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Cricket superstitions

Good luck in the house, disaster if killed.

When it actually starts

How old is this one

First recorded Chinese sources from antiquity; European versions from the 1600s
That makes it about 426 years old
Rank by age 23 oldest of 40 dated here
Category Animals
Searched 90 a month

A cricket on the hearth meant warmth and food, since crickets settle in heated kitchens. Killing one broke that association and was held to bring misfortune.

Why it stuck. The cricket only appears where conditions are already good, so it accompanies prosperity without causing it — a textbook case of correlation read as cause.

What people say

Good luck in the house, disaster if killed.

What is going on

Crickets were kept as pets in cages in China for over a thousand years, valued for the sound rather than the luck.

Where it applies. China, Japan, Europe and the American South.

Other animals superstitions

Black cat crossing your path 3,670/mo Owls as omens 1,090/mo Bird omens 1,180/mo Crows as omens 790/mo Ladybug superstitions 390/mo Death omens 310/mo Spider superstitions 170/mo Butterfly omens 110/mo Bat superstitions 90/mo

Recorded around the same time

Cricket superstitions is the 23th oldest of the 40 dated superstitions here. Of those, 6 are younger than a century and 5 predate the common era.

Hiccups superstitions 1600 Horseshoe over the door 1600 Four-leaf clover 1620 Spider superstitions 1700

First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →