So They Say

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 424, 8 August 1947, Page 8

So They Say

"THE horrible consequences of a rooted ‘" belief im what "They" say in the form of old superstitions was revealed in a recent 3YL programme in the They series-"There’s An Old Saying." In this the unfortunate young man visits

a psychiatrist because his bride-to-be has suddenly decided not to'marry him. Investigation reveals that he has a host of -superstitious sayings with which he thwerts his lady at every turn., The psychiatrist endeavours to straighten things outwith some informative remarks on the origins of these sayingswith what success we are left to imagine. Personally, I very much doubt whether a knowledge of how it originated would have much effect on a deeply-rooted superstition, particularly as the origin is so often conjectural or thoroughly obscure. In some cases a Christian interpretation has apparently been given to an older superstition; the unluckiness of the number 13, for instance, can be traced back beyond the Last Supper to Nordic mythology, where Loki makes the thirteenth at a feast in Valhalla which precedes the death of Balder. In any case a mystical association with certain numbers crops up frequently in ancient lore. One point well brought out by this programme was the fact that these superstitions are almost invariably implanted in children at a very early age by parent or nurse; and, once established, they are practically impossible to eradicate.