Do you wave at magpies? Salute them? Flap your arms at them? Do you worry that if you don’t that day will be filled with doom? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone.
Serious superstitions have surrounded magpies in Ireland for hundreds of years. It’s not just here, Victorians were so afraid of magpies that they nearly hunted them to extinction at one stage.
It’s not just physical gestures that are shown to the magpies. Some people say “Hello, Jack – how’s your brother?” or “Hello, Mr Magpie – how’s your wife today?”. People even bless themselves and raise their hats when seeing magpies, and say: “Devil, Devil, I defy thee!”‘
