By Emma Clayton

Ignoring a lone magpie is either a small act of defiance or a huge mistake, depending on your take on superstitions.

Either way, I guess I'll have to live with the consequences. I drove past one the other morning and just couldn't be bothered with the whole silly ritual of saluting it and saying: "Good morning Mr Magpie, how's your lady wife today?"

It was only ever a token gesture anyway, and I didn't so much salute as vaguely scratch my forehead while muttering under my breath. A friend, on the other hand, breaks into a flamboyant theatrical flourish, practically bowing, whenever she’s in the presence of a single magpie.

Alone, magpies signify sorrow, while in pairs they bring joy. So presumably asking after their wife should ward off our own sorrow - although how come it’s always Mr Magpie who's alone?

York Press:

Ignoring a lone magpie will bring nothing but sorrow, goes the superstition...

Since magpies are quite menacing, with a weakness for stealing shiny things, I don't think they deserve our respect. But we continue with the saluting charade, because if we don't there's that nagging dread that Something Bad Will Happen.

I don't regard myself as particularly superstitious, but even as I type this I'm recalling all the things that I try not to do, simply because they're 'bad luck'. There are the usual ones - putting umbrellas up indoors, walking under ladders, crossing on the stairs - and there are others too.

I don't touch the washing-machine on January 1 because I can still hear my gran saying: "Do your washing on New Year's Day, wash one of the family away." If I spot new shoes on a table I'll sprint over to remove them faster than you can say "Usain Bolt". And I know never to look in a mirror at midnight, or I'll see the Devil's face...

Actors and sportspeople are notoriously superstitious, undertaking peculiar little rituals before taking to the stage or the pitch. Tiger Woods wears red for luck, Serena Williams bounces the ball five times before the first serve and Bjorn Borg refused to shave for entire Wimbledon tournaments.

Maybe it's self-preservation to have superstitions ingrained in our psyche. There are certainly many of them out there - a quick internet search revealed a whole A-Z of quirky superstitions worldwide. Who knew that seeing an ambulance is unlucky unless you pinch your nose until you see a brown dog? Or that it's bad luck to put a hat on a bed, or cut your fingernails on a Friday? Or that if you say goodbye to a friend on a bridge you'll never see them again?

And apparently if you drop scissors it means your lover is unfaithful - depending on where the scissors land, it could be worse luck for them...