Origin Of Superstitions

It is our pleasure to offer you another short short story in the series designed to disclose the origins of superstition. This one deals with the belief that if you open an umbrella in the house, it's an omen of bad luck.

Great scott and Nancy, it's raining cats and dogs. I can't go out on this weather. Well, be soaked through before I get to the streetcar. Well, why don't you use that old umbrella garden? It'll help some.

Yeah, that's an idea. Where is it? In the closet, dear. Oh, here it is. I can see the stone good shape. Don't go on. Don't. Don't watch. Gordon, you've opened that umbrella in the house.

Now, something awfully sure to happen. Oh, don't be silly, darling. While we haven't used this umbrella in such a long time, I just opened it to see it was still whole. Oh, but, dear, don't you know that it's bad not to open an umbrella in the house?

Oh, Bosch Nancy. That's silly. Oh, no, it isn't silly, Gordon. Gordon I know a number of people who've opened umbrellas in their houses and have had bad luck. Imagine anybody having bad luck from opening an umbrella in the house. Why that superstition. Oh it is is it? Well let me tell you smarty that

centuries ago in the city of Rome a tragedy that actually occurred there was responsible for starting his very belief. But do you know how the umbrella was regarded by ancient peoples? No I didn't even know they had umbrellas in those They surely did.

Why, they were used in China about 2,000 years before the Christ, as well as in India and other Oriental countries. You see, the word umbrella is based on the Latin umbra, which means shade. And literally, umbrella means a shade from the sun or fire.