Superstitions of German-Russians, List of

Last Update 31 Oct  2002

Stories of Supernatural and Witchcraft told by German-Russians, their Ancestors and their Descendants continued....

Superstitions Connected To Numbers

A person must remember first and foremost that numbers were in the beginning symbols which were only in the literal sense first understood and then became numerical in their meanings. Back before there was believed by so many that there was but one God, there were many gods, and in order to understand our universe certain "things" needed a symbol.  It appears that astrology which was refined by shamans, witch doctors, merlins, druids and other "guardians of the unknown" gave certain symbols to the moon, planets, stars [for directional purpose], days, weeks, months and finally seasons which proved to work into a year, then two than thousands of years....  These years had seasons such as winter, spring, summer and fall..... And, it seemed that people held certain characteristics when born ......  The Chinese thought in terms of animals such as a monkey, dog, tiger or dragon.  Many of today know we were born in the year of the horse or wear rubies to indicate our birth month is July under the sign of the crab.....  All these days, weeks, months and years needed symbols.  Of course,  even the common man needed numbers in order to count the number of goats they and their neighbors owned.....  Numbers from no number to 10 was easy.  If we had ten fingers,  we could add and subtract with our fingers....  Women figured out their own monthly calendar because of their menstrual cycles...  So, twenty-eight days could be shown on a string with twenty-eight knots..... Through time each group of people used different symbols or used items such as beads for counting.

As time continued and humans thought about such things as numbers and what they had to do with their lives,  they discovered certain things.  They thought there were seven planets which people came to accept as:  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, Sun and Moon.  This was seven.  And, these planets must have something important reason for being. So, not knowing exactly what, humans gave them more than names,  they gave reasons why they exists, and, how they influence or lives each day. For people to understand stories told gave names of gods attached to each planet.  To prove there was a great importance, man discovered there were seven days of creation, seven seas, seven heavens, seven graces, seven sins, seven seasons in a humans development [pre-birth to life after death].... To add to this they discovered there were seven metals so humans attached these metals to the planets. They were:

• Sun - gold
• Moon - silver
• Mercury -quicksilver
• Venus - cooper
• Mars - iron
• Jupiter - tin
• Saturn - lead

The bible seem to run away with the number seven and holds everything from the lamb with seven eyes to seven gifts of the spirits:  wisdom, understanding, counsel, power of fortitude, righteousness, fear of God and knowledge.  The seven seventh son of the seventh son superstitions was used long before it was mentioned in the bible.  Hebrew and Egyptians had already sported the luck of seven so what could be luckier than the seventh son of the seventh son?  

The following are various superstitions linked with each number that touched the lives of our German-Russians by 1800 to 1900. Those in italic were associated with the Christian churches' theological symbolic numbers...

O

• "O" refers to a non-number or meaning there is nothing to count
• "O" or zero is also known by the slang of "zip" which has it's own interesting history.  It appears when the Austrian family of Hapsburg took control of the area of Hungary,  the ruler John II was from the family of ZIP, and, to downgrade and make this family look less in the eyes of the people,  it was said that ZIP meant nothing, zero, zilch.... The term continues hundred of years later.....  This reminds me of the story of the Dufuss family who's one family member build his castle on land fill and when the ground settled the castle crumbled and fell.  The neighbors, who didn't think this Dufuss was very smart, and in time the word dufuss became a word meaning a man who wasn't very bright.  Same kind of situation accept one was driven by politics and the other by lack of knowledge of construction.
• It wasn't the circle that created the meaning of nothing,  it was, in fact, the very circle of life which suggested no beginning and no end

1

• The unity of God
• Refers to one, yourself
• Number of leadership, creative power and just cause

2

• The union of man, son of God, and God
• Two was unlucky for Pluto and proved unlucky for Harold II who was slain, Henry II who had to fight for a crown that was his, Edward II was murdered, Richard II was murdered, and so it goes with other rulers who's name carried the "II"  [the second].
• Number of light, friendship and courage

3

• The Trinity:  The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost
• Perhaps the crooked line which created the number 3 differed from the number 3 in the number 13 because 3 was more often than not viewed as the perfect number for it created a beginning, a middle and and end
• The various gods seem to always have something that was made up with something that had three.  Jupiter (heaven), Neptune (sea) and Pluto (Hades, Hell] ruled the world.  Jove had a three-forked lightning.  Neptune had a trident.  Pluto had a three-headed dog.  Nature held it's three groups of mineral, vegetable and animal.  There are three basic colors which are red, yellow and blue.  Man is ruled by the world [nature], flesh [body] and soul [God's or the Devil's which is eternal fire or nothingness].  
• The only number more perfect than 3 is 9 which is 3 times 3.
• According to the bible it was three kings who followed the star to find the new born baby, Jesus
• If a person is "Three Sheets" to the wind it means a person is unsteady from too much booze.
• The magical pyramid or triangle is three sided and considered a sign of great power and "good luck"
• If the triangle is upside down, all the "good luck" drains away through the point and evil can enter
• Number of creation and perfection
• Number of time:  past, present, future  

