Today’s discussion of ritual and superstition got us thinking about human eccentricity. Why, for example, are we so prone to believe silly notions about crossing fingers, stepping on cracks, broken mirrors, knocking on wood, walking under ladders, and so many others?

And then an unexpected brain trigger spurred us to remember that Kurt Vonnegut explained all of this in Galapagos, his wonderful work of science fiction, published exactly forty years ago. In the novel, Vonnegut lays out a future where humans have evolved to be seal-like creatures with much smaller brains—which is all the better, according to Galapagos‘s narrator, because with their huge “three kilogram” brains from a million years earlier, humans had long moved beyond the basic life skills of survival and procreation to becoming experts in war, slavery, genocide, and all manner of evil. In a nutshell of a review, Vonnegut’s realization that our brains are simply too big for our own good is at the heart of Galapagos. Big brains are restless. Big brains invent nuclear weapons. Big brains need constant amusement. Big brains create theories about black cats and bad luck.

Arie Kaplan’s Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions provided too tempting of an interview opportunity to pass up, so we connected reviewer pine breaks with Arie for a can-you-believe-it conversation.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been having fun referencing 2024 INDIES Book of the Year winners. And seeing how Arie’s Encyclopedia is a reference book, let’s check out INDIES winners in the Reference category: At Ease: The Guide to a Smooth & Successful Military Transition (gold); Murder in the West End: The Plays of Agatha Christie and Her Disciples (silver); Scams, Hacking, and Cybersecurity: The Ultimate Guide to Online Safety and Privacy (bronze); The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary (honorable mention).

Lest you forget, Foreword Reviews digital subscriptions are free.

What first sparked your fascination with superstitions and rituals from around the world? Was there a particular moment or belief from your childhood that planted the seed for this book?

When I was a kid, my parents would hang hamsa medallions around the house. Usually they were made out of metal or plaster. My maternal grandmother was also fond of hamsas. Well, when you’re a child, you take this sort of thing for granted: there’s just this odd sculpture shaped like a hand, usually with an eye in the center, and you hang it on the wall or wear it like a necklace. But when you get older you think, “What is the significance of the hamsa? What does this very specific iconography mean?” And I found out that a hamsa is supposed to ward off the evil eye. So it’s a superstitious talisman. And that was one of the first things I researched when I began writing this book. That’s why there’s a whole section on hamsas in the first chapter.

Were there any superstitions you encountered during your research that completely surprised or unsettled you? Something that made you say, “Wait, that’s a thing?”

Oh, sure. There were SO many of those! One of the more surprising superstitions was the “eggshell boat” superstition. This one comes from England in the nineteenth century. According to this superstition, after you eat an egg, you should crush the eggshells before disposing of them. Why? Because if you don’t, witches might use the eggshells to build a large boat, and they’d use that boat to travel to where you live and harm you. I have so many logic problems with this superstition. For one, the number of eggshells you’d have to collect to build a life-size boat capable of realistically holding an adult-sized witch is unfathomable.

How did you approach balancing humor and scholarship when writing about such a wide array of beliefs? Was it challenging to maintain a respectful tone while still making the book engaging and fun?

It was a challenge, that’s true. Most books about superstitions are fairly Eurocentric, and I wanted my book to be about superstitions from all over the world, not just Europe and the US. I wanted this to be a diverse and inclusive look at the topic of superstitions. But that also meant I didn’t want to be disrespectful towards the various cultures I was writing about. At the same time, I did want this book to have a sense of humor.

Aside from my work as a nonfiction author, I’m also a television comedy writer and a humorist. And my sense of humor tends to work its way into my nonfiction projects, just like it works its way into most of my other projects. Because of my comedy background, I wanted this book to be fun and funny, as well as informative. And this was my guiding principle: while writing some of the more humorous passages in this book, I figured I was on the right path as long as I never made jokes about the various cultures or communities or religions or races or ethnicities I wrote about in the book. I don’t like punching down, so to speak, and I think that’s reflected in the book. The jokes I made in the book were more about the idiosyncrasies of human nature in general—how people can be greedy or jealous or petty or short-sighted or fearful or ignorant or biased.

