Dear Diary, I can't believe Jonathan popped the question today! I'm engaged! I was so happy that I called Angela asked her to be my bridesmaid. She screamed with me and said "yes" immediately. And, oh, I MUST lose ten pounds before the wedding! I've got to be a perfect bride!

What this woman wrote in her diary probably sounds familiar-inviting the bride's close friends to be her bridesmaids. However, the behind this custom may not be that well-known. In Roman times, people believed that evil spirits might a wedding ceremony and hurt the bride. As a result, bridesmaids tried to fool these unwanted visitors by dressing the same as the bride. This is just one common superstition. Can you imagine how many others are involved in our everyday activities?

Carrying a rabbit's foot can bring you good luck.

A superstition is a belief that one event results in-or prevents-another, when the two no way related. Take a rabbit's foot, for example. Have you ever thought about the reason why a rabbit's foot is considered lucky in many Western countries? One saying is that rabbits, unlike most other animals, touch the ground with their back feet first when they are running. Westerners, thus, consider this fact unusual and even magical. However, this superstition is not based on any scientific proof. Simlarly, Americans usually say "Knock on wood" or actually do this for good luck, since they want to prevent tree spirits from affecting their luck. It's clear that these are just two situations where people superstitiously associate one event with another.

Aside from superstitions for good luck, some more long-practiced customs have grown out of fears that are related to superstitions. Superstition-based customs are what most members of a society usually do to deal with the unknown. In Taiwan, for instance, the word for the number "four" sounds like the word for "death." Because of its association with death, the number four has long been considered an unlucky number by Taiwanese. The reason why people in the West often say "Bless you" when a person sneezes is also superstition-based. This phrase is used because some Westerners used to believe that devils might enter one's body when person sneezes.