h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was always told that putting your shoes on the table was really bad
luck.
Also cutting your toe-nails on a Sunday-Why???????

I heard the shoes on the table one...I think it was more to do with hygiene than luck but who knows....and toenails on a Sunday???...thats wierd!!

I once read the following rhyme:

A man had better ne'er been born than to have his nails on a Sunday shorn.
Cut them on Monday, cut them for health.
Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth.
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for news.
Cut them on Thursday, a new pair of shoes.
Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow.
Cut them on Saturday, see your sweetheart tomorrow.

On the one occasion when I did cut my nails on a Sunday, everything that could go wrong went wrong the following day. I'm not normally superstitious, but...

There's a very similar rhyme about wedding days, and what each day of the week means in that respect:

Monday for wealth
Tuesday for health
Wednesday the best day of all
Thursday for losses
Friday for crosses
Saturday for no luck at all

Bizarre that most weddings these days are on a Saturday! Maybe thsi is the cause of the rising divorce rate on Europe?

There's also a delightful poem on what colour your wedding dress should be:

Married in White, you have chosen right,
Married in Blue, your love will always be true,
Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl,
Married in Brown, you will live in town,
Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead,
Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow,
Married in Green, ashamed to be seen,
Married in Pink, your spirit will sink,
Married in Grey, you will go far away,
Married in Black, you will wish yourself back.

I married in Kaki (because the weather was parky),
My seargent married in green (so he wasn't seen),
I don't know what colour my brother will get married in (he's living in sin).
My parent were married in church (but that don't rhyme - much)
(Or very well)

On the nuptial subject, my mum (who's a middle-aged ex-wife) told me that it's unlucky to try on someone else's wedding rings. I have no idea why.
Also, if you marry in May you rue the day (catchy, huh).
It's lucky to see a spider or a chimney sweep on your way to the ceremony and unlucky to see a funeral (especially if they've double booked the church!)
It's also unlucky to pass someone on the stair but the bad luck can be averted by crossing your fingers as you pass.
I think Old Wives Tales were a great joke by a bunch of old cornish women who were bored one day and wanted to put the wind up the youngsters of the village. Well, it's a theory.

If it's unlucky to try on someone else's wedding ring, I'm still waiting for the bad luck (touch wood!). Or maybe it's already happened. When I was at school I played one of Jacob's wives (amongst other things) in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. All of the wives had to wear wedding rings, so I borrowed one that one of my mum's relatives had left her. As I say, no bad luck so far. (Touch wood, again!)

I think the reson it is bad luck to try on other people's wedding rings, or put ony ring on the wedding finger before marriage, is because in the old days, when people were to lazy to ask "are you married?" they could tell by whether or not they had a ring on the wedding finger. If you were out and you had a ring on this finger, you would get no attention from the opposite sex (which is bad luck). I think this is the route of this superstition.