/oss/taxonomy/term/2893/all en /oss/article/bottled-superstition-then-and-now <p>Workers at a London construction site were mystified when they unearthed a sealed stoneware bottle with some very strange markings including the image of a scary bearded man. The bottle, obviously buried a long time ago, was identified by archeologists as a “witch bottle,” meant to provide protection from witches’ spells. Back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a powerful belief in witches and their ability to cause illness by casting a spell. But the evil spells could be fended off by trapping them in a “witch bottle,” which if properly prepared, could actually reflect th</p> Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:44:15 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7692 at /oss /oss/article/general-science/number-four-kills-again-or-does-it <p>Do superstitions kill? You may have heard the one about Chinese people dying in larger numbers on the fourth of every month because, in both Cantonese and Mandarin (and also in Japanese), the words for “four” and “death” sound the same. Imagine making a medical appointment on January “Death Day”. Might this not create enough stress to push your frail body over the edge?</p> Thu, 04 Jan 2018 18:19:15 +0000 Jonathan Jarry, MSc 6859 at /oss