Our culture is built upon all the cultures, customs, and expressions that have gone before us — many dominated by religious rituals. Even in our modern-day secular society, many of these rituals and customs remain.
If you’ve said “God bless you” when someone sneezes, wished on a shooting star, dropped a coin into a fountain, or even said “goodbye” (a contraction of the phrase “God be with ye”) — well, you’ve been following centuries of tradition that trace back to completely different (and often religious) origins.
Here are six colorful and everyday examples.
‘If You Wish Upon a Star …’
First-century astronomer Ptolemy believed shooting stars were an ideal opportunity to make wishes because the gods would be paying attention at that time. The shooting or falling stars were a result of the gods looking down at the Earth and stars managing to escape, according to the Library of Congress.
This tradition of wishing on stars has continued some 2,000 years later, in the form of famous songs (“Catch a Falling Star”) and famous films (“Pinocchio”). People also still look up at the sky and make a wish — or they look down and check their horoscope in the astrology column of the daily paper.
‘Ladybugs are Good Luck’
Coccinellids, commonly known as ladybugs or ladybirds, are considered lucky in many cultures, including our own. But the reason they’re called ladybugs is interesting. The little beetle is believed to enjoy the special protection of the Virgin Mary, with its red coloring meant to represent her red cloak and the seven spots on its back to represent her seven joys and seven sorrows — hence its status as Our Lady’s Bug.
Sneezing today can sometimes be the first warning sign of the flu, the common cold, or allergies. But in the Middle Ages, it was a grim portent of impending mortality.
Ladybugs are especially useful since they eat aphids, which thrive on crops and are the bane of farmers all over the world, according to ladybird-survey.org. It is also the state bug or insect of not one, but seven states: Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, and Tennessee.
‘God Bless You!’
If someone sneezes, it’s considered polite and appropriate to say, “God bless you.” It’s a superstitious belief that the soul flies out of the mouth when a person sneezes — and that invoking God keeps it from escaping.
The historical truth is a little less strange. Sneezing today can sometimes be the first warning sign of the flu, the common cold, or allergies. But in the Middle Ages, it was a grim portent of impending mortality. The practice of blessing people after they sneeze began in plague-ravaged Rome, where Pope Gregory I insisted the whole city pray for divine intervention, according to the Straight Dope. People flooded the streets, chanting “Kyrie Eleison” (Lord Have Mercy) — and any person who sneezed (thus showing the first signs of plague) was immediately blessed in the hope of staving off the illness.
Related: Older, Wiser and Thankful to God
While your soul doesn’t jump out of your mouth when you sneeze, microbes do — so keep your mouth covered!
‘Once in a Blue Moon’
A blue moon is such a rare and interesting event it’s even got its own song. A blue moon is the term for the second full moon that occurs during a calendar month — and the name has absolutely nothing to do with color. The term “blue” may actually be a derivation of the older word “belewe,” which means “betray,” says the Farmer’s Almanac.
Since medieval calculations for the duration and time of Lent and Easter were based on the lunar calendar, an additional moon in the course of a season would disrupt the calendar and make it difficult to determine the dates for holidays.
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‘You May Now Kiss the Bride’
Weddings are draped in tradition. Even civil ceremonies still follow some ancient religious rules and rituals. The wedding veil, for instance, comes from a Roman custom to protect brides from evil spirits. Bridesmaids wear matching dresses for a similar reason, reports Brides.com — to confuse the spirits.
Demons were also thought to dwell in the threshold of the house. So the groom would pick up the bride over the threshold to prevent those demons from invading through the soles of her feet.
June weddings have been common since ancient Rome, when the goddess Juno was thought to preside over fertility and marriage. The wedding cake is also derived from a Roman fertility tradition — and the practice of throwing rice is a fertility ritual from pre-Christian Britain, according to Brides Magazine.
Some 800 years later, the black cat still gets a bad rap and is still associated with witchcraft.
‘Black Cats are Bad Luck’
In the 1200s, Pope Gregory IX noted that black cats were used in dark rituals for a heretical sect known as the Cathars — and that the black cat served as an incarnation of Satan. Some 800 years later, the black cat still gets a bad rap and is still associated with witchcraft.
Black cats are all too often targeted, sometimes violently, by Halloween carousers. Many shelters even prohibit adopting cats during the month of October. The rest of the year, many shelters are forced to give discounts for adopting black cats because these animals tend to languish much longer than their lighter colored buddies.
Some also say black cats are less photogenic. Black cats aren’t adopted as often because they don’t show up well in selfies, a 2014 story in The Telegraph in 2014 noted.
But it could be that the stigma of Satanic ritual lingers — especially given their roles in movies like “Hocus Pocus” and shows like “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
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