A Black Cat crossed me, What should I do?

It’s not what you think.

Grandma Jo was once in a great hurry. She had to catch a train and she is running late. It will take her 3 minutes to get to the station and the train is leaving in 5 minutes. So she put a little more pace to her walk, when suddenly a cat by the color of vantablack, crossed her path and ran away. “This is a bad luck. I should wait here for a minute here” she thought and waited. A minute passed and she was ready to move again when that same cat again crossed her path. “What is this nonsense?” she thought, “Cats don’t cross the same path twice. This is just a superstition anyway.” But either way she waited for another minute. And again that cat crossed, like he was having fun with this old lady’s believes. Grandma Jo now got frustrated. She waited for just a moment and ran, before the cat could cross her again “There was no clear instructions of how long I should wait. I should be fine”. She ran with the exhilaration that his old age can permit. But when she reached the station, she saw the train had already left the platform. Watching the train passing by Grandma Jo thought “I should’ve waited”.

Black cats are phenomenally fascinating creatures. These is the creature who has been fantasized, wished, feared, worshiped and cuddled. Different continents have different depiction of this yellow eyed animal, which looks like two moon on a night sky.

In India, black colour is generally associated with the Lord Shani. It is said that if a black cat crosses your path, then you should let somebody else pass before you do. This way, the first person will have all the bad luck and you won’t. A shrewd way indeed.

Islam said, The black dog is the devil of the dogs and the jinn take his image much, as well as the image of a black cat, because the black color gathers the satanic forces and it has the strength of heat.”

In Japan, black cats are upheld as symbols of good luck, especially for single women, as they are revered for attracting fine, potential suitors.

In Ancient Egypt black cats were representations of goddess Bastet. Bastet was the protector of women and households, goddess of women’s secrets, fertility, childbirth, and cats. She was popular among both men and women since every man had a daughter, wife, or mother who benefited from the protection of Bastet.

In 1233 AD, Pope Gregory IX, head of Catholic church, declared black cats to be an incarnation of the Devil himself. The black cat in folklore has been able to change into human shape to act as a spy or courier for witches or demons. When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, they brought with them a devout faith in the Bible.

Sometimes, fishermen wives would keep black cats at home too, in the hope that they would be able to use their influence to protect their husbands at sea.

Southern Chile said, black cats are an important element that is needed when hunting for the treasure of the carbunclo.

Most of Europe considers the black cat a symbol of bad luck, particularly if one walks across the path in front of a person, which is believed to be an omen of misfortune and death.

In Germany, some believe that black cats crossing a person’s path from right to left, is a bad omen, but from left to right, the cat is granting favorable times. Now this is interesting. Adding flavor to the story.

In Chinese culture, it is thought that black cats can ward off evil. And due in part to their “good energy” as believed by Feng Shui, these dark felines possess the ability to “frighten away demons, evil energy, and stalkers.”

Then there is the other culture, those who just want to squeeze this cute little devil.

If those are not enough, they added Black cat days too. October 27 has been designated as ‘Black Cat Day’ and August 17 is “Black Cat Appreciation Day”. Will you give me a break!

So now comes a lesson right? What did we learned from all of these. Well, for one thing, Grandma Jo should’ve run the first time. Or would there any bad omen had happened if she did? We can not know for sure right? because we have not seen the different chain of events like an Omniscient. And that is where the power of superstition comes to play. In the “what if” part. The silver line or the grey area, where our fear of the unknown makes us do things we might not have done otherwise. What we don’t understand we can make means of it almost anything. As for a black cat, I think when there’s so many contradictory involved, it would not matter which side you choose.

“If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.”
― Groucho marx