Word Finder - superstitions

definition

A belief or beliefs, not based on human reason or scientific knowledge, that events may be influenced by one's behaviour in some magical or mystical way.

definition

Excessive nicety; overscrupulousness.

He shared the common superstitions of the time and some of them never left him.

Halloween has a number of superstitions associated with it.

Myths, folk-lore, hunting charms, fetishes, superstitions and customs were based on the same idea.

They have become^mainly Protestants, Catholics or Mormons, but retain many superstitions connected with their native religion.

When further he teaches that the attainment of happiness depends almost entirely upon insight and right calculation, fortune having very little to do with it; that the pleasures and pains of the mind are far more important than those of the body, owing to the accumulation of feeling caused by memory and anticipation; and that an indispensable condition of mental happiness lies in relieving the mind of all superstitions, which can be effected only by a thorough knowledge of the physical universe - he introduces an ample area for the exercise of the philosophic intellect.

Jaidev was succeeded by numerous Hindu saints, who perceived that the superstitions of the age only led to spiritual blindness.

To the beginning of the 13th century the popular superstitions regarding sorcery, witchcraft and compacts with the devil were condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities as heathenish, sinful and heretical.

Three visits which he had paid to Italy in his capacity of army chaplain had done much to open his eyes to the worldly character of the papal rule, and it was not long before he began to attack at Einsiedeln the superstitions which attended the great pilgrimages made to that place.

James shared to the full in the superstitions of the age which was quickly passing away.

Urban Legends Online provides legends on everything from bugs to superstitions.

Poland and Lithuania, however, abounded with superstitions and legends which only awaited the coming poet to put them into verse.

The Roman Catholic religion was enforced at the time of the conquest, but a large percentage of the natives may still be considered semi-pagan, the gods of their ancestors being worshipped in secret, and the forms and tenets of the dominant faith, which they but faintly comprehend, being largely adulterated with superstitions and practices of pagan origin.

They contain valuable information on the superstitions, ethnology and religion of Tibet.

But the Buddha, while rejecting the sacrifices and the ritualistic magic of the brahmin schools, the animistic superstitions of the people, the asceticism and soultheory of the Jains, and the pantheistic speculations of the poets of the pre-Buddhistic Upanishads, still retained the belief in transmigration.

The popular gods and the popular superstitions are once more favoured by Buddhists themselves.

Fresh knowledge, new forces and faculties, have to be acquired by positive and strenuous efforts, while, on the other hand, delusions and superstitions are to be abandoned by an attitude of conscious neglect; or to use the phraseology of the Hindus, Avidyd, nescience - the mental state of the unenlightened - through which the individual energies are scattered and dissipated in futile effort, is gradually replaced by Vidyd, the higher wisdom which dispels the darkness of the mind, awakens our latent faculties and concentrates our efforts in the direction of that harmonious union, which ultimately results in Nirvana.

While these monotheistic, pantheistic doctrines were taught in the schools, the people were left to a debased polytheism and to new superstitions imported from the Orient; the philosophers themselves were by no means unaffected by the popular beliefs.

Such customs repose on various superstitions; for example, the self-mutilation of the Galli or priests of Cybele was probably a magical ceremony intended to fertilize the soil and stimulate the crops.

Many curious superstitions survive in the country districts, including the beliefs in witches (feitigeiras, bruxas) and werewolves (lobishomens); in sirens (sereias) which haunt the dangerous coast and lure fishermen to destruction; in fairies (fadas) and in many kinds of enchantment.

He had employed all his resources of wit and satire against the priests and monks, and the superstitions in which they traded, long before Luther's name was heard of.

Details in regard to some Judas legends and superstitions are given in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, v., vi.

The girl's appearance seems to have been such as to encourage superstitions.

This feeling explains his detestation of foreign manners and superstitions, his loathing not only of inhuman crimes and cruelties but even of the lesser derelictions from selfrespect, his scorn of luxury and of art as ministering to luxury, his mockery of the poetry and of the stale and dilettante culture of his time, and perhaps, too, his indifference to the schools of philosophy and his readiness to identify all the professors of stoicism with the reserved and close-cropped puritans, who concealed the worst vices under an outward appearance of austerity.

