在我们中国的传统文化中，人们相信幸运数字能带来好运和财富。比如数字2、6、8、8、8，这种数字在结婚日、入团、车牌号码、手机号码等非常重要的情况下经常出现。这样的例子和2008年北京奥运会的开幕式一样，准确到8点。(阿尔伯特爱因斯坦)幸运。

作为一名翻译，对不同国家的风土人情有一定了解，也是一项必备的知识，这样在沟通过程中就多一份理解，少一份冒失。以下图片中东西，哪些是吉利？哪些是不吉利？现在就跟大家数数，英国人都有哪些迷信……

图一马蹄铁，吉利亦或不吉利？那要看你怎样摆放，如果像图中那样口朝上成“U”形，那就是吉利；口朝下成”n”形，就是不吉利，因为好运气都倒掉了，所以英国人从小就不停地被老祖母唠叨，说马蹄铁一定是要朝上挂的。这也是为什么你会在英国人的门口上会发现挂着一个马蹄铁，也会常常看到很多贺卡例如结婚卡、新生婴儿卡上都印有马蹄铁的图案，因为这代表了祝你一生好运。

黑色星期五来源于美国，如果赶上某个星期五正巧也是13号，那正可谓坏中之坏。13号的黑色星期五（顺便一提这个也是一部惊悚片的名字）每个人都知道那天是不吉利的，那也不是一个你会选择结婚的日子，你甚至在定酒店的时候也找不到13这一层。就像在香港一样，他们不建14层，就算有也叫13A。那么同样道理，在英国你会看到门牌号12A（用来代替13），在剧场里12和14排之间通常是行人道。为什么数字13这么不吉利？许多人相信耶稣受难或许发生在13号，也有人说圣经里，最后的晚餐是有13个人就座，后来犹大为了30个银币出卖了耶稣，致耶稣被钉死在十字架上。如果你在英国见到有13个人围着一桌子吃饭，旁边放了一只泰迪熊，不要奇怪，因为这样就可以凑够14个人了……但有些国家例如希腊，他们是13号的星期二是不吉利，代替了英国人的星期五，这是由于君士坦丁堡的堕落于1204年4月13日星期二。

图三是一名女士在梯子下走过，据统计，有六分之一的英国人是不肯从梯子下经过的，因为他们坚信此举会带来厄运。不过更普遍的说法是，如果从梯子下面过，今年就没有结婚的可能了。首先从逻辑上来说，这个操作也不安全，因为好大机会梯子上有人正在工作，刚好东西掉下来砸中你的头。但另外一种分析是基于这个梯子而言的，因为基督徒相信圣父、圣子、圣神三位一体，这刚好形成一个三角形。而梯子靠着墙壁上与墙壁也形成了一个三角形，如果这时候有人从下面经过，就打破了三位一体的格局，吸引了恶魔来临。听起来有点可怕，不过聪明的英国人也想出破解咒语的方法：你可以在梯子下倒着走回原路；或者当你穿过梯子的时候将食指和拇指交叉，直至见到一只狗；又或者在梯子下讲一句“面包和牛油”，或者索性许个愿…..这样就可以解除厄运了。

图四的是一只黑猫，黑猫之所以代表厄运是因为中世纪的时候，黑猫被认为是巫师们的化身借以躲避教会的追杀。假如你在街上遇见一只黑猫在你前面过去，你要立即拐弯走另外一条路。所以如果你很迷信，刚好你的邻居又养了一只黑猫，那么，问题就大了……

图五是打碎了镜子会倒霉，这巧好和跟我们的“碎碎平安”大相径庭。即使你只是不小心打碎了镜子就会有连续七年的厄运……如此类推，连续打破两个镜子，岂不是会有14年的厄运？！唉，究其原因是因为人们认为镜子是神能预知未来的工具，打破神物自然会倒霉了。

最后一幅图是四叶草，四叶草其实是三叶草的变种，但概率也是相当之低，你只有万分之一的机会会找到四叶草，四片叶子分别代表爱情、健康、名誉和财富，所以它象征着幸运。

英国人还有很多其它迷信，最常见的还有除夕午夜里要开后门（让去年霉气离开）然后请第一个踏前门进来的人要带盐（代表钱）煤（代表暖和）和面包（代表丰衣足食），这个人最好还是一个黑发男人，为什么黑发？因为帅呀！还有敲木头带来好运（这来源于18世纪的拍卖，敲木头代表了希望能赢），屋内打伞招厄运，别人打喷嚏时要送祝福，因为英国人认为打喷嚏的时候灵魂会出窍，撒旦会趁机偷走人们的灵魂，所以解咒语就是“bless you!”

