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Posted: 13-01-2011 19:34 Post subject: The Black Cat Conundrum

According to folklore, black cats are bad luck, especially if one crosses your path. Except according to other folklore, black cats bring good luck, especially if one crosses your path. So which is right? (Bearing in mind it probably isn't true one way or the other).

Posted: 13-01-2011 20:23 Post subject:

Perhaps it depends on the distance between you and the cat, if one were to cross your path close enough for you to trip over, that would be unlucky.

I always thought the difference was that a real life cat was unlucky, but a black cat symbol, talisman was lucky.

Apparently, at the Savoy, in the Churchill room, they have a statue of a black cat called Kasper, a gift from Russia I think, that they set a place for should there be a group of thirteen dining together. One superstition to compound another type of thing.

Posted: 13-01-2011 22:16 Post subject:

There's a roundabout on the A1 near me called the Black Cat Roundabout.
It even has a metal sculpture of a black cat in the middle.
Accidents are always happening there, so it can't be that lucky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_Roundabout

Posted: 13-01-2011 22:34 Post subject:

I understood that in the UK we believe black cats to be lucky but in the USA black cats are unlucky.

Posted: 13-01-2011 23:58 Post subject:

So why the difference? Did the Pilgrims have something against black cats that the rest of England did not?

Here's a famous Tex Avery cartoon with the US take on black cats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCP4JghzbGM

Although being Tex, his ideas are a bit more extreme.

Posted: 14-01-2011 00:53 Post subject:

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore (which no fortean should be without!):

Posted: 14-01-2011 01:10 Post subject:

So is it only Britain which favours the black cat? What do countries apart from there and America think of them, if anything?

Posted: 14-01-2011 06:34 Post subject:

"A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere."

Groucho Marx

Posted: 14-01-2011 09:06 Post subject:

I own a black cat which crosses my path and sits with his back to me pretty regularly.

Maybe any bad luck / good luck is cancelled out by his tortoiseshell sister who swings between beating me up and cuddling me.

Posted: 14-01-2011 10:09 Post subject: Re: The Black Cat Conundrum

Posted: 14-01-2011 14:26 Post subject:

I always understood that a strange black cat crossing your path is lucky, but if you own a black cat, it's lucky and repels any bad luck that might come at you from strange ones.

Posted: 14-01-2011 16:53 Post subject:

if any cat allows you to be its owner then you are lucky. Very Happy

Posted: 14-01-2011 18:48 Post subject:

I thought it was lucky if a black cat crossed your path, unlucky if you crossed black cat's path.

Posted: 15-01-2011 18:24 Post subject:

Posted: 15-01-2011 19:48 Post subject: