11 childhood habits that were actually witchcraft

A lot of the things we did for fun were actually little bits of folk magic hiding in plain sight, without us ever actually realizing it.

A flower with instructions

There were rules to blowing on a dandelion. Yes, you’d make a wish and then take a breath, hoping to send every last seed flying at once. Any seeds left behind meant that your wish might not come true.

Turns out, that childhood wishing ritual is actually a form of witchcraft or folk magic. There are a lot of similar traditions like this involving plants and secret wishes, as well as specific actions meant to make something happen.

The price of a wish

Here’s a habit you might still do today. It involves throwing a penny in a fountain and making a wish, although you can’t simply throw one in. No, you have to think of something you want first, and then throw the coin while keeping the wish to yourself. 

This form of making a wish has quite a long history, as people have placed coins and other metal objects in water for centuries. It’s essentially a form of offering connected with luck and healing, maybe even requests. You give the water something. You ask for something back. It doesn’t get more witchy than that.

One tiny thing to wish on

Practically every kid knows what to do with an eyelash that falls out. It’s something that you use for a wish. Yes, you put it on your finger and make a wish, then blow it away. There are so many versions of this custom in folklore, some of which existed long before modern playgrounds.

People used to believe that small pieces connected to the body were magically meaningful. Eyelashes became a big part of that. Some versions of the myth involve people tossing the eyelash over their shoulders, but either way, it’s a kind of folk magic.

The answer was in the alphabet

You can do a lot more than simply eat an apple. One childhood ritual involves twisting the fruit’s stem while saying the alphabet one letter at a time. You’d keep going until the stem snapped, and whichever letter you were on was important. It was the first letter of the person you’d marry. 

Think about it this way, though. That’s a very simple kind of divination, where you’re using a random physical event to answer a question about the future or reveal it. It’s a staple of witchcraft for that exact reason.

An apple peel became a letter

That’s not all for apples. One trick involved peeling the apple in one long strip without snapping it, and then tossing the peel over your shoulder. Look at the floor, and see what shapes there are. The peel would apparently form the first letter of the person you’d marry.

We know today that it’s mostly ridiculous, but back then, it seemed so real. It comes from love divination, a kind of witchcraft where people believed random shapes were clues about the future. Put it this way, it was a form of fortune-telling with fruit.

A quick defense against bad luck

Anytime that you sounded too confident when speaking, someone would tell you to knock on wood. You probably did it. It didn’t matter whether it was a table or desk, even your forehead. You had to knock to stop your prediction from getting ruined.

That sounds a lot like a protective charm. It’s also what some folklorists call protective magic, although the origin of this superstition is unclear. The practice itself, however, is quite straightforward. Words can be dangerous, and you use a physical ritual to cancel them. Tap tap.

The lucky find you had to keep

It sure wasn’t easy finding a four-leaf clover, and that’s why so many of us held onto them when we did. We might put the clover in a book so it would dry flat, or maybe into a pocket where it’d get crushed. Wherever it went, the point was that the clover itself carried luck. 

That’s pretty much how a charm works in folk magic. People believe an ordinary object holds special power, and they keep it close because of that. There’s a lot more magic to that simple plant than you might recognize.

When the mirror had another job

One of the most popular childhood habits involved looking into mirrors. But not to see yourself. No, the trick was to stare into one at night by candlelight, and then the face of your future husband or wife would show up.

It’s a branch of witchcraft called divination, specifically the branch known as mirror-gazing. You use a reflective surface to see something hidden or something that’s in your future. There are a few other versions of it, including ones where you have to look into the mirror at a certain time or date.

A little help for the weather

Kids who grew up in a snowy area will probably remember doing this one. The night before a possible snow day, they’d put a spoon under their pillow and go to sleep. The goal was for school to be canceled by morning. There are even some customs saying you had to wear your pajamas inside out, too.

Either way, the spoon ritual fits the old idea of sympathetic magic. That’s the kind of magic where one thing is used to stand in for another, and since a spoon looks a bit like a tiny shovel, it became linked with snow. There’s probably no chance it worked, though.

Names went to bed too

It’s true, a lot of us were obsessed with doing little love rituals as kids. One of the most popular ones involved writing down the names of a few crushes and folding the names up. We’d put them under our pillows before bed. Apparently, doing it would guarantee you’d marry one of the people in the future.

The whole thing was actually part of, you guessed it, folk magic. It’s connected to witchcraft because it falls under the divination side of things. A small ritual, performed at a particular time, to give you information about a future relationship, it’s all so magical.

The sleepover levitation ritual

There’s one game that made even an ordinary bedroom seem stranger. It was called ‘Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.’ To start, one kid would lie flat on the floor while everyone else crouched around them and slipped a couple of fingers underneath while chanting.

It was supposed to make the person seem almost weightless. You might think it’s just a regular kid’s game, but it turns out, it borrows heavily from ritual magic. It has repeated words and a group acting together, along with ceremonial steps. It’s a bit much for a sleepover.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.

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