AA Gifts & Baskets Idea & Advice Blog

It was snowing. The snow came down in white sheets that went yellow in the street lights. At the end of the boulevard there was a monument to the wall. It was a great block of plain cement. On one side the back end of a big American car from the 1950s stood out in the circle of the street lights. There was a similar tail end coming out on the other side. The cars were covered with snow.

We walked down the boulevard. At one end there was the ruined church and the new church stood next to it. They left it, she said, from the war. She didn’t say, which war, because it was clear and everywhere you went the war was there even if no one spoke abut it.

At the train depot you looked at the names of the stations and that was the war as well but no one spoke about it and it was as if you were in a crowded elevator but no one said anything.

Every day the news was about the wall. There were crowds at the wall and people coming and going, but no one knew what was happening.

I waited with her and she became impatient. We went for a drive. There is no speed limit on the freeways and she drove very fast. She drove fast but other cars went by us in a humming-blur. You heard the hum, like a massive, bloated wasp, angry and determined was coming at you, and then there was the elongated blur of a car going by you.

We are Germans, she said, smiling with wry humor, we don’t know what to do, so we try to do everything perfectly.

We walked in the woods. It was bitterly cold. The ground was frozen. We walked down to a lake and the water was very still and sharply blue. We went to a restaurant that looked over the lake. We drank hot chocolate and spoke about nothing in particular. The waiters were gathering around the television behind the bar.

The next day she was up early, watching the news. She turned from station to station. Then she said, she couldn’t wait any longer and that we should go see it for ourselves.

There were people everywhere and barricades and television crews. On top of the wall, a lone East German guard stood, forlornly, looking at everyone. He was wearing a forest green winter jumpsuit. In his hands he held an automatic rifle. He looked confused.

We walked down the length of the wall. She translated the graffiti. Far down the wall, away from the crowd, we passed two young boys. They had a small pick and they were taking turns hitting the wall. She spoke to them. They laughed and the one with the pick handed it to her and she thanked them.

She hit the wall and the metal echoed in the crisp winter air. She hammered out two pieces of the wall. She smiled and handed the pick back to the boys.

Here, she said, this is for you.

She handed me a piece of the wall.

A gift, she said, from history, to you. 

You never met her or her friends. She made a confession over the phone. They thought you were the dreamy-est thing they’d ever seen. That was exactly how she said it. It was sweet - school-girl sweet, and sincere. They had a photograph - that was all.

What they didn’t know was just how much it meant. How could they?

Like a character in a Springsteen song you’d been down one too many brutal roads and had begun to wonder if there was ever going to be moment where the proverbial light of the next day shone through to illuminate a better time; a better place.

You knew a man who had been out of work for a year. He had a computer file with the places he’d sent his resume.

One thousand and seven, he said, half mystified by the number, half in awe of the reality of it.

You went on interview after interview. They gave you tests. Your favorite was the typing test that asked you to copy as fast as you could a report that said the job market was fraught with uncertainty. It was like the sign on the door to a building that said: please use other door… it made you wonder just what were people thinking, and if they were thinking anything at all.

You were sitting in a bar, with a friend. It was late and a slow evening on a brutally humid day in the middle of a long hot, weary summer. The bartender said he was bored. He pulled out a deck of cards. High card draw wins a free drink, he said. In the background, a television, with the sound turned off, was showing highlights of the day’s baseball games.

Your friend smiled. You said: I never win things like this.

You asked him what happens if you loose.

Nothing, he said, and he smiled.

You looked at the cards splayed out in front of you and you reached for one, stopped, thought better of it, and you chose another.

Your friend went to choose next and, looking at your card, you said: don’t bother, I won.

You were getting dressed to meet someone. You had told them you had a story to share. You put on a clean shirt and felt something in the shirt’s pocket. You smiled as you pulled out two dollars.

You sat together at the table in front of the restaurant. It was late and warm. The sound of cars coming and going in the parking lot just beyond the tables made an echoing hum on the cement.

It became later than it had been and you sat talking about this and that. A man stopped by to ask for money.

I’m trying to get to

Bowie Maryland, he said. You smiled, handed him the two dollars and while he walked away, your friend said you were being foolish. You laughed until you remembered he was the same man who had said the same thing a month before. Well, you said, it’s still funny, the way the luck changes and that’s his karma, not mine.Then there was the phone call. Dreamy, she said. And there was no way she could have known how much that moment of honesty - that gift of honesty - meant.

As you recognize your life to adjust to having a baby, do not forget your own requirement to have some time for yourself, however difficult it may be to schedule. You need private time to be a person in your own right and not only a parent, a homemaker, a spouse, and perhaps an employee.

You need the time to build and maintain the self- esteem that makes you effective in all those roles and effective at being yourself. You need time to exercise, to groom yourself, to read, or to work on a hobby… or to look at sky or water and let your mind wander. Finding this time will probably never be easy for you again, but it will continue to be very important that you do find it. Always look on it not as a luxury or a reward, but as an obligation to yourself.

You won’t always be able to have the hour or more that would do you the most good and be the most enjoyable, but you’ll find that even a few minutes snatched from a busy day will refresh you.  If you are a early riser, at your best in the morning, you may enjoy a few minutes of peace and privacy over a cup of coffee before the rest of the family is awake. Your baby’s daytime naps may give you some precious time. Even later, when you may not feel the need to sleep every time your baby does, nap time should be for you, not for housework.

Evening is a wonderful time for a leisurely bath, even for a good read in a warm tub. And evening is probably also the best time for a quiet hour or two for spouses. As important as it is for each to have some solitary time, it is equally necessary for a married couple to spend at least some time together alone.

Since the dawn of time people have been giving gifts. People in early civilizations gave gifts to their tribal leaders and each other to show loyalty and love. They used bark and wood from the trees, and reeds to fashion unique objects as gifts. Gift giving has always been reciprocal, except for the heads of state in various cultures. They received gifts in order to procure favor and to demonstrate allegiance, a practice still in place today.

The Bible highlights many examples of gift giving. The three wise men brought gifts to the Holy Child. Mary Magdalene washed Jesus’ feet with precious oil as a gift. We are told that if we have a gift to leave at the altar and have a grievance with our brother, that we should resolve the wrong before we give the present.

There are many worldwide gift traditions. In Egypt, idols and pyramids were built to honor the pharaohs. In the medieval age, gifts were given to kings to gain personal favor or allegiance in a war. Most of those gifts were silver and gold and jewels: chalices, medallions, statues, and other articles. Gifts were also given to a beloved one or used as dowries for betrothals, which could include a herd of animals, or precious metals and jewelry.

Today we give gifts for a myriad of reasons. Presents are given at cultural religious occasions and seasons. We give gifts for birthdays, holidays, farewells, good luck, to show love, to say thank you, to welcome, and “just because”. We give presents to family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Our selection of gifts may include jewelry, gift baskets, toys, clothes, gift certificates, and flowers and plants.

Sometimes a gift is intangible. Children give their parents coupons for yard cleanup, dish washing, cleaning the house and other chores they might not ordinarily perform. We give time to our family, friends, and neighbors when they need help. Volunteers donate their energy to various charitable organizations.

Every so often, we give a present only because it is time to give a gift to someone. Sometimes we don’t even want to give a gift, but feel obligated to do so. We struggle over picking out a present that will be appropriate for the occasion. Instead of being a wonderful opportunity to show someone that we care, it becomes a difficult task. Hopefully, no one has this experience very often, if ever.

Receiving a gift is part of the gift-giving process. Giving a gift makes the giver feel good. Making someone else’s life richer rewards the giver with a feeling of achievement and caring, especially if the recipient shows gratitude and appreciation. Many times, this is why we wish to be the gift giver rather than the recipient, but receiving is important in this reciprocal practice of gift giving.

You always hear the stories of receiving gifts that were quite sweet in gesture, but really don’t fit into your lifestyle or tastes. This ranges from the Christmas tree sweater that glows in the dark to the poofy pink taffeta dress you might have worn when you were 7, but not at the age of 27. With every gift, you can always find something worthy to dwell on, even if it is a bit of humor wrapped with a bow.

My father often jokes with me about my affection towards a gift that comes from the Dollar Store. I must admit you can find various quirky additions to any holiday at this inexpensive chain of stores. When money was tight, it was this store that provided the decorations for my entire house and Christmas tree without giving a hint to the amount of money spent. It’s truly amazing what you will find at the Dollar Store, from cleaning supplies to candles to inexpensive alternatives for movie theater treats. Anyhow, for about five years running, my father would question where some of his gifts came from, making references to one of the cheapest places around promising the purchase of almost anything.

