"All superstition has grown from something, there is no smoke withoout fire. Who was the first one to decide that opening av umbrell in a house is bad luck? Who was the first to walk under a ladder and suffer the consequenses? Who hung a horseshoe the wrong way up, smashed a mirror and spilled the salt? Who first branded Friday 13th as a day on which luck would run out?"                        (Loire P, (1992) p17). 

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth century life was hazardous, and the central feature of day-to-day existence was a preoccupation with finding explanations for fortune and misfortune. Religion, diseases and fire might have been the most essential elements in the background of the beliefs of superstition. Even though we are not searching for the same answers today superstition is still with us as a tradition. 

The word 'Superstition' comes from the Latin 'super' which meansabove, and 'stare' which means to stand. Those who survived in a battle were called 'superstitians', since they had outlived their fellow warriors and therefore stood above them.