Etiquette Violation Made One Unlucky

‘The King’s Touch’ could cure Tuberculosis? – “In England, three centuries ago, popular superstition credited the “Royal Touch” with curing scrofula. These superstitious practices have now become obsolete…”

THE WHY of SUPERSTITIONS…

OPENING AN UMBRELLA IN HOUSE UNLUCKY

THIS superstition dates back to the days when in the Orient the umbrella was the distinctive badge of Monarchs and great nobles. Even today the King of Siam bears as one of his titles "Lord of the Tent House and Umbrellas." In ancient times the Monarch, the Satrap, the Great Officer of State, gave judgment seated under an umbrella if in the open, and if in the palace under an umbrella or a canopy which represented it. 

Some even see in the Oriental dome, a representation of the umbrella in stone - a permanent umbrella, as it were – sacred to Royalty, great Lords and the tombs of Royalty and greatness.

Now for a suitor or a courtier to open an umbrella in the house of the mighty would appear like an assumption of Royal prerogative - a violation of etiquette which would surely get the offender into trouble in other words mighty "unlucky" for him. Once someone gives anything the name of being "unlucky" and there you are!

“Iram, Indeed, is gone with all his Rose, And Jamshyd's sev'n ring'd cup, where no one knows." – from “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”

But what was, for good reason, unlucky in the palace of Harun-al- Rashid is "unlucky" today in a New England cottage for no reason at all.

 

– By H. Irving King for McClure Newspaper Syndicate, 1931

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia