Why is it bad luck?

Question

Where did the origins of bad luck come about.
Like why is it so unlucky to walk on 3 drains, or walk under a ladder?
Or black cats walking in your path......

Just curious!

Answer 1

Beliefs of bad lucks or cultural taboos (do not do this or that, or
something bad happens) comes from wisdom, generated by people since stone age.
They were mostly use to hand practical knowledge to children. In this form they survived through times, antiquity, middle ages and later centuries.
Some of them are easy to decipher: do not walk under the ladder, it's bad luck (because it can drop on you and hurt you). Do not eat off your knife, or you will be angry (it's easy to hurt oneself eating off the knife). Do not step on cracks on the road - that is very old, because long ago, when hunting and fishing, cracks on Earth had to be avoided, as, indeed, they could be dangerous openings into chasms or holes.
Cats were actually, and in some countries, still are, considered to
bring luck (Japan, Egypt). Cats were sacred animals in Egypt. With the raise of Christianity some of the pagan beliefs were incorporated into the new religion, and some were fought, and considered forbidden, wrong, unholy. So, black cats became associated with bad luck (black being the colour of death, mourning, devil).

Answer 2

Don't know about the three drains , you will have me skipping around the pavement now . lol

The ladder one is something to do with passing through the triangle of trinity, so you no longer have protection. or something along those lines.

And the black cat , I always thought that was a sign of good luck. Ummm

Answer 3

As a Christian I don't believe on those anymore,
Nothing like that worries me now.

They're just old thoughts to me,
I take it as a joke actually.
like : black cat walking on your path, of course it dangerous,
you can step on them and fall over, just common sense.

ladder: but why for safety reason you would choose to walk
under a ladder, what if by accident the ladder fall
down your head.
and for the 3 drains, apply the same thing.

Answer 4

Walking under ladders is unlucky because ladders were invented in the 17th Century by Tony Blackburns great great great great grandfather. He used to sell them to farmers who used them to get badgers out of their trees.

However, the ladders were usually made of substandard material, such as egg shells, and so would break very easily. So it is considered unlucky to walk under a ladder because it may break and a farmer may drop a badger on your head!

Answer 5

Oh well bad luck that you were run over. But Good luck it was a ambulance

Answer 6

If you-er standing on a drain, you drop you-er keys doh, lost. If you-er walking under a ladder, say a painters, tin falls hits head. doh,hurts. Black cat walks in you-er path. doh trip! You walk in front a car.DOH! DEAD. They all originate from common sense.

Answer 7

I do the three drains one too, but no idea why!
The black cat is a familiar of witches, and a whipperwooler, a harbringer of death, so if it crossed your path,then death was crossing your path, never a good thing.

Answer 8

thank god someone else knows the three drain one, no one else i know, knows about it. its funny while walking with people from work, in a suit, jumping all over the place to avoid walking over three.

sorry i didn't answer, just a rant :)

Answer 9

if you walk under a ladder you might bump into it and it falls, possibly with someone on, and it falls on you: auch!
Conclusion: walk under ladder = bad luck

Answer 10

there is a book out there somewhere called 'white elephants' and it has answers to loads of sayings, proverbs and old wives tails and how they originated. it makes for great reading, you can find it on amazon