Your bed is your comfort zone. It is where you sleep, relax, get inspirations for fantastical ideas, and where you snuggle up to someone close. It is no surprise then that there are so many different superstitions about the bed. Some are nice superstitions and some are rather creepy. Here are 10 of the most unsettling superstitions I could find.
Naming Bed Posts
To find out who is the right lover for you, name each bedpost at night before going to sleep. In the morning, the bedpost that you are touching is the lover you should choose. If you are not touching any bedposts in the morning, choose four different names the next time you go to bed.
Look Better in the Morning
In East Anglia it was believed that if you want to wake up in the morning looking pretty, you should only make your bed right before you get into bed.
Birthday
Avoid going under or reaching under your bed on your birthday. They say if you do, you will be dead before your next birthday.
First In, First Out
On your wedding night, don’t be the first one to get into bed. Superstition says that the first person to get into bed on the wedding night will also be the first one to die.
Who Makes the Bed
Only one person should ever make the bed. If two people make the bed together, they will soon quarrel. If three people make the bed together, one of them will soon die.
Bed Bugs
To make sure you never get bed bugs, you are supposed to change your bed sheets when the moon is dark (dark moon).
Sleepless Night
When you start to make your bed, don’t let anything interrupt you from completing the task. Otherwise, you will have a sleepless night. Leaning the broom against the bed is also unlucky.
Axe
An axe was placed under the bed, blade up, for two main reasons. The first was to cut through childbirth pains when a woman was in labor. The second reason why people would place an axe under the bed was to cut through a fever.
Sweeping Under the Bed
Never sweep up under the bed when someone is on it. It brings you both bad luck and, if someone is sleeping on the bed, you could sweep away their dreams.
Bed Impression
After getting up out of bed, you must remove any body impressions left behind on the mattress. To leave your impression there invites the Devil to lie in wait for your return at night.
Sources:
Carroll, William. Superstitions: 10,000 You Really Need. San Marcos, Calif.: Coda Publications, 1998. Print.
Roud, S. (2003). The Penguin guide to the superstitions of Britain and Ireland. London: Penguin.
Thomas, Daniel Lindsey, and Lucy Blayney Thomas. Kentucky Superstitions. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1920. Print.
