New Years Eve Superstitions

New Year's Eve is one of those evenings that I have come to dread. With each passing year, as the date draws closer, I find my thoughts encompassed by an ever increasing degree of fear over the upcoming event.

Irrational? Yes. Something that I can control? Nope, I've tried.

Years and years ago when I was a wee child, a comment made at one of our family's famous New Year's Eve Parties by a drunken guest, burned into my subconscious, and has remained there to this day. He was just an old neighbor who had drank far too much whiskey that night, but as he grasped desperately onto one of my aunt's arms, he mumbled into her face a disturbing fact that has remained with me ever since....

He drunkenly slurred, "Whatever you are doing or feeling at the stroke of midnight is what you will be doing or feeling for the rest of the New Year ya know". Then he plastered a huge sloppy kiss on my aunt that lasted practically the entire magical midnight minute while everyone else in the room shouted, hooted, twirled noise makers and popped balloons.

For me it was like they were the only two people in the room and I was enchanted by their actions. I could not take my eyes off them. It was magic....

Now to a little child the words spoken by this drunken neighbor held an almost magical if not mystical quality within them. As a kid I thought it was a wonderful sentiment and I felt privileged to have overheard this very special information.

New Year's Eve is after all a very magical time. It was the one night each year when I was allowed to stay up as late as I wanted. Friends, relatives, and neighbors came over and everyone drank, danced and ate till long after midnight or till one by one they stumbled off into the darkness and home. Some just fell asleep where they sat.

New Years Eve was almost as special an event as Christmas. For a kid it seemed that nothing could possibly be more heart warming, or magical, than New Year's Eve?

The magical images of this early New Year's Eve though were soon to be turned into horror as I realized the unexpected events which actually could occur at the stroke of midnight.

A New Year's eve long before I was forced to endure the misery of that all too gross slobbery midnight kiss of an ancient uncle with rotting teeth (Now I know how my aunt felt that night).

Magical visions of a New Years Eve long before my heart would be wrenched from my chest by a callous boyfriend caught necking with another girl at that magical of all moments in time. And then came the New Year's Eve night when in horror I turned first left, and then right, only to find that the people on either side of me had turned the opposite direction from me. There I was standing all alone at the stroke of midnight. Alone...

All AlONE! The forecast for the year ahead suddenly becoming more than my superstitious little heart could bear to imagine. The fear of the fateful upcoming year hovering over me till I could once again have another New Year's Eve prophecy to replace the corrupt one that I had received.

Even worse is the thought that I might accidentally fall asleep one year and slumber through that magical stroke of midnight, in which case I might find myself sleeping through the next year or worse, for all eternity. The implications of that midnight prophecy sending shivers of fear coursing through the core of my very being. Burrrrr....

How I wish that I had never overheard that drunk and his New Year's Eve superstition. Now I appear to be cursed for all eternity to believe what he believes.

Of course I have had many New Year's Eves which were filled with feelings of love and goodwill, and others that I doctored to ensure that they would indeed be wonderful, but nothing ever really quite stops my anxiety over this yearly event.

While other folks look at Halloween as the spookiest day of the year, I consider the scariest day of the year to be New Year's Eve, and all courtesy of that rotten old New Years Eve superstition which just will not leave my mind.

So at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve you probably won't find me out at a party, instead I will hopefully be at home, and wrapped up safely in the arms of the person I love.

My best wishes to you for a very Happy New Year. If for some unforeseen reason you do find that you have a few brief moments to spare during that magical midnight moment, then put a great big smile on your lips, and wish up some happy thoughts.

Bless yourself with a smile for your New Year.

1. If a black cat crosses your path you will be cursed with bad luck.

Advice: If you spot a black kitty turn around and walk away from it, if it follows you, run!

2. If you or someone else spills salt it means that there will be arguments in the home.

Advice: To break the spell throw the salt over your left shoulder with your right hand....and don't pick a fight with anybody in your home that day....wait till tomorrow!

3. Opening an umbrella indoors will result in 21 days of bad luck.

Advice: Don't do it!

4. Horseshoes are good luck.

Advice: Hang one right side up so it fills with good luck as hanging it upside down will result in the luck falling out.

5. The number 13 is bad luck.

Advice: Stay in bed on days that fall on the 13th of the month.

6. Breaking a mirror is worth 7 years of bad luck.

Advice: To break the spell you must bury the pieces of glass under the light of the moon. Make sure that the neighbors are asleep first or they might think that you are burying old Aunt Marge out there.

7. A found penny is lucky.

Advice: Buy a metal detector and head to the beach.

There are thousands more but I'll stop here. I really don't want to have you spending the majority of your time trying to figure out a way to keep all those superstitious beliefs from invading your day...

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Perhaps a magnetic or physical attraction draws you to your mate. Or maybe a brief glimpse into that persons eyes and into the emotion that rests deep within them is what lets you know that you have found love. It may be that you are long term acquaintances, and one day you suddenly realize that you could not imagine your existence continuing without the other beside you, it hits home what you should have known all along. You are in love and this is the one person that you want to spend....Is True Love Accidental or Predestined?.

How do you tell if that copper colored penny rattling around at the bottom of your piggy bank is really made of copper?

Over the many years that pennies have been around, they have been made from varying combination of copper, zinc, nickel, and tin, so how do you tell if your penny is copper or zinc?

How do you know if your penny is actually a genuine copper...How To Tell If Your Penny Is Copper Or Zinc?

When you participate in pleasurable activities like smiling, laughing, exercising or playing, your brain does an amazing thing and releases a little chemical message known as an endorphin.

These endorphins are feel good messages that have the power to actually remove physical and emotional pain. They travel down the spine, and then throughout your body, sending a feeling of well being as they go. These endorphins not only have the ability to relieve pain but they also have the power to make you feel happy. So remember to take time to play - It really is important.