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

This is a VERY odd superstition and the cause of many arguements in my household.
If my wife drops a knife she will NOT pick it up again as this will cause her bad luck (aparantly)
Knives have been known to sit on the kitchen floor for days!
However, if I drop a knife she will rush to pick it up as that is good luck (aparantly)

It's all a load of old balls if you ask me !

I've never heard of dropped knives being unlucky. However, if somebody crosses two knives at the table, somebody else must immediately uncross them, or there will be a fight. This is one my father always observed.

My mother believes all these superstitions, plus one that's not been mentioned so far: when a fork is dropped on the floor, it means an unwelcome visitor is about to arrive!

I recognise the crossed knives thing as one of my mother's too. The difference is that she believed it heralded an argument - and was invariably right as we would then argue for hours about the stupidity of superstition in general and that example in particular.
A few other superstitions she lives by include:-
1. It is unlucky to go up/down a staircase if someone is already walking down/up the same steps.
2. When you enter a house, you must always leave by the same door.
3. Birds in a house are unlucky, even ornaments or pictures.
4. It is unlucky to cut hair on Fridays or Sundays.
5. It is unlucky to trim nails on Fridays or Sundays.

What if you are at a busy train station, etc. and everyone is running up the stairs? Do you wait a few hours until the staircase is empty and risk unthinkable consequences?

Are escalators exempt (please!)?

Hence the superstition it is unlucky to not wear shoes in the kitchen.

I've never heard of 1 - 4, but my dad also believed in 5, and wouldn't cut his nails on a Friday or Sunday. I used to think it was a load of b*ll*cks until I cut my nails on a Sunday. The following day everything that could go wrong, did.

Luckily for my mum, she hasn't had to contend with busy tube station staircases or she'd never get anywhere! I've checked with her and escalators are OK - unless there's a nasty child trying to run up the down escalator as you're descending.
She likes lifts best! (or elevators for our American friends)

All superstitions that "will lead to an arguemnet" always do. This is because they are so daft that people will constantly argue over their relative credibility.
Some superstitions, like not walking under ladders, are at least based on some kind of sensible rationale.

My mums superstitions/habits include the one that "all elephants mus be facing the door".
Obviously this means pictures of or small statues of elephants as we don't have any of the real thing

You wouldn't want to be staring at this beast's behind all day either. If it erupted into your kitchen, dropping knives would be the least of your worries.

"obviously we don't have any of the real thing" ? Have you looked in the attic recently?
After Saturday's New year Parade I've come up with a new superstition. - "if you don't touch all the dragon dancers on your side of the road, the Chinese babies sitting next to you on the fence will cry." I'm sure this could be generalised into something pithy.

Superstitions only occur if you care about them. I.e. if you percieve yourself to have done something wrong(cutting nails on the fifth friday backwards over your left earlobe or such), any bad things that subsequently occur will be blamed on this faux pas. Once I walked under a ladder and then the next day was awful, but then I just realised everyday in my life was awful and shot myself. So you see, everything is ok.

If you are given a knife/knives as a gift you must give a coin to the giver otherwise sorrow will follow......

I was given some knives for Christmas one year and didn't know about the coin business. The not-so-good relationship I was in deteriorated to the point of disintegration. While it was a very sorrowful time, it was also, eventually, the best thing that could have happened!!

So, inreality, the superstition was a big pile of pants, as in the end, you had good luck !!!!!!

My favourite superstition is 7 years bad luck if you don't take a drink after a cheers. If you put down your drink without taking even a sip after a toast it's as bad as breaking a mirror. It's a great way to get friends drunk quickly.

I always understood that it is unlucky to drink if you are the subject of the toast, i.e., you mustn't drink to yourself. Mind you, I'm not sure that 'Cheers' counts as a toast.

I find Cheers to be quite a nice, informal toast. Everyone, regardless of language, understands it. The friends I have look for any excuse to have a toast.

Speaking of all this food stuff... I was in a restaurant once with a bunch of friends, and one of them spilled salt(I think, maybe something else). Anyway, according to superstition the remedy for this was to throw salt over your shoulder... which she exuberantly did, sprinkling some fellow diners in the process!

The salt must be thrown over your left shoulder using your right hand. This is because a devil sits on your left shoulder, and throwing the salt over that shoulder blinds him (to the waste of a precious commodity - well, it was precious some centuries ago!).