The world is full of shiver omens and superstitions, and all of them involve bad luck or death.
1. Shivery Feeling
“If you have a creepy, shivery feeling without apparent cause, it is a sign of bad news or trouble of some kind.” [1]
2. A Shiver in Summer
“If a person shivers in summer or beside a roaring fire, the Welsh say: ‘The spirits are searching for your grave.'” [1]
3. Not Ready for Death
“When an Albanian is seized with a sudden shiver, he thinks Death is calling for him, and he mentally replies, ‘I am not yet ready!'” [1]
4. Shivering Horse
“In Bohemia the chief signs of bewitchment in a horse are thought to be shivering, profuse sweating, and emaciation. A charm against this consists in drawing one’s shirt inside out over one’s head, and using it as a wherewithal to groom the animal, a method which may be acceptable to superstitious jockeys and hostlers, but which will hardly commend itself to a fastidious horse owner.” [2]
5. The Shivering Sacrifice
From out of India, we learn:
“In many villages, during the festival to the village deity, water is poured over a sheep’s back, and it is accepted as a good sign if it shivers. When the people are economical, they keep on pouring water until it does shiver, to avoid the expense of providing a second victim for sacrifice. But, where they are more scrupulous, if it does not shiver, it is taken as a sign that the goddess will not accept it, and it is taken away.” [3]
6. Walking Over Your Grave
Radford tells use that:
“In England, it is commonly said that someone is walking over his grave, that is, over the place where his grave will one day be.” [4]
7. Rabbit Hop
A similar superstitions from North Carolina tells us that when a person shivers it means a rabbit has just hopped over their future gravesite. [5]
8. St. Agnes Eve Fever Charm
The following charm was used as a cure for fever (ague).
The charm was spoken up the chimney by the eldest female of the family, on St. Agnes Eve. It ran thus:
Tremble and go!
First day shiver and burn:
Tremble and quake!
Second day shiver and learn:
Tremble and die!
Third day never return. [6]
Sources:
1. Encyclopedia of superstitions, folklore, and the occult sciences of the world. Cora Linn Daniels. 1903.
2. The Magic of the Horse-Shoe With Other Folk-Lore Notes. Robert Means Lawrence. 1898.
3. Omens and Superstitions of Southern India. Edgar Thurston. 1912.
4. The Encyclopedia of Superstitions. Edwin Radford and Mona Augusta Radford. 1947.
5. Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina. Volume 4874, Issue 8569. Wayland Hand. 1964.
6. On Superstitions Connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery. Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. 1844.
