SUPERSTITION

I spent a couple of hours this morning taking down our outside Christmas decorations. I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather today, because they need to be down by Epiphany for good luck. (The woman who made up that superstition had a bunch of whiny children to get out of her hair while she took a well deserved post-holiday rest.) All of the inside decorations are also ready for the basement except for Lloyd's Santas that stay all year round and the Christmas tree. Lloyd says he wants it to remain because it is such a cheerful thing; therefore, it is no longer a Christmas decoration.

Putting the decorations away is usually an easy thing for me. Of course, there are alway pine needles that somehow make it to August by lurking in the pile of the rug, but most everything else can be folded and boxed in a couple of hours. If it takes longer than that, I say start pitching it.

The word of the day for January 3, 2008 is "superstition" — Pronunciation: \,sü-pər-'sti-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English supersticion, from Anglo-French, from Latin superstition-, superstitio, from superstit-, superstes standing over (as witness or survivor), from super- + stare to stand — more at stand
Date: 13th century
1 a: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation. b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition. 2: a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary.

Our quote for the day is from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832), German poet, dramatist. Wilhelm Meister’s Travels, Reflections in the Spirit of the Travellers (1829):

Superstition belongs to the essence of mankind and takes refuge, when one thinks one has suppressed it completely, in the strangest nooks and crannies; once it is safely ensconced there, it suddenly reappears.

;^)

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