck." There v/e are, we cannot shake . ourselves free from it — it's there and , will out — which is . an old but true | saying. i There are lots of us wh'o declare | with great gusto that "they are not a bit superstitious," but when they see the new moon through the window or another such triviality upon which superstition is based, it gives them just a nasty feeling' for the moment. I don't mind admitting that I should much' rather prefer not to see the new moon through glass, so I daresay the grain of superstition has got a

grip on

in the drawing-room of the nurses' home, which was 'exquisitely arranged with bowls of spring flowers and berries. The matron, Miss A. C. Searell, received the guests wearing a frock of leaf-green crepe de chine, while the guest of honour was in navy moire silk. Progressive bridge was played, the winners being Miss O'Shea and Mr. W. Currie, while Mr. W. Russell was the winner of the consolation prize. Those present included:— Mr. and Mrs. W. Currie, Mr. and Mrs. H. Roach, Miss Stanton, Miss Harris, Miss Voyce, Miss Quigley, Miss Y. Griffiths, JMiss • O'Shea, Miss Fergusson, Mr. W. Russell, Mr. H. Smith and Mr. Kensington.