Early work in this direction was done by Jon Gudmundsson, Olaf the Old and John Olafsson in the 17th century, who all put traditions on paper, and their labours were completed by the magnificent collection of Jon Arnason (1862-1864), who was inspired by the example of the Grimms. Many tales are but weak echoes of the sagas; many were family legends, many are old fairy tales in a garb suited to their new northern home; but, besides all these, there are a number of traditions and superstitions of indigenous origin.

The old English and the Arab superstitions about the language of beasts are examples of this opinion surviving among civilized races.

The main idea of the poem is the irreconcilable opposition between the truth of the laws of nature and the falsehood of the old superstitions.

The results of these explorations were made public in a long series of separate publications comprising several on Buddhism, and on the psychological problems presented by native superstitions.

But increasing culture presents new ideals, and the mind, absorbing the ethical spirit of its environment, gradually emancipates itself from conventions and superstitions.

The term " holiness " in this connexion consists positively in the fulfilment of ceremonial obligations and negatively in abstaining from the defilement caused by heathen customs and superstitions, but it also includes obedience to the moral requirements of the religion of Yahweh.

The domesticated Indians profess the Roman Catholic faith, but it is tinged with the superstitions of their ancestors.

They cling with almost equal attachment to their local customs and their religious superstitions.

Anthropological researches undertaken all over the globe have shown the necessity of abandoning the old theory that a similarity of customs and superstitions, of arts and crafts, justifies the assumption of a remote relationship, if not an identity of origin, between races.

The superstitions of one are often found to be those of the others, and in such a form that they could not have been taken over independently from a third source; they show too much family likeness.

He wrote extensively not only theological works but also political pamphlets and dissertations directed against popular superstitions.

Polites ('O irepi riav Popyovwv plhos irapa rci 'EXX vucw Xaci., 1878) gives an account of the Gorgons, and of the various superstitions connected with them, from the modern Greek point of view, which regards them as malevolent spirits of the sea.

The conversion in consequence was in large measure only apparent; and such pagan superstitions and practices as did not run directly counter to the new teaching were tolerated by the saint.

Though they call themselves Mahommedans, their religion is largely mingled with pagan superstitions; they worship animals, and a certain divinity called Karaeng Love, who has power over their fortune and health.

At one time it was only the low-grade tabloid newspapers that encouraged popular superstitions like crystal-gazing or astrology.

He's not some distant deity we can ignore or have superstitions about.

Do you follow any particular superstitions or have good luck rituals?

Athletes use superstitions because they think it gives them confidence.

His task was far from easy as Mary's tyranny and popish superstitions had left a dirty stain on the entire country.

At least I remember I retorted hotly, crying out upon childish superstitions.

They actually believe that they are taking part in nothing more than a modern mockery of ignorant superstitions from the past.

Professor Arnold rightly notes Thietmar's professional interest in condemning the pagan superstitions of his Slav neighbors.

Many Midwinter customs and folk superstitions are also connected to St. Andrew ' s day.

Any football superstitions I touch the last bit of the tunnel above my head as I run out.

A theory, which seems to have some probability in its favour, is that these mines were worked by the Khmer people during the period of power, energy and prosperity which found its most lofty expression in the now ruined and deserted city of Angkor Thom; while another attributes these works to the natives of India whose Hindu remains are found in Java and elsewhere, whose influence was at one time widespread throughout Malayan lands, and of whose religious teaching remnants still linger in the superstitions of the Malays and are preserved in some purity in Lombok and Bali.

The materia medica of the Chinese at the present date affords an excellent illustration of the changes that have taken place in the use of drugs, and of the theories and superstitions that have guided the selection of these from the earliest ages, inasmuch as it still comprises articles that were formerly used in medicine, but have now been utterly discarded.

They proposed to abolish the " idolatry " of the Mass and all other outward signs of what they deemed the old superstitions.