This has been a long running joke within my immediate family because I have a history of creating decorative, Dollar Store-themed baskets for the holidays. One year, for my brother, I stuffed his basket with anything to do with his cell phone. He was always losing his adapter to charge his phone, so I bought him two of them. I also included a set of earphones for the car, an extra cell phone case, even an extra battery. All of these items cost a dollar; all of which were used.

As for my father, he has received Dollar Store baskets pertaining to some of the items he often uses. One year, the theme was garden tools. He found delight in telling me how quickly the stem cutters broke when he went to trim a rose bush. The next year, he received a basket filled with cleaning and maintenance supplies for the car. You can never have too much oil, carburetor fluid or car wash supplies. The year after that, I packed a basket full of various tools, such as wrenches, screwdrivers and pliers. I don’t feel bad about these gifts because I know they will eventually get used. For my mother, a basket filled with scented lotions and soaps has brought a smile to her face. I really lucked out when a supply of Oil of Olay eye creams found their way to the Dollar Store.

I have always taken pride in never failing to give a gift on special occasions. It didn’t matter if I had to make a present with my own two hands, but I made sure my loved ones would be opening someone from me on their special day. Over the years, my budget has improved to the point where I no longer have to depend on the Dollar Store for the bulk of my gifts. What started as a way to cope with dreary financial circumstances has now become a welcomed family tradition. 

The word holiday has related but different meanings in English. It was originally a combination of the words holy and day. These days originally represented special religious days. The word holiday has changed to mean any special day of rest, not counting weekends.

The problem of course is that we don’t rest on the Holidays. We spend considerable time looking for gifts or preparing for vacation. Unfortunately, when we went to school they emphasized the Three “R’s”; namely

Reading, Rwriting and ‘Rithmatic. All that training to be diligent and to work hard started us thinking that we should be busy working hard all the time. Now they know better and in schools they emphasize the Four “R’s”; namely

Reading, ‘Rwriting’, ‘Rithmatic’ and my personal favorite ‘Recess’.

Educators now describes the ability to play as one of four signs of a child’s health and well-being, the other three are eating, sleeping, and toileting. At the same time parents, teachers, and health professionals report a steady decline in children’s ability to play. This appears to be the gift that we wee taught in school that we are passing along to our children. Psychologists say that 95% of children are creative. They also say that only 4% of adults are creative. Solving our day to day problems in a creative manner is absolutely critical in today’s high-tech, complex society. This is why time off is so important.

This is also where Holidays become essential. These special days recharge our batteries and let our minds roam freely to grasp solutions to the problems in our everyday lives. In the English-speaking world a holiday can actually mean a vacation or period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation. A holiday can also be a day set aside for celebration or a special day on which school and/or offices are closed, such as Labor Day. These holidays or ‘Days Off’ as we call them, are really important to our mental and physical wellbeing. The term ‘Playwork’ has been termed to describe the encouragement and risk assessment to give people on holidays the ability to play within the bounds of safety. This can include a relaxing walk in a park, a visit to a zoo, a museum, a musical event and other venues.

Sometimes just the gift of time off is all we need to rejuvenate or re-create ourselves. On other occasions we wish to not only re-create ourselves but entertain ourselves at the same time. On these special occasions, we want to participate in a celebration of the holiday. Some examples that come to mind would be Christmas and Easter. For some people who want more, they may make up a celebration of the holiday, (day off or not) like Halloween or summer solstice, or the start of vacation.

A favor or gift that you can give someone would be doing some ‘Playwork’ planning for them. You could suggest and plan a celebration or party in anticipation of an upcoming holiday. You may wish to make this an annual event so that the anticipation for your event can build from year to year.

Some examples might be: Queen Victoria Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Martin Luther King Day, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, Purim, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Shavuot, Independence Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Ramadan, Halloween, Los Dias de los Muertos” (Days of the Dead), Thanksgiving Day, Chanukah, Christmas, and finally Kwanzaa.

Just pick any one day and create a special event or celebration to occur on that day. Gifts could be exchanged and special foods could be prepared or purchased to add a new feature to your unique celebration.

The word bounty is normally used as a type of reward or payment, especially one given by a government. It is a gift in a way for doing something that the government does not have the ability or the manpower top do itself. Some examples would be a bounty on killing predatory animals, growing certain crops, starting certain industries, or signing up for a term in the military.

