Superstitions About Scissors
- You will 'cut off' fortune if you use scissors on New Year's Day
- Scissors should be put away during thunderstorms to decrease the likelihood that the house will be struck by lightning.
- Placing a pair of scissors under the pillow of a woman in labor will ‘cut her pain in half’.
- As with childbirth, placing a pair of scissors underneath the pillow of anyone in pain will halve their discomfort, making it more bearable.
- Breaking both blades is a sign of an impending disaster.
- Giving a pair of scissors as a gift will cause problems in a friendship by cutting the relationship in half. When giving scissors as a gift, the receiver should always give a little money in return, since ‘buying’ the scissors will not cause the friendship to be cut.
- A pair of scissors nailed above a door in the ‘open’ position, so they resemble a cross to some extent, was said to protect a household from witchcraft and evil influences.
- Dropping a pair of scissors is said to warn that a lover is unfaithful.
- Breaking one blade of a pair of scissors is an omen of quarreling and discord; if both blades are broken at once; a calamity is to be feared.
- Scissors should always be sold, they should never be given.
- On Wednesday and Friday, no one should use a needle or scissors, bake bread or sow flax.
Superstitions about Needles and Pins
- See a pin and let it lie, sure to rue it by and by.
- Never lend a pin to a friend lest it prick the friendship.
- A bent or crooked pin is thrown into a wishing well for good luck.
- Dropping a needle was good luck unless it sticks upright in the floor, then company was expected.
- Remove a needle or pin from the packet and prick the recipient before giving it to them
- A knotted thread means an argument is coming.
- A tangled thread on a needle during mending gives health and prosperity to the owner.
