I already made a video on some German superstitions that don’t exist in the U.S.

So now here are some common American superstitions.

Now, from my experience, I don’t believe that these superstitions are done in Germany,

so I thought it would be helpful for understanding why some Americans are doing these things.

But if it turns out that some of these are done in Germany, please let me know in the

comments, thank you.

In English the word jinx can mean to bring bad luck or "verhexen" in German.

In the U.S. if two people coincidentally say the same word at the same time, the person

who is first to yell jinx stops themselves from getting the bad luck by putting that

bad luck onto the other person.

But then there are a few different variations of this that I’ve heard of.

Some people just say jinx.

But then there’s also jinx you owe me something.

Like they say: jinx you owe me a soda.

Or there’s also "jinx, you’re not allowed to talk until somebody says your name."

Is there anything like this done here in Germany?

In the U.S. we also have a whole day dedicated to another superstition.

It’s called Groundhog Day.

It’s on February 2.

And on that day we watch a little groundhog emerge out of its burrow.

And the way the superstitions goes: if it’s a sunny day and the groundhog sees its shadow,

and gets all freaked out and runs back into its home, then that means that it'll be 6

more weeks of winter.

If not, spring will come early that year!

And actually, this tradition, I learned, got started by German settlers in Pennsylvania.

So I figured that it must be something done in Germany too.

But when I tried looking that up, I just kept finding German articles about the American

tradition of groundhog day and how it’s an American thing.

So I guess it doesn’t exist in Germany?

But anyway, it got started by German settlers in the U.S.

A huge superstition in the U.S. is that it’s bad luck to open an umbrella inside.

Now, while researching for this video I saw sources claiming that this is also a superstition

in Germany.

But if it is, well, then, from what I’ve seen nobody seems to care about it at all,

because I see umbrellas being opened inside all over the place here.

And here’s the crazy thing about superstitions: I usually consider myself to be a pretty rational

thinking person, but superstitions just have a way of getting ingrained inside of you,

so that, well, at least for me, I didn’t even realize how irrational the umbrella superstition

was until I was confronted with it here in Germany.

One rainy day, shortly after I moved to Germany, Mr. German Man opened the umbrella inside

before heading out, and my face, it just instinctively flushed red hot, and I was like what are you doing?

And he just looked at me.

It’s raining.

I know, but you're not supposed to open the umbrella until you get outside.

Why?

Because it's...it's...it's bad luck? I don't know why. Hm.

After that I started really noticing that people here in Germany seem, for the most

part, to have no problem opening the umbrella inside before going out into the rain or opening

the umbrella inside afterwards to let it dry off after coming in from the rain.

So that's why I thought that this superstition just didn’t exist here.

Or is it just like, it exists, but in the end, nobody really cares about it?

So I'd like to hear from you: have you heard of this superstition before?

Does this superstition exist in Germany?

Another superstition in the U.S. is holding your breath when you go past a cemetery.

The superstition goes that if you breathe while passing a cemetery you could risk inhaling

the spirits of the dead, which sounds absolutely terrifying.

Although this is not a superstition that I really took part in, I definitely did hear

of people holding their breath every time they drove past a cemetery.

And also lifting their feet every time they drove over railroad tracks, which is another

superstition in the U.S. - that you’ve got to lift up your feet when going over the train tracks.

Do tram tracks count for that too?

If so, I hope that this is not a superstition in Germany because, well, at least here in

Munich, there are a lot of tram tracks to drive over around town!

So my question for you is: Do you have any of these or similar superstitions where you live?

And what’s the most interesting superstition you’ve ever heard of around the world?

Please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks so much for watching.

I really hope that you enjoyed this video.

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Thank you so much for your support.

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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!

Have you heard of this superstition...

But if it turns out that some of these stuperstitions... some of these superstitions.

Merh merh merh.

I already made a video on German superstitions...that was like, the emphasis on completely the wrong words.