For instance, in the section on “love and marriage” superstitions, I point out how some of those superstitions are misogynistic. Sometimes, I pointed this out using humor, and that’s an example of me making fun of a bias (misogyny), and it’s also an example of me blatantly saying that this bias is wrong. But in writing this book, I never made jokes at the expense of a marginalized group or a particular community of people. I would never put those kinds of jokes in the book.

This book draws from a staggering variety of cultures, eras, and traditions. How did you ensure cultural accuracy, sensitivity, and relevancy while compiling and interpreting these beliefs?

Well, part of it was really just doing my homework and doing my due diligence as far as research is concerned. If I wrote about a culture I didn’t know very much about, I tried to correct that by doing a deep dive into that culture while writing the book. So even if that “deep dive” didn’t make it into the book itself, I would be writing about said culture in the most informed way possible. Also, whenever I was writing about a marginalized community or group in the book, I made certain not to phrase anything in a way that would sound like I was agreeing with—or fostering—any negative stereotypes about said community or group. I tried to always be cognizant of that.

From the evil eye to the power of salt, some rituals appear globally in various forms. What do you think this cross-cultural commonality says about human nature?

I honestly think that it says that we—as people—are more alike than we are different. There are some things about human nature—certain fears, wants, needs, etc.—that almost every culture has in common. Because of that, some superstitions are pretty universal. Every culture has some variation on the vampire myth, for instance, and so most cultures have superstitions about vampires. Many cultures have superstitions involving salt. And hamsas are popular in both Judaism and Islam. Then there’s that superstition that if your hands itch, it means you’re about to come into money. That superstition (or at least, a variation of it) is popular in many different countries, such as Kenya, Nigeria, India, Russia, the US, and Turkey.

You reference pop culture quite a bit—Taylor Swift, Star Wars, and Harry Potter among them. What role do you think pop culture plays in perpetuating or reshaping ancient superstitions?

Well, many of the most iconic pop culture IPs—Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Friday the Thirteenth—are classified as either science fiction, fantasy, or horror. And much of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction is influenced in some way by folklore and mythology. And a great majority of superstitions come from folklore and mythology. So the Star Wars franchise, which is technically a science fiction IP but also involves supernatural elements like ghosts and witches, also involves (surprise, surprise) superstitions. Han Solo has his lucky golden dice which have played a role (albeit a small one) in three different Star Wars movies. And in the movie The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker goes through a trial where he has to walk into a cave which is strong with the dark side of the Force. It makes Luke feel cold to just look at the cave. As with the lucky dice, there’s no scientific explanation for this “bad luck” cave—it’s just an evil cave. Well, in real life, global folklore is full of superstitions involving caves that are bad luck—they contain ghosts or dragons or monsters. Or just poking your head inside the cave will make you feel cold or give you bad luck. This “dark side” cave in Star Wars definitely seems to be a variation on those kinds of superstitions. So I guess what I’m saying is that pop culture is pretty good at using these superstitions as source material, and/or recontextualizing various superstitions.

If you had to choose just one superstition to continue practicing for the rest of your life, which would it be and why?

Well, I do quite a bit of work as a visiting lecturer or guest speaker. I give lectures on various topics (many of them related to pop culture). And for many years, whenever I’d get on a plane to give a lecture in another state or another country, before I boarded the plane, I’d buy a blueberry muffin. Then I’d eat it on the plane for good luck. The idea was, if I ate the muffin, the lecture would go well. Now, these days, I don’t practice that superstition anymore because muffins are horrible for you. They’re full of sugar! But if it wasn’t for that little inconvenient detail (the fact that muffins are horrible for you), I’d still be practicing that superstition today, and I’d love to practice it for the rest of my life. Because it is a delicious superstition.

pine breaks
July 25, 2025

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