What are some American superstitions unique to America?
March 22, 2026
Just as the title says
45 comments
I’m not sure cus I don’t leave the country much lol. Im only a lil stitious anyways
I don’t know if this is uniquely American, but I realized just the other day that I still avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks… I remember as a kid we had a rhyme like “don’t step on a crack, or you’ll break your momma’s back!”. Wild and I don’t know how it came to be, but I just remembered it when I saw this post.
I’m not quite sure if we would know that, because we are American we don’t know what other countries believe.
Here’s one though. If you’re alone in the forest and you hear somebody call your name in a familiar voice…no you didn’t. That’s not a human.
That’s a tough question because we’re a country of immigrants.
You might look into American indigenous superstitions
Idk if it’s unique to America, but I’ve heard it’s not good to whistle while walking by a cemetery otherwise the spirits will follow you home
I’m just gonna list superstitions and you can tell me if you think they’re uniquely American. I’ve only lived in America, so I don’t know.
If a woman has a lot of heartburn during pregnancy, the baby will be born with a lot of hair.
If a woman eats a lot of sweets during pregnancy, it’s a girl. Savory/salty, it’s a boy.
Breaking a mirror is bad luck.
If a Friday is the 13th of the month, it’s an unlucky day.
I dunno that’s all I’ve got at the moment
Maybe splitting a pole when ur walking next to someone?
Pretty sure wendigos and skinwalkers are uniquely (North) American
Finding a penny heads up on the ground and putting it in your pocket for good luck. This could be a UK thing too but I think of the copper Abe Lincoln coin.
I’m an American living in Canada. I only recently discovered that “Beginner’s Luck” is not a thing here. It’s the idea that someone doing something for the first time is not only unlikely to incur a penalty due to being a novice but is actually more likely to succeed than even experienced people.
The number 13 being unlucky isn’t really a unique superstition. But we take it to the next level in the US because most of our buildings don’t have a 13th floor. They usually skip from 12 to 14.
Clicking the tongs at least twice before grilling.
It appeases the grill gods and you will be rewarded with a perfectly grilled steak!
Forget to do that….you will end up with something as tough as shoe leather.
We take our grilling serious 😁
I feel like we consider the end of the world much more than other countries
Ground hogs day is just an American thing
There’s something called the Jersey Devil.
That one red eyed blue horse
Giving poor people assistance will bring the antichrist.
Don’t eat cherries and milk on a hot day. You’ll get food poisoning and die.
It happened to President Zachary Taylor, so you know it’s true.
(He probably got cholera from sewage backup at the White House. Also he was exhumed and tested for arsenic poisoning around 1990. He wasn’t.)
Splitting the pole is bad luck.
If I’m walking with someone and an object gets in the way, I’ll follow behind them so we’re not splitting the pole.
Also, when you spill salt, you throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder.
Again, squonk. No other part of the world besides the US has a squonk or a rock surfer That I have heard about or read about.
Did we invent “celebrity deaths come in threes”?
Bloody Mary
Say her name three times in the mirror and she’s supposed to come out and kill you. Everyone did this at sleepovers growing up, I have memories of being really creeped out by it lol.
Walking under a ladder is bad luck. Also when a black cat blocks your path.
Here in Pennsylvania we use rodents to predict the weather 😆
Here on the Central Coast of California we have legends of the Dark Watchers, figures 10 feet tall wearing wide brimmed hats and capes. Travelers along the Santa Lucia mountains near Big Sur would feel a sensation of being watched, and see these figures seemingly observing their travels from a distance then disappear if approached.
A lot of people go missing in those mountains for how sparsely populated it is. People go in the woods and are never seen again for whatever reason. Big Sur is a beautiful place in the daytime, but it takes a different kind of person to stay after dark.
Baseball: When you have a hitting streak, you don’t take a shower or change your underwear….
Idk, but I can definitely tell you some Norwegian superstitions unique to America.
This may be regional to the American South: don’t sweep over someone’s shoes/feet when you’re sweeping the floor. You can cure this bad luck by spitting on the broom.
If you work really hard, you can become super rich and maybe even be president.
