Eyelash superstitions are popular all over the world, especially the superstitions that grant you a wish.
Here are ten such eyelash superstitions that will keep you wishing and foretelling deaths for as long as you have lashes to lose.
1. Eyelash Trimming
Let’s start off with this rather odd superstition that tells us that if you trim your eyelashes while the moon is waning (growing smaller), your eyelashes will fall out.
However, if you trim your eyelashes while the moon is waxing (growing bigger), they will grow long and beautiful. [1]
2. Quivering Eyelashes
If you feel your eyelashes quiver, you will soon learn of a death. [1]
3. Wishing on an Eyelash
The girls in my school were always wishing on eyelashes for some reason or other.
“If you drop an eyelash, place it on the back of the hand, make a wish, and give the hand a quick blow with the other hand. If the lash disappears, it is said to have gone to bring the wish, but if it clings to the hand, your wish will not be fulfilled.” [1]
4. Tip of the Nose Wish
Another variation of the eyelash wishing charm comes from Cornwall, 1887.
It tells us that when an eyelash falls out, you need to put it on the tip of your nose. Make a wish and blow upwards towards your nose. If you blow the eyelash off, your wish will come true. [2]
5. Blow a Sweetheart
From out of Kentucky, we learn the following:
“Take an eyelash, name your lover, and then low the lash away. If you do not see the eyelash anymore, your sweetheart loves you.” [3]
6. Whichever Finger the Eyelash Sticks to
This next Kentucky superstition helps you discover who loves you.
“Pull an eyelash out and hold it between the thumb and the first finger. Let one person name the thumb and another the finger. Open them. The one that he eyelash sticks to has the name of the one that loves you.” [3]
7. Toss It Over Your Shoulder
An old New York superstitions tells us:
“Throw an eyelash over your shoulder. If it falls from your finger in doing this, you wish will come true. If it remains on the finger, your wish will not come to pass.” [4]
8. A Letter
From New England:
“Put a loose eyelash on the back of your hand. It signifies a letter. Wish from home the letter may come, carry it three times around your head, then throw if over your shoulder, and you will get your wish.” [4]
9. Put It Down Your Shirt
Eyewinker is another name for eyelash, and so here is this superstition from Maine:
“Put an eyewink down inside your clothes, wish, and you’ll get your wish.” [4]
10. Yet Another Wish
Finally, here is another wishing charm for eyelashes. This comes from Massachusetts:
“Put an eyewinker on the back of the hand, know that hand with the other so as to throw the eyewink over the shoulder, and at the same time wish. If the eyewink is not seen again, the wish will come true.” [4]
Sources:
1. Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World
A Comprehensive Library of Human Belief and Practice in the Mysteries of Life · Volume 1. Cora Linn Daniels. 1903.
2. The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. Steve Roud. 2006.
3. Kentucky Superstitions. Daniel Lindsey Thomas and Lucy Blayney Thomas. 1920.
4. Current Superstitions. William Wells Newell. 1896.
