Do you have friends who are ridiculously superstitious over various things in your home?

No. I can’t think of one. But, I don’t think I have anything that might spark that sort of reaction.

We live in the country, and we’re critter-rich. A very large—must have been at least seven feet long—rat snake (not rattlesnake) shed its skin in a tree on our property. For days, I thought some plastic thingy-do was waving in the wind, and when I finally climbed a ladder to retrieve it, I found this perfectly intact snakeskin—you can see the outline of every scale, etc. I think it is beautiful. Well, I’ve displayed it in several rooms in my home, but it completely freaks out too many people, so I’ve had to hide it now.

Not a superstition, per se, but the general phobia of snakes that many have apparently extends to the lifeless skin as well.

Yes…quite a bit it seems. My wife teaches Yoga out of our house and she has all the do-dads that go hand in hand with Yoga and some people not familiar with Yoga, seem really taken aback by the symbolism of that age old practice. The way they react you would think we were dragon worshipers or something! ;)

If people are freaked out by stuff i have its just good old fashioned heebie-jeebies as far as I can tell. I’ve got a bat in a jar that creeps some people out. I’m just sad that it’s shedding it’s coat into the formaldehyde :(

On the other hand when I was growing up my dad had a few things that I know incited superstitous disapproval in some of the family. The oldest was a big lamp whose base was a large ceramic owl with glass eyes and a chip on it’s beak. It looked kinda like this, but painted. I think it was his grandfather’s. It was very 60’s and far as I’m concerned it’s the coolest thing he owns. My maternal grandmother loathed it. Apparently she thinks owls are aligned with the devil. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

He also like to collect Native American art which made my mom super uncomfortable. Mostly it was Kachina dolls, but he had a bunch of stone animal fetishes and an expensive fetish pot covered in turquoise shards. Mom thought they were heathen idols and she would only let him keep them in his office as she knew keeping graven images was a direct violation of the Ten Commandments. I don’t think that bothered him since even after they divorced he always kept his Indian stuff in his home office. Anyways mom took it out on the fetish pot when my parents split up. She smashed the heathen thing to bits. I’m not sure how much of it was broken-hearted rage and how much was religious purging. A little of both I’m sure. It’s the only time I’ve known her to break something on purpose.

My grandparents’ ashes. It’s not really a superstition thing, but, I have two heart shaped, sealed urns that contain my grandparents’ cremains. The urns freak my husband out, and several friends (after they ask what they are – or worse – pick them up and shake them), so I had to put them away.

@fundevogel I think that during the Inquisitions and witch hunts and shit, the Devil was said to appear to people as several types of animals, and an owl was one of them. (incidentally, the goat wasn’t) Denno how far said belief would have come today, but I guess apparently, it might have survived. Also, you have a jarred bat? Sweet, bro.

As for me, nobody feels anything superstitious about things in my place, but I do notice that some people seem put off by all the horror movie stuff I own, like posters and figurines. They don’t say much, but I can tell haha. No, in fact, people are a lot more worried about all the bear traps I have lying around.

@Symbeline I don’t have a problem with the bear traps, but if I see a poster of Justin Bieber or Beyonce, I will run away screaming.

I’m not into that kind of horror.

Well, my house is a little strange. But there are 4 doors that go out to the patio all in a row, and she feels it’s bad luck to go through a different one if everyone goes through each door.

I find it a bit strange, but, who knows. She’s pretty superstitious anyway.

Nobody has ever said anything, so how do I know? I suppose African masks with feathers might make some people a bit upset, but my guests would be too polite to say anything. I have a small , very realistic looking ceramic toad that put one friend off. Too bad. It’s one of my favorite things.

@Symbeline She’s Old World so I could see it coming from something like that. Yep, got a bat in a jar. From just your kind of establishment.