4

• The number of the Evangelists
• Four letters which holds the name of God, known as "tetrgrammation": one being  the German word, Gott....
• Number four is the coming together:  heaven and earth, directions [north, east, south and west], seasons, which hold the four elements [dryness, wetness, cold and heat]

5

• The number of wounds created by the Romans' nails and spear which pierced Christ's body [two in the hands, two in the feet, one in the side
• Mystic number that holds the even number of 2 [diversity] and uneven number of 3 [unity and diversity] making it a compound unit
• Five points or a bunch of fives, such as five fingers,  one hand, handful, to shake a hand, one hand was one load in a barrow or cart..., hand of justice....
• A line drawn to five points which are of equal distance apart draws a star and represents man's five senses and gives good luck to it's bearer
• A star with it's two points raised upward represents the Devil
• Number five is in the middle of ten and therefore the union of male and female

6

• God created six days of the week [7th was the day of the Sabbath,  the day of rest]
• One hand plus one finger created the number found on dice, the highest number that could be made on a cube....

7

• The gifts of the Holy Ghost
• Took God six days to create heaven and earth and the 7th day he rested
• Represents "mystery of time"
• A man's house sybolicaly was the number 7 created by the roof [three sided triangle] above a square or rectangle [four sided].  It didn't have anything to so with how homes were built but the symbol created so long ago no one is where who first made this the form.  Some think the number three and four combined came the total of seven which had already taken up the glory of being the the supreme number.
• Lucky seven on a dice
• There are seven sacred books:
  1. Bible - Christian who had seven champions; seven deadly sins, seven virtues, seven spirits, seven ...
  2. Eddas - Scandinavian
  3. The Five Kings -Chinese
  4. The Koran -Mohammedans
  5. Tri Pitikes  - Buddhists
  6. The Three Vedas - Hindus
  7. Zendavesta -Persian
• Number seven holds the secret power of knowledge and/or  magic

8

• The number of the beatitudes
• Number eight represents the balance of justice and follows seven

9

• The nine orders of angels
• A mystic number along with five and three and considered "completion"
• A cat has nine lives
• Diamond has nine points if perfect
• There are nine crosses:
  1. altar crosses
  2. processional crosses
  3. roods ou lofts
  4. reliquary crosses
  5. consecration crosses
  6. marking crosses
  7. pectoral crosses
  8. spire crosses
  9. crosses pendant over alter
• Nine order of angels
• To some it is the perfect number, to others it is one short of ten, not complete

10

• The Ten Commandments
• Ten fingers, two hands....  being complete

11

• There were eleven faithful apostles
• Number eleven communicates with the world [next to ten; world] and falls short of twelve

12

• The original college
• Christ and his disciples were the perfect association
• Number  twelve represents perfection

13

• The final number after the conversion of Paul.
• Egyptians thought it interesting that there were 13 moons which showed themselves each year, today, we call them the lunar months: Harvests Moon, Fruit Moon ...... to name two. There is a natural phenomena which occurs and this rare event is the appearance of the "Blue Moon" which occurs in place of the usual 13th lunar moon.  For various reasons the upper atmosphere makes this 13th lunar moon appear "blue"  or "green".  Since Blue was the favorite color of the Egyptians, who had discovered the 13 months, "Blue Moon" was the name given which left green out.... Hindus had found disfavor in this number 13 which was given the gender of a female in their culture since it was an odd number of which all were female.  Early Orientals and Persians also believed numbers were either masculine or feminine.... Why the 13 th  female became unlucky is not known but one can imagine.  Perhaps it was an Emperor's 13th wife who corrupted the number...  It is certain, however, the number 13 continued it's unlucky status throughout  time and spread around the world to the Lords  last Supper table with 13 seated around it. In the USA, the number is no longer considered "unlucky" since it was our 13 colonies who gave birth to our great nation.  And we've carried the number 13 throughout our symbols as a nation.  I suspect the reason is very basic.  A straight line meant a true direction which took on the meaning of being straight and true  [honest, truthful] and a crooked line, which 3 has, indicated untrue  [dishonest, unfaithful].  One could trust a straight line but one could not a crooked line.  A number of Americans never lost their dislike for 13, it should be noted, the belief was too deeply rooted to change...A coppermouth snake  or rattlesnake created a crooked line in the sand.... and their venom killed the non-believers and those who believed.... 

• Christians call a group of 13 the "devil's dozen" referring, again, to the 13 men seated at the Lords Supper.  The 12 were the good and the 13th was the traitor, Judas. The following are other superstitions our German-Russians ancestors seem to be aware:
  • If 13 are seated at a table this foretold one of the 13 would die within the year; to reverse this,  all must join hands and raise them at the same time and the superstitious will live another year.