Rocking chairs, sheet knots & elephant hair

It's Friday the 13th! A folkloric day, if ever there was one.
For your enjoyment, circus and nursing superstitions.



Circus Superstitions:
• Circus bands play John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" in emergency situations only. The march is played as a warning signal to circus workers that something is wrong.

• Never count the audience.

• Accidents always happen in threes*.

• Always enter the ring with your right foot first.

• Never whistle in the dressing room.

• Boots, shoes and slippers should never be seen in a trunk tray or on a dressing table.

• Never sleep inside the Big Top. (This belief comes from the days when the raised ring was made of dirt and people were afraid it might collapse on them.)

• In pictures, elephants must always have their trunks up.

• Hair from the tail of an elephant is good luck.

• Never eat peanuts in the dressing room.

• Never look back during the circus parade.

• Never move a wardrobe trunk once it has been put into place; moving it means that the performer (owner of that trunk) will be leaving the show.

• Never sit on the circus ring facing out.

• Peacock feathers are bad luck. (This is also a theater superstition, wherein peacock feathers can never be used in costumes)


Nursing Superstitions:
• Women go into labor more often when it's raining because their water breaks with the storm.

• If a patient is perspiring profusely (and is already on antibiotics and antipyretics) place a pan of water under the bed to stop the fever.

• A penny above the door of a patient in ICU ensures good luck.

• There seems to be a "full moon effect" whereby one experiences increased workload, stress and general chaos.

• Codes, deaths and births happen in threes*.

• Certain rooms are unlucky.

• Never say the "Q" word. If it's been a quiet shift, don't say so or, it is told, the dam will break. (This is, hands down, the most popular nursing superstition I have come across.)

• Never say the name of a frequent visiting patient aloud or s/he will miraculously appear.

• If one has turned down the bedding for an expected admission and the admission is canceled, pulling the linen back up will ensure an immediate unexpected admission.

• If a patient may code, place the crash cart outside the door of the patient's room to prevent the code.

• Have a lucky pen? You're not alone. Apparently it ensures patients' well-being and a good shift.

• Place a penny above the door of a patient in ICU for good luck.

• If a knot is tied in the sheet of a dying patient during the night shift, that patient will not die until morning.

Circus superstitions collected from The Museum of Science and Industry and Nursing superstitions compiled from the following sources: Nurse Connect and The American Journal of Nursing.

* The superstition of threes is well documented in folklore. Dundes has something to say about it in The Number Three in American Culture which is reviewed at The Book of Threes. This is the second time I've mentioned the good professor in a week. I wonder...