One I haven’t read here yet is that if a pregnant woman walks into a fruit orchard, the fruit will die. I do not know if this is regional to the south, but I was warned to not walk into the orchard. So, I did. And the fruit didn’t die. 🙂
Don’t step on the crack, you’ll break ya mothers back; don’t step on the line, you’ll break your mother’s spine
When you’re driving alone at night, especially on a lonesome road, put a purse or a bag or something in the seat next to you. Otherwise something may decide to ride with you, and you don’t want that.
If you get a creepy feeling that something’s in the (previously empty) back seat of the car, don’t look. They aren’t fond of that.
Red eyes on the side of the road may or may not be a varmint, but either way, don’t stop to figure it out.
Every once in a while, you’ll hear a tale from a friend about someone they knew who stopped at a gas station that was long abandoned the next time they drove by that way.
Look, we have a lot of wilderness, and we also have long, lonely stretches of road going through the wilderness. You hear stories. Especially from long haul truckers, they see some wild-ass shit. I still don’t believe the one about the Mercedes using its turn signal, though.
I have no idea if these are uniquely American, but here are some I’ve learned over the years:
When going through a yellow light at an intersection, kiss the roof by kissing your knuckles and touching them to the interior roof. This is for good luck.
When going over train tracks, lift up your feet for good luck. I even make a wish. I always alert other riders in the car when approaching railroad tracks.
Never set your purse on the floor. You’re cursing your own finances.
Hold your breath when you go past a graveyard. So that the dead don’t sense you breathing, and you can pass quickly and safely.
Hold your breath when going through tunnels. This is for good luck.
Also, my grandfather told us grandkids that hay bales move when you’re not looking when they’re out in the field. So we used to always watch them very closely and then test them by quickly turning our heads and then turning them back to see if they’d moved. I know this has nothing to do with superstitions, but I remembered it as I was making this list.
In baseball, if a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter (which is a very rare thing) his teammates and coaches do NOT mention it.
The superstition is that it will jinx it and he will give up a hit.
Lifting your feet off the floor of your car when you drive over a cow catcher.
Read up on The Bunnyman if you never want to sleep again
Native American?
If yes, then here’s a few that I know of but won’t always cary over to my brother and sister Tribes:
Don’t whistle at nightfall.
Only answer the door at nightfall if you know who and what you’re inviting in.
Don’t let non-Natives touch your hair.
Don’t directly point at someone or something.
If you steal something, it’ll haunt you.
If something if gifted to you, then it retains its properties from that person.
Don’t go into the woods alone at nightfall.
Don’t call into the night and don’t answer back unless you know for sure that person is who you think they are.
Don’t look at animals in the eyes at nightfall.
Don’t say a person’s name if they passed recently.
If something calls out to you at nightfall, don’t go towards it.
Close the curtains and lock the doors at nightfall.
Things travel faster and with more ease at nightfall, from the voices calling out for you to the screams crying out for someone to help or a way to try to play to your senses.
I feel like rally caps at baseball games might be uniquely American
In Massachusetts we have the Bridgewater Triangle (which I live in) and we have Pukwudgies. … What’s a Pukwudgie, you ask?
Oh, nothing. Just your average 2- or 3-foot half-troll, half-human with smooth gray skin and a back full of porcupine quills, who can glow, create fire at will, has poison arrows and who can disappear. Watch out, because Pukwudgies have been known to lure humans to their deaths.
No I have not seen one in my 49 years.
I’m confused what were are calling “superstitions” based of these comments. A lot of people are saying folklore and mythical creatures.
Idk which ones are only native to the US but some:
– “Knock on wood” to prevent bad things you’ve manifested by speaking them.
– When walking side by side with someone, you don’t “split the pole”
– When traveling to another state, you lift your feet briefly off the ground as you cross the state borders.
Rougarou
Don’t whistle ( especially at night or near woods), Haint blue porches, pulling apart the wish bones and making a wish. Don’t let your purse touch the ground, don’t make eye contact with the woods at night, and I’m sure there’s more I can’t think of.
In poker, aces over eights. Dead Man’s hand. What Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he got shot in the head.
This may be region-specific but children wearing pajamas inside out and backwards the night before a snowstorm in hopes that school will be canceled the next day
Put 13 coins on the ground at the threshold of your front door. The Rougarou can only count to 12.
