#supersitition

This is a very interesting expression. It literally means “s/he gave her/his life to you.”

And no it doesn’t mean the person has died for you. It’s just a euphemism to say someone has passed away when you are asked what happened to them.

Now why this expression and how it’s a euphemism?

Well, what you really mean by saying this expression is that the person has given the rest of their life that they didn’t get to live to you. That is, you’re implying “I’m wishing you a longer life than theirs.”

There is a very old superstition around death and talking about death that some old people in Iran still believe in subconsciously, and you can only know that from the expressions they use. They think that talking about death may bring it closer to them, like Death is an entity listening in on people’s conversations and evey time someone talks about it, it’s like they have summoned Death to them.

Wear an eel's skin on your leg and you will never have the cramp. -Folk remedy of Durham and Northumberland Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Radford, 1949

Nicolas Nova, sifting through examples of “magical thinking” in technology use:

Obadia also points out that although the concept of “superstition” is rooted in a condescending othering of “backward“ or non-Western modes of thinking, it does not mean it should be abandoned.

Examining these examples in a pragmatic way, it appears people will sometimes ascribe agency to devices when they have difficulty understanding how those devices work. And this agency giving is part of a domestication process of technology. (Sometimes, Nova argues, people’s ignorance is maintained on purpose, and “magic” is used as part of marketing discourse.)

The Macbeths that went wrong.

We all know the stories of productions of 'the Scottish Play' where things have gone awry. Even our own Access Manager, David Bellwood recalls a time in his past life as a performer when a friend dared to utter the word 'Macbeth' in the theatre and what happened as a consequence.

You might think that it's always been cursed but critic Paul Menzer points out that the history of Macbeth's supposed bad luck is relatively recent with there being no mention of a curse for the first 300 years of the play's history. However, maybe it's incidents like these that follow that have fuelled the flames of superstition.

On 20 August 1671, diarist and 3rd Baronet of Lamport, Thomas Isham,  recorded a fatality at a showing of Macbeth:

It is reported that Harris has killed his associate actor, in a scene on the stage, by accident. It was the tragedy of ‘Macbeth,’ in which Harris performed the part of Macduff, and ought to have slain his fellow-actor, Macbeth; but during the fence it  happened that Macduff pierced Macbeth in the eye, by which thrust he fell lifeless, and could not bring out the last words of his part. 

In 1688, the dramatic  biographer and critic, Gerard Langbaine witnessed another Macbeth that didn’t go to plan:

At the Acting of this Tragedy, on the Stage, I saw a real one acted in the Pit; I mean the Death of Mr. Scroop, who received his death’s wound from the late Sir Thomas Armstrong, and died presently after he was remov’d to a House opposite to the Theatre in Dorset-Garden.

And finally actor Frank Benson recalls a performance in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1900  where ‘everything went wrong’, from drunken actors to prop mishaps, lighting errors, and mistimed curtains.

We'll find out the truth about curses from 7 November when Macbeth opens in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.