However the term bounty can also be used in the form of an ordinary person giving a generous gift. Sometimes the person would give a gift that was very expensive. At other times the person would take an ordinary item and add value to it. This value, of course, lies in the eyes of the recipient of the gift. Because you value the recipient’s friendship enough to add value to a gift, or favor that you perform for them, they will think highly about you. This of course has a boomerang effect. You desire people to think well about you because they believe you think well about them and it actually happens.

Way back in 1776, a Scottish fellow named Adam Smith published a book called ‘The Wealth of Nations’. In this book, the author implies that adding value to goods and services is how wealth is created. For the terms ‘goods and services’ you can easily substitute the terms ‘gifts and favors’. The author felt that adding value would create monetary wealth. What about the wealth of good-will that would be created if gifts were given a bounty by adding value to them with your personal touch or added to a favor by going ’above and beyond the expected’?

The traditional way of adding value to a gift was to wrap it. Nowadays, people buy gift bags instead of wrapping gifts. However there may be a way of personalizing the gift under the wrapping by putting the person’s name on it or a special label from a stationary store or a stamp-booking supply store. When offering a “to-do favor” to someone, you may include an offer to bring along munchies or refreshments and then do it. This would certainly stand out as a bounty and mark you as a person who certainly had generosity in giving.

The unfortunate part of this is that it is normal for the recipient to reciprocate the bounty. If you value their friendship you would feel better about yourself if they acknowledged your bounty in a reciprocal manner. Unfortunately this is sometimes not the case. Sometimes selfishness plays a part. Selfishness implies the concern with one’s own interests in priority to the interests of others. As you have not expressed selfishness in that you have added bounty or value to the gift or favor, it is reasonable that the recipient show their thanks in a reciprocal manner.

It need not be done at the time of the gift, but should be done in a reasonable period of time. If you find that there is no reciprocation after several bountiful gifts or favors, you may still value the friendship and you may wish to discuss this with the recipient. Let me give you an example.

Say I helped mind your children repeatedly or helped build a shed for you or helped with the landscaping on several occasions. I might mention this and ask if it was OK to continue with the help. I might add that I am asking this because the recipient never reciprocates. I might also mention that I feel bad about this situation. I would also ask if the recipient were aware that I had concerns about this. I would then ask if they thought my concerns would make our relationship better or worse. I would then wait for the answer and see if the recipient of the gifts or favors is prepared to reciprocate in a timely manner. This normally will allow the recipient to make some effort to show their appreciation. Good luck with this strategy.

January came in with a biting touch and a grey mantle that year.  Nurse Jenny Drury thought as she huddled further down into her practical new winter coat and quickened her step back to the hospital.

The new coat was warm which the first consideration, but she wasn’t very happy about.  Money wasn’t too plentiful, in Jenny’s case, for a warm and snappy wardrobe.  Other nurses such as Angela and Pat spent all their money on clothes and make-up and visits to the hairdressers, and both of them could ask for help from home if they ran short…  But Jenny couldn’t do that.  There was a large family of young ones at home.

A large happy family, she added in her mind and swallowed hard and fought down the homesickness that threatened to much at this time a year.

Jenny wasn’t going home for Christmas.

She forgot for moment the pleasure of this coat and that had been bought to bolster op her ego. And make here look rather special so the next time she passed David Redmayne in the street, he wouldn’t just be casually friendly, but would stop and linger as if seeing her for the first time, and will be stunned by her appearance, and never look at another girl again.

The shop Jenny was passing had a mirror in the side of the window.  She looked critically ay herself in it, and approached more slowly.  It didn’t help.  She saw a girl who looked exactly as her elder brother, Jim always saw her: a nice brown girl Brown because her hair and dark lashed eyes were that color, and her healthy-glowing skin had a very slight time, even after summer had gone, and brown because she couldn’t drop the habit of choosing new clothes in that shade., which was hardly the colour to attract that handsome young man, David Redmayne, who was R.S.O. at the Shaclestock’s hospital. A friendly and popular young man, the very dream of every young unattached nurse to the special girl in hi life..

Jenny left the mirrored shop window behind and battled against the knife-like wind that shot round the corner to met her and as she bent her head and half-closed her eyes against it, she thought despairingly that she should have settled for the warm red coat the assistant in the department store had tried to persuade you to buy.  But it had made her look like a robin, Jenny thought, and not at all glamorous like the staff nurse on the cardiac word, who wore sky blue in all seasons and was really fabulous with her natural blonde hair and wide tip-tilted blue eyes. The red coat wouldn’t  have let Jenny look glamorous like Angela, ether, who could wear white with cool success, and make all then whistle on her ward even when she appeared in ordinary old uniform on a sharp frosty morning.