45 comments
I’m not sure cus I don’t leave the country much lol. Im only a lil stitious anyways
I don’t know if this is uniquely American, but I realized just the other day that I still avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks… I remember as a kid we had a rhyme like “don’t step on a crack, or you’ll break your momma’s back!”. Wild and I don’t know how it came to be, but I just remembered it when I saw this post.
I’m not quite sure if we would know that, because we are American we don’t know what other countries believe.
Here’s one though. If you’re alone in the forest and you hear somebody call your name in a familiar voice…no you didn’t. That’s not a human.
That’s a tough question because we’re a country of immigrants.
You might look into American indigenous superstitions
Idk if it’s unique to America, but I’ve heard it’s not good to whistle while walking by a cemetery otherwise the spirits will follow you home
I’m just gonna list superstitions and you can tell me if you think they’re uniquely American. I’ve only lived in America, so I don’t know.
If a woman has a lot of heartburn during pregnancy, the baby will be born with a lot of hair.
If a woman eats a lot of sweets during pregnancy, it’s a girl. Savory/salty, it’s a boy.
Breaking a mirror is bad luck.
If a Friday is the 13th of the month, it’s an unlucky day.
I dunno that’s all I’ve got at the moment
Maybe splitting a pole when ur walking next to someone?
Pretty sure wendigos and skinwalkers are uniquely (North) American
Finding a penny heads up on the ground and putting it in your pocket for good luck. This could be a UK thing too but I think of the copper Abe Lincoln coin.
I’m an American living in Canada. I only recently discovered that “Beginner’s Luck” is not a thing here. It’s the idea that someone doing something for the first time is not only unlikely to incur a penalty due to being a novice but is actually more likely to succeed than even experienced people.
The number 13 being unlucky isn’t really a unique superstition. But we take it to the next level in the US because most of our buildings don’t have a 13th floor. They usually skip from 12 to 14.
Clicking the tongs at least twice before grilling.
It appeases the grill gods and you will be rewarded with a perfectly grilled steak!
Forget to do that….you will end up with something as tough as shoe leather.
We take our grilling serious 😁
I feel like we consider the end of the world much more than other countries
Ground hogs day is just an American thing
There’s something called the Jersey Devil.
That one red eyed blue horse
Giving poor people assistance will bring the antichrist.
Don’t eat cherries and milk on a hot day. You’ll get food poisoning and die.
It happened to President Zachary Taylor, so you know it’s true.
(He probably got cholera from sewage backup at the White House. Also he was exhumed and tested for arsenic poisoning around 1990. He wasn’t.)
Splitting the pole is bad luck.
If I’m walking with someone and an object gets in the way, I’ll follow behind them so we’re not splitting the pole.
Also, when you spill salt, you throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder.
Again, squonk. No other part of the world besides the US has a squonk or a rock surfer That I have heard about or read about.
Did we invent “celebrity deaths come in threes”?
Bloody Mary
Say her name three times in the mirror and she’s supposed to come out and kill you. Everyone did this at sleepovers growing up, I have memories of being really creeped out by it lol.
Walking under a ladder is bad luck. Also when a black cat blocks your path.
Here in Pennsylvania we use rodents to predict the weather 😆
Here on the Central Coast of California we have legends of the Dark Watchers, figures 10 feet tall wearing wide brimmed hats and capes. Travelers along the Santa Lucia mountains near Big Sur would feel a sensation of being watched, and see these figures seemingly observing their travels from a distance then disappear if approached.
A lot of people go missing in those mountains for how sparsely populated it is. People go in the woods and are never seen again for whatever reason. Big Sur is a beautiful place in the daytime, but it takes a different kind of person to stay after dark.
Baseball: When you have a hitting streak, you don’t take a shower or change your underwear….
[Haint Blue ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haint_blue)(obviously has African roots, but it is accredited to Gullah Geechee).
Idk, but I can definitely tell you some Norwegian superstitions unique to America.
This may be regional to the American South: don’t sweep over someone’s shoes/feet when you’re sweeping the floor. You can cure this bad luck by spitting on the broom.
If you work really hard, you can become super rich and maybe even be president.
