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Show Holiday superstitions For thousands of years man was troubled by incidents and mysterious, events which he believed be-lieved were caused by good or evil forces. Many of these beliefs have been cast aside as man has come to understand the world about him. Others have persisted. Some odd and amusing superstitions super-stitions are identified with the Christmas season, an appropriate time for forecasting and fortune telling. The weather on each of the 12 days of the holiday observance is supposed to foretell what the weather will be in each of the months ahead. Good health is assured to those who eat an apple at midnight on Christmas Eve. It's bad luck to let any fire in your house go out during the Christmas season... and woe unto those who let their evergreen decorations dec-orations fall or who throw them away. You should bum them or feed them to your cow. In Sweden, trolls are reputed to roam the countryside at dawn on Christmas morn. Best stay indoors. You 11 lose a friend before next Christmas if you don't partake of the traditional holiday plum pud ding. And to refuse mince pie is to court bad luck for the following In Greece, old shoes are burned during the Christmas season to i prevent misfortune in the comini! year. 6 r In some countries, a child born l'i on Christmas Day or Christmas : Eve is considered lucky. In Po. . land, however, it is believed the child will turn into a werewolf and , in Greece , that the new baby r will mm into an evil, half-human $ monster called a Kallikantzaroi. A more familiar superstition is ' , that on Christmas cattle kneel fac- ing the East, that animals can r" speak, that bees hum and that all ' " water turns to wine. It is believed that a cherry tree branch, standing in water, will '';ir bring good luck if it blossoms by ' jd Christmas. You '11 have as many months of fl good fortune in the coming year ' ' as the number of houses in which you eat mince pie during the fes- $ tive holiday. ' jb ' T |