Not glamorous like Pat, either, who favored green, all shades of green, because was auburn and played up to that color. Jenny sighed, pushed determinately the question of lack of cash and glamour firmly into the background and thought of the children on her ward, and of the things they could make with the crepe paper she had bought, and the foil she had begged, borrowed and saved throughout the past year.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she hardly noticed David Redmayne cross the road, waving to her as he sprinted among the traffic to reach her side.

“Jenny, you were daydreaming!” he told her with mock severity.  Saw you while you were in the bookshop.”

“I was thinking of the children,” she admitted, but she wouldn’t let herself meet his eyes because it wouldn’t do to let him see how he affected her.  Such wild excitement for meeting him, yet to him she was just another friendly nurse.

“Me too, he agreed, and plunged into the external discussion about the Christmas play.  “We must somehow get a hold of a crook for the leading shepard. 

Anderson’s too big and clumsy to make do with a cardboard crook.  Besides, we must have the proper things.  The kids love it. I wish we’d get more money to play around with.

  “Money, yes,” she sighed.  The hospital wasn’t too badly equipped, but at the same time it wasn’t a streamlined modern hospital.  Neither the one thing, nor the other, and so it just missed qualifying for the extras that would have been nice but could have been done without.  As for instance, proper things for the Christmas play.

The day-nurses had made crowns for the three kings in their off duty hours.  They had used gold paper off chocolates, and scarlet and green tinsel shapes stuffed with cotton wool for the “jewels” and very effective too. The night nurses had sewn the djellabahs for the shepherd’s from deckchair striped cotton, and robes for the kings from cast-off curtains from home.  But they still needed a convincing looking casket and goblet for the “gifts” and the crook.

“I asked how much one would cost,” David was saying “At a pinch, I could buy it myself, but it will be so super-looking and it will show up everything else.  I don’t know”. “What do you think Jenny?”

“I was wondering if we could make a crook with a long cane and a wax modeling-clay head, that’s if Bobby Anderson doesn’t knock it out of shape at the crucial moment.”

“Medical students!” David said with resignation.  “Still, it’s an idea.” And then the great bulk of the hospital building appeared, and that delectable conversation was over.  David left her to go in the nurse’s entrance and didn’t suggest any further meetings either for discussions of for anything else.  He just waved cheerily and said goodbye, as he would have to any other nurse…

She watched him go.  His height dwarfed that of other men, and in her eyes he was perfect.  She liked his voice best of all-deep, pleasant, well modulated.  She had heard it said that he had a pleasant tenor voice and had sung in the choir at home.  She collected and treasured those odd scraps of information about him, but he never told him any himself.  They only met by accident in the street and walked together back to the hospital, and on those occasions they talked shop.

Not a lot on which to base the whole of one’s love, devotion, and loyalty, she told herself scathingly.  He wasn’t even aware of her as a person.  Just a pair of ears to listen willingly when he wanted to discuss the social activities of the hospital, and the children in Jenny’s ward [on whom he doubted] when there wasn’t another willing pair of ears handy, she told herself.

Jenny pulled a face.  And that wasn’t often, in all conscience.  If the blue-eyed staff-nurse on Cardiac wasn’t laying in wait to claim his attention, then Hilary Sadler-the youngish and very well-groomed Almoner-would be about and make a beeline for him.  David appeared to like them both-all the younger women in the hospital.  Jennifer brightened as she recalled that he didn’t appear to show any preference for any particular one of them, there might just be hope that one day he would notice her… 

A quick look in a dictionary will see the word ‘gift’ defined as something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance. But there is so much more. Present and gift are both used to describe something given as an expression of affection, friendship, interest, or respect. Present is the more formal; gift is generally used to describe something conferred on an individual, a group, or an institution. Something special is presented like a birthday present; a less formal example might be a gift to a bride. A donation applies to an important gift, most often of money and usually of considerable size. A bonus applies to something, again usually money, given in addition to what is due, to employees who have worked for a long time or particularly well.

When a special occasion happens a special gift is given and ‘presented’ to the recipient at that occasion. This may be a birthday, a wedding, or the birth of a child. The very act defines to the recipient that we have a kind regard for that person. It may mean that the giver loves the recipient. It may even mean more.

Once our physiological needs have been met, once we have enough to eat, drink, clothing and shelter, then we start to think of security. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency such as widespread rioting. Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe. I often will ask the question: “Have you ever played chess?” Have you ever won on the first move?” The reason I ask this is because chess takes a little while for the game to be decided. So does life and relationships. Sometimes a gift is just a gift but a present may be the first move in much longer and more complicated series of events. It may be that we feel the need for long term companionship as a step towards more security in life.

Some of us do not feel the immediate need for safety and for physiological well-being. Anybody who watches the news regularly will certainly have some concerns. Fortunately all of us at some time or another will feel the need for love, affection and belongingness.

Years ago, before the age of modern communications like radio, movies, television, and the Internet, we visited friends and met at the town square or village plaza. But although times change, people still seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

This is where the act of not merely giving a gift but presenting a present and making it an occasion and really memorable helps to build your sense of connection to the recipient. It’s easy to do. To make the presentation an occasion decide who really needs a break, Have the kids been exceptionally good, dad got a promotion, or the family has been stuck in the house for days?

Now what to do? For kids you could try outdoor activities such as scooters, bike riding, skate boarding, or playing in the park. For adults you could try a walk without interruptions from cell phones, dance to your favorite songs, play golf, or try yard sales or antique hunting. At some point in the activity, the time will feel right to make a present of the gift and make a connection that could last a lifetime.

If the present or gift is for the family, the key to success is to stay active so you can get the gang to try bowling, hiking, swimming, badminton, or flag football. Leave options such as movies and dinner as a last resort.

So gift giving does not have to revolve around a national festival or holiday, it will be doubly appreciated. Just remember this saying:

“The present should look like an accident to the recipient.” Make it look like something that just ‘happened’ along the way. It will be even more memorable to the recipient.

Later in this series we will chat about gift giving on special holidays and occasions.

It is good luck for a squirrel to cross one’s path. It is good luck to see a red bird fly up.

It is good luck to spill wine on the tablecloth. It is good luck to dream of silver money.

Wednesday is the luckiest day in the week for a wedding.

It is good luck to get white flowers on your birthday.

If one eats peas on New Year’s Day, he will have good luck all the year.

A cricket on the hearth will bring good luck.

It is good luck to look at the new moon over your left shoulder.

A windy day for a wedding is a sign of good luck.

It is a sign of good luck to find a pin with the point turned toward you.

When starting on a journey, throw a teaspoon of salt over the right shoulder to insure safety.

To catch a falling leaf means that you will have twelve months of continued happiness.

To find a rusty nail is good luck. The nail should not be picked up, but the ends should be reversed so the luck will come your way.

If two or more people go fishing together, they must all cross the fences at the same time if they are to have good luck at catching fish.

It is bad luck to drop a book and not step on it. It is bad luck to bring a hoe into the house.

It is bad luck to sweep the floor before the sun rises. It is bad luck to count the stars.

If one dreams about rats fighting, he will have bad luck. It is bad luck for

one to comb his hair after dark.

It is bad luck to rock an empty chair.

It is bad luck to burn apple trees for firewood.

It is bad luck to wash a garment before it is worn. It is bad luck to burn the cob when popping com. It is bad luck to burn salt.

It is bad luck to count graves.

If one sees a red bird and it flies down, he is sure to have bad luck.

It is bad luck to take the ashes out when there is sickness in the family.

It is bad luck to make a new opening in an old house. It is bad luck to look at the moon through brush.

It is bad luck to meet a left-handed person on Tuesday. It is bad luck for sweet potatoes to bloom.

It is bad luck to watch a person out of sight.

It is bad luck for a black hen to come into the house. It is bad luck to milk a cow on the ground.

It is bad luck to sell a crowing hen.

It is bad luck to break a bird egg.

It is bad luck to spin a chair around on one leg. It is bad luck to dream of eating cabbage.

It is bad luck to see a pin and not pick it up.

It is bad luck to open an umbrella in the house. It is bad luck to sit on a pair of scissors.

If you find a cat sitting with her tail to the fire, expect bad luck.

Sunning of bed clothes on Friday will bring bad luck. Sitting on a trunk invites bad luck.

It is unlucky for a girl to be in church when she is asked to marry.

III fortune is created by bringing eggs into the house after sunset.

It is bad luck for a sick person to cut his fingernails while sick.