One I haven’t read here yet is that if a pregnant woman walks into a fruit orchard, the fruit will die. I do not know if this is regional to the south, but I was warned to not walk into the orchard. So, I did. And the fruit didn’t die. 🙂
Don’t step on the crack, you’ll break ya mothers back; don’t step on the line, you’ll break your mother’s spine
When you’re driving alone at night, especially on a lonesome road, put a purse or a bag or something in the seat next to you. Otherwise something may decide to ride with you, and you don’t want that.
If you get a creepy feeling that something’s in the (previously empty) back seat of the car, don’t look. They aren’t fond of that.
Red eyes on the side of the road may or may not be a varmint, but either way, don’t stop to figure it out.
Every once in a while, you’ll hear a tale from a friend about someone they knew who stopped at a gas station that was long abandoned the next time they drove by that way.
Look, we have a lot of wilderness, and we also have long, lonely stretches of road going through the wilderness. You hear stories. Especially from long haul truckers, they see some wild-ass shit. I still don’t believe the one about the Mercedes using its turn signal, though.
I have no idea if these are uniquely American, but here are some I’ve learned over the years:
When going through a yellow light at an intersection, kiss the roof by kissing your knuckles and touching them to the interior roof. This is for good luck.
When going over train tracks, lift up your feet for good luck. I even make a wish. I always alert other riders in the car when approaching railroad tracks.
Never set your purse on the floor. You’re cursing your own finances.
Hold your breath when you go past a graveyard. So that the dead don’t sense you breathing, and you can pass quickly and safely.
Hold your breath when going through tunnels. This is for good luck.
Also, my grandfather told us grandkids that hay bales move when you’re not looking when they’re out in the field. So we used to always watch them very closely and then test them by quickly turning our heads and then turning them back to see if they’d moved. I know this has nothing to do with superstitions, but I remembered it as I was making this list.
In baseball, if a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter (which is a very rare thing) his teammates and coaches do NOT mention it.
The superstition is that it will jinx it and he will give up a hit.
Lifting your feet off the floor of your car when you drive over a cow catcher.
Read up on The Bunnyman if you never want to sleep again
Native American?
If yes, then here’s a few that I know of but won’t always cary over to my brother and sister Tribes:
Don’t whistle at nightfall.
Only answer the door at nightfall if you know who and what you’re inviting in.
Don’t let non-Natives touch your hair.
Don’t directly point at someone or something.
If you steal something, it’ll haunt you.
If something if gifted to you, then it retains its properties from that person.
Don’t go into the woods alone at nightfall.
Don’t call into the night and don’t answer back unless you know for sure that person is who you think they are.
Don’t look at animals in the eyes at nightfall.
Don’t say a person’s name if they passed recently.
If something calls out to you at nightfall, don’t go towards it.
Close the curtains and lock the doors at nightfall.
Things travel faster and with more ease at nightfall, from the voices calling out for you to the screams crying out for someone to help or a way to try to play to your senses.
I feel like rally caps at baseball games might be uniquely American
In Massachusetts we have the Bridgewater Triangle (which I live in) and we have Pukwudgies. … What’s a Pukwudgie, you ask?
Oh, nothing. Just your average 2- or 3-foot half-troll, half-human with smooth gray skin and a back full of porcupine quills, who can glow, create fire at will, has poison arrows and who can disappear. Watch out, because Pukwudgies have been known to lure humans to their deaths.
No I have not seen one in my 49 years.
I’m confused what were are calling “superstitions” based of these comments. A lot of people are saying folklore and mythical creatures.
Idk which ones are only native to the US but some:
– “Knock on wood” to prevent bad things you’ve manifested by speaking them.
– When walking side by side with someone, you don’t “split the pole”
– When traveling to another state, you lift your feet briefly off the ground as you cross the state borders.
Rougarou
Don’t whistle ( especially at night or near woods), Haint blue porches, pulling apart the wish bones and making a wish. Don’t let your purse touch the ground, don’t make eye contact with the woods at night, and I’m sure there’s more I can’t think of.
In poker, aces over eights. Dead Man’s hand. What Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he got shot in the head.
This may be region-specific but children wearing pajamas inside out and backwards the night before a snowstorm in hopes that school will be canceled the next day
Put 13 coins on the ground at the threshold of your front door. The Rougarou can only count to 12.