Foretelling the future

Gipsies usually foretell the future by looking in the palm of your hand or by using cards. Others have a look at an older calendar, throw a grain of wheat towards it and if it falls on one of the 70 numbers on the page, this has a certain meaning. There's also a zodiac that gets checked out by foretellers, as well as calendars spanning over 150 years.

In the zodiac, each month has a certain sign associated to it, lasting from the 12th of a month to the 12th of the next one. Foretellers also search the sky and stars for signs regarding the future of a certain person. For example, a falling star points the direction of the place where your future will change.

Some women even practice the guessing of the future by using a coffee mug. There's also the "bobdi" guessing, done with the aid of 41 corn grains, that are placed on a table. Afterwards a woman makes the cross sign above them and they're mixed, while the woman chants an old song. Then the grains are split into 3 groups, each group with grains counted four by four. The remaining grains are placed on the table in a straight line, separately on 3 columns.

The process is repeated, while mixing the grains and choosing only some of them, till you get 3 horizontal and 3 vertical columns, so that any way you count them, there are 9 groups. If a grain falls in the middle, it's a bad sign. When 3 grains are in the middle, it's a good sign. If on top, the first line sums up to 9 grains, it's a bad sign. “Bobdii” are tossed while thinking the same thought, three times. If you want to have another thought, you must switch one of the 41 grains.

Signs that foretell events

As every culture has pretty strange signs that "foretell" events, here are a few from Romania:

• If you find an old horse shoe and keep it in the attic, behind the main pillar, it'll bring good luck to your house.
• A hanged man's rope is good for spells.
• If a cat comes by your house, it'll bring good luck.
• In order to be lucky when buying and selling stuff, before going to the market, you'll need to throw some coins to the children you meet on the way.
• If someone sews your clothes easily and they come out well, it means you're a lucky man, but if they fail to sew them once or twice, you must be an evil man.
• In order to preserve your luck, it's not a good idea to share your salt, when the cow gives birth, because it'll lose its milk.
• If you eat out of your lap, you'll be "eating your luck".
• Before going to a party, you should eat on the door step of your house, in order to keep spells away from you.
• Little children shouldn't look in the mirror when they start speaking, in order not to remain mute.
• When the walls, windows or corner of the house cracks, these are death signs.
• If the lamp of the house gets broken by itself, the people living in the house will split up.
• If a girl breaks a mirror, she won't be married for 7 years.
• When an icon falls off the wall and breaks apart, it's a bad sign, foretelling somebody's death.

Author: Alex Stanescu

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