There are many ways one can avoid bad luck. You should always knock on wood, if you spill salt, throw it over your shoulder, and avoid ladders and black cats at all costs. You are also better off staying at home on Friday the 13th and while you’re there, do not open an umbrella, put shoes on a table, or go near any mirrors in the house. According to lore, that, plus a lucky penny and an evil eye amulet, should save you from any misfortune.
Unfortunately, the people on this list must have done all of those on the same day as they could not avoid their unlucky fate. Luckily for us, someone captured their calamities and shared them on the “Images that are unfortunate events” Facebook group so we can all have a good chuckle. And, also, feel better about our days. After all, life seems pretty good when you look at these images, right?
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But what’s up with all these superstitions? Why are we afraid of black cats and not red or blue ones? Unsurprisingly, it all somehow ends up being related to religion. You see, back in the day, cats were considered divine symbols by Egyptians. They would also appear in Greek mythology alongside Hecate, the goddess of magic, sorcery, the moon, and witchcraft.
In other words, pagans loved them. And what pagans loved was a big no-no to the Christian church. Add to the fact that cats tend to be independent and not listen to authority, which is another thing the Christian church hates, and everything starts falling into place.
1st place is "Essence of Dog." Its what you get when you take away all the non-essentials and are left with basic Dogginess, which is a goofy smile.
Suddenly, the fact that in the 13th century, the church declared that black cats were incarnations of Satan is not that surprising. You also start to understand why people would want to avoid them—whether they were scared of the evil spirits or the possible persecution.
Supposedly, another superstition that was born out of Christians wanting to oppose pagans at all costs was the number 13. The thing is that, for ages, this number was related to the menstrual cycle and feminine power. It was believed to be connected to goddesses of fertility, love, and motherhood.
Dearest auntie has been planning this for years, making you confident i'd be chocolate.
Women's empowerment, though, wasn’t really a Christian thing. So, wanting to get rid of all that nonsense, they labeled the goddesses witches and made sure that the number was associated with the evil spirits. This was all turned around in the 21st century, of course, when Taylor Swift swooped in and gave the feminine power back to the number 13.
I shouldn't laugh, but I can't stop. He makes me think of Wile E. Coyote.
Surprisingly or not, walking under a ladder is also related to religion. You see, when a ladder is propped up against the wall, the space underneath makes a triangle. In Christian faith, a triangle represents the holy trinity. So, walking through it means “disrupting” it, which was considered blasphemous.
Egyptians, apparently, were also not so stoked about walking under ladders. That is because they would leave them in tombs for the dead to be able to climb to the afterlife. The space under the ladder, though, was thought to be the home of all sorts of good and bad spirits. Walking through that space would disturb and anger them, which it was believed would lead to really bad consequences.
Which type of fire extinguisher are you supposed to use to extinguish a fire extinguisher?
I realise this isn’t the point of this image, but…what’s going on with the woman’s face? I mean, where is it?
Weirdly enough, Egyptians might be the reason for why some consider opening an umbrella inside an unlucky thing to do. See, Egyptians used to use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun, and they believed that using one inside would anger the sun deity Ra. Umbrellas were also a luxury reserved for royalty only, so if you are not of noble blood, stepping into the shade provided by an umbrella was simply a sacrilegious thing to do.
Archery bruises are the absolute WORST. I got one that lasted for three weeks and I still have scar from where it clipped me
I used to do archery at camp every summer and even with the arm guard I always had bruises from the bow string.
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There was a heartbreaking moment at the Olympics where a woman was lining up her shot in the archery and her bow snapped at the last moment. Can you imagine training for years to qualify for an event and the whole thing disappearing in an instant like that.
Where the world is his bracer? We had archery club in secondary school and one of the guys thought it would be fun to lop his bow and not wear an arm guard. Whelp, the arrow snapped and half of it almost lodged in his arm. Archery club was canceled for the remainder of the year after that...
While others fired arrows and threw spears, this man decided to punch the bush into submission!
Happened to a teammate of mine a number of years back when I was competing for my university. His 60lb longbow shattered in training and scared the rest of us absolutely s-tless.
The whole dumping gatorade thing is dumb IMO. Big waste of perfectly good sports drink.
Still, it’s very unlikely that such a minor superstition managed to survive such a long time. So, it is more likely that we avoid opening up umbrellas inside simply because it used to be quite a complicated contraption. Opening it up in a tight space could lead to injuries or broken items, so it was best to avoid it.
I feel there's an interesting story behind this picture
All in all, superstitions might be a silly thing. They seem to be based in people’s need to control others and there’s really no proof out there that they work at all. So, feel free to ditch them! Unfortunately, that will not save you from bad luck and you might still end up on a list like this one in the future. But, you never know, it might help!
And this is why they tell you to keep your hair tied up in shop class. Sorry bro, but that was really dumb. Same reason I yell at my co-workers for wearing wedding rings when they're running the machines. You ever seen a finger get ripped off?
depending on where you look at this picture, you can experience four different moods XD
Nevermind the cheese, what is that brown gunk in with the clean washing??
There's a "why did the chicken *not* cross the road" joke somewhere in this picture.
That's where you should draw a wheelchair up the stairs to not damage the tiles
Note: this post originally had 84 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I really hope the people are okay - some pics looked rather painful and dangerous.
A little background information on the number 13. All those superstitions that came from the church were invented by them to cover up the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday the 13th, October 1307. Pope/King Clement V ordered their arrest, and later execution because mainly because the Knights were very rich from the crusades and Pope Clement had spent too much sending armies to the middle east. Clement wanted the treasure for himself. No Knight broke during torture and gave the location of the hidden treasure. It still has not been found. So, you need not worry about the number 13. Those who did are now long dead.
I really hope the people are okay - some pics looked rather painful and dangerous.
A little background information on the number 13. All those superstitions that came from the church were invented by them to cover up the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday the 13th, October 1307. Pope/King Clement V ordered their arrest, and later execution because mainly because the Knights were very rich from the crusades and Pope Clement had spent too much sending armies to the middle east. Clement wanted the treasure for himself. No Knight broke during torture and gave the location of the hidden treasure. It still has not been found. So, you need not worry about the number 13. Those who did are now long dead.
