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Pingle
Forcing children to write with one hand stems from Victorian times, when they used to bind the left hand of a child behind their back if they looked like favouring it. This happened to my Grandad with the result that he became perfectly ambidextrous. I think it was really just superstition and prejudice handed down through the ages which made the Victorians behave like this, they may have considered it wrong to be left-handed because of reasons such as this;
The Bible contains over 100 favourable references to the right hand and 25 unfavourable references to the left hand. For instance, is is said: The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, the right hand of the Lord is exalted (Psalm 118 v15,16).
The sheep are set on Christ’s right hand and the goats on the left. Those on the right inherit the kingdom of God while those on the left depart into everlasting fire.
The situation is much the same in Judaism and Islam. In Islam, the left hand and everything associated with it is seen as unclean. This stems from the West Asian custom of using the left hand and water instead of toilet paper.
For thousands of years, the Devil has been associated with the left hand in various ways and is normally portrayed as being left-handed in pictures and other images. (Joan of Arc - burned at the stake in 1431 for being a heretic and a witch was depicted as left-handed, she may have been depicted in this way to make her seem evil.)
Evil spirits lurk over the left shoulder and the custom of throwing salt over this shoulder is to ward them off. (In Roman times, salt was a very valuable commodity, giving rise to the word 'salary' and was considered a form of money at the time. If salt was spilled, it was considered bad luck, which could only be avoided by throwing some of the spilled salt over your left shoulder to placate the devil.)
Wedding rings worn on the third finger of the left hand originated with the Greeks and Romans, who wore them to fend off evil associated with the left-hand.
The right hand often symbolises ‘male’ while the left hand is ‘female’.
Silly customs:
Getting out of bed with the left foot first means that you will have a bad day and be bad tempered.
A ringing in the right ear means that someone is praising you. In the left ear, it means that someone is cursing or maligning you.
An itchy right palm means that you will receive money. An itchy left palm means you will have to give money.
All of course a load of old rubbish, as everybody knows lefthanders are the greatest. |
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