其实所有这些迷信都在于你信与不信，所谓“信则有，不信则无”。如果能了解一点点他们的风土人情，避免无所谓的冒失，未尝不是一件好事。但冒失和冒犯是不同的，下一次我会继续跟大家分享包容性语言，因为用错语言方式，带来的就是冒犯了。

In Chinese culture, people believe that lucky number can bring them good luck and fortune.... The number 2, 6, 8 and 9 are favorites lucky numbers of most Chinese people. So, it is important for Chinese people to choose a good number for important items or special events , such as wedding date, date of moving into a new house, number of car license plates, telephone or mobile number and so on.....

This is so useful for an interpreter to know other countries’ culture to avoid the misunderstanding or confusion. So what is British superstition? Please look at this screen shot below to see what connection with these pictures. All these pictures have something related with them, GOOD luck or BAD luck?

Let’s look at the first picture, yes it is a horseshoe, is it good luck or bad luck? well, they say it is good luck if it is that way up, but if you turn it upside down so it looks like “n” means that all the lucky fall out with it. Sometime you do see upside horseshoe is handing on the door or over the door, or when you buy people cards for wedding or newborn baby, you will quite often to find a picture of house shoes printed in the cards, because the horseshoe is good luck. So that’s why British people alway been told by their grandma that you should not turn a horseshoe upside down, it should be look like that in the picture.

What about the next one “the Friday the 13th”, (as you know there is a name from the horror movie) and it also called the Black Friday, everyone knows it means bad luck but what is the point of that? The whole day supposedly is the bad luck as it is not a date you will choose to get married. Sometimes you look for a hotel you can’t see the 13th floor, because people don’t sleep in that floor, it as same as the buildings in HongKong they are skip the 14th floor. The number 13 anyway is supposed to be bad luck, but no one knows why is it means bad luck, it may be something about Christianity, the Bible. Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is thought to have been the 13th guest to sit down to the Last Supper. Even today, it's considered unlucky to have 13 people sitting at a dinner table, and some people pop a teddy bear in a seat to make the number of guests up to 14! In Greek culture, 13 number is considered as unlucky but instead of Friday the 13th they believe in Tuesday the 13th. The reason is that The fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade occurred on Tuesday, April 13, 1204. In the ancient Egyptian culture, number 13 was associated with death as an afterlife.

The third picture is a lady passing in the pavement just walking under the ladder, that is unlucky they say. let's get the practical reasons out of the way. Most people don't want to walk under a ladder because it's just unsafe. If a ladder is up, chances are someone's standing on it, working, and you don't want to take the chance of something falling on your head. Nor do you want to risk jostling the ladder and knocking someone down. One explanation regarding ladders and bad luck has its roots in religion. Many Christians believe in the Holy Trinity -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This belief made the number three sacred in early times, and along with it, the triangle. A ladder leaning up against a wall forms the shape of a triangle, and walking through it would be seen as "breaking" the Trinity, a crime seen as blasphemous as well as potentially attracting the devil. If you do walk under a ladder, can you reverse your ill fortune?

• Walk backwards through the ladder again.
• Put your thumb between your index and middle fingers as you walk under the ladder.
• Say "bread and butter" as you walk under the ladder.
• Cross your fingers and keep them crossed until you see a dog.
• Make a wish while you're walking under the ladder.

What about the next picture of a black cat, the reason why black cat represents bad luck is because in Middle Ages, black cats were considered to be the incarnation of witches to avoid being hunts by the church. Apparently if you are see a black cat crossing a road when walking down in the street, you have to change a direction to a different road. If your neighbour got a black cat you could have a problems, haha.

Breaking a mirror will give you seven years of bad luck! So if you break two mirrors that comes to 14 years bad luck....

The last picture is a clover, she is a small plant in the grass all over the field, but it is not any clover, it is a special clover, because you look at clover they have 3 leaves, but it is a 4 leaves clover.

More traditionally, on the stroke of midnight 31 December, people open the back door (to let the old year out) and ask the first dark haired man to be seen to come through the front door carrying salt, coal and bread. This means that the following year everyone in the house will have enough to eat (bread), enough money (salt) and be warm enough (coal).

The term Touch Wood actually comes from the 18th Century Auction House/ Barns. If you placed a bid on live stock or an item you would hope that the auctioner would "touch wood" at your bid. When the auctioner touched wood you would have won that lot. Hence the saying " I hope I win "Touch Wood" If you did win the auctioneers hammer "gavel" which is made of wood would also fall and hit the block. Touch Wood is a winning phrase. A superstitious expression said, typically in combination with actually touching or knocking on a wooden object or surface, when one desires something positive to continue.

All these things are depend on you believing, also there is lot of old traditions of that.