Are there any old family superstitions that you still observe?

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I always took it to mean new shoes in the box and bag like you might set any other bag down on the table when you get home from the store. Not that someone is actually putting the shoes on the table by themselves.

We have the one where when someone passes away you open a window in their house to let the soul leave. Especially if they pass at home.

"Funny" story about the above. My Nana was dying from lung cancer as she passed at home in hospice care. When it looked like it might be time, my cousin, a nurse, slipped into the bathroom attached to the room where Nana was in her hospital bed and opened the window. The window blinds came crashing down on her head and my Nana said "I'm not quite ready yet". Yes ma'am, you are your own timeline. How the heck she knew what my cousin was doing is still beyond me. She passed peacefully two days later surrounded by family, her priest, and a very compassionate hospice nurse.

 

[SC Minnie]

I can top that, I think. On New Year's Day we had to eat Pepper Pot soup for good luck for the coming year. The main ingredient in Pepper Pot soup is tripe. God, I used to gag.

I just thought of another one we used to do at midnight on New year's Eve. We would exchange a dollar-so that in the coming year you'd never be broke. News flash: that didn't work.

This was an answer on Jeopardy! last night. LOL I only knew because of this thread.

 

[debknight]

Okay, I keep reading that putting new shoes on the table is considered bad luck
but but but why would you put shoes in any condition on the table?

If you put new shoes on the table when coming home from shopping [buying them], they will hurt your feet.