SUPERSTITION (Lat. superstitio, excessive religious belief, superstition, possibly originally a standing over a thing in amazement or awe, from superstars, to stand above or over, from super, above, over + stare, to stand). A term loosely used to include all false faith or belief, its distinguishing characteristic being its irra tional estimate of something imperfectly under stood. Since the answer to the question of truth or falsity varies with place and time, it follows that the accepted belief of one time or people may be superstition to another. Most of the popular superstitions of the present are survivals of earlier science or religion. At a time when there existed no system of recorded observations of natural phenomena conclusions were of necessity drawn from ex ternal characteristics, and objects and events were supposed to exercise influences correspond ing to the impression produced upon the senses or imagination. This manner of interpre tation, or sympathetic magic (see MAGIC), is re sponsible for a great mass of superstitions. It is a characteristic of popular credulity that such notions, once prevalent, do not yield to contrary experience. If observation shows the principle to be inaccurate, reasons are always at hand to explain the error, o• at the most it is only neces sary to introduce additional complexity into the rule. Hence the power of the ancestral habits, which we find arbitrary and call superstitious. With all savage peoples, such beliefs have an immense effect on action; the daily method of attire, the chase, agriculture, and war fare are determined by an infinity of regulations which are religiously handed down from genera tion to generation. In some cases it is possible to discover the principle of expediency which gave birth to the requirement: thus, the discov ery of the ill effect of in and in breeding causes to be established a religious necessity, limiting the relations of the sexes according to certain complicated and ingenious rules, of which the prohibited degrees are the modern ecclesiastical survival. But in multitudes of other cases no good reason can be offered for demands and ab stentions which originally depend on infer ences which it is impossible to reconstruct.
A considerable number of superstitions are connected with the heavenly bodies. From remote times the observation of the stars and their movements has been considered important, but it has been with the night, especially, that ancient religious ceremonies are associated. The most distinctive differ ences between the nights were formed by altera tions in the growth of the lunar crescent; according to universal processes of thought, it was supposed that the time when the planet in creases and becomes dominant the principle of growth must prevail, and on the other hand, that her wane must be a season of general decay. Hence it has been everywhere inferred that all operations designed to promote increase ought to be performed at the time of the new moon, and that then potatoes should be planted, hair cut, and so on. But if it is desired to cause shrink ing, the work should be done when the moon is at the full according to the maxims of tradi tional agriculture, and at this time should be cut alders, spruce, and other undergrowth, be cause the roots will in this case wither without sprouting.
Not less important in popular usage is the part played by the course of the sun. As he moves in a particular direction, so it has been thought that in order to produce beneficial re sults, mankind should proceed in a correspond ing manner; in worship it was thought necessary to adopt a processional movement in the sunwise direction. Even in the ordinary movements of daily life this order was followed, and traces of it survive to the present day. Thus in order to make good bread or butter, it is essential that the motion should be in the same uniform direc tion, for reversal of the direction in which the kneading or churning is performed will undo the work accomplished, and insure a failure. From household maxims still preserved, it ap pears that the hand must be moved in a sunwise circuit. As the route taken by the sun is holy, so the opposite path will be evil, and has been adopted in practices of witchcraft and magic, and in Roman worship the gods below were adored with this reverse circuit.