Luck from the Orthodox point of view. Who can't wish good luck

29.09.2019

LUCK IS THE NAME OF THE DEMON. CAN PEOPLE WISH "GOOD LUCK"? Be vigilant, wish each other well and God's Help, not a demon! “I see that in some commemorations you mentioned the demon Luck, writing: “About the luck of a daughter”, “About the luck of a son”, “About the luck of a family”. Why did you write the devil in my commemoration book? Do you know who Luck was? It was the biggest demon that mowed down millions of souls. Moloch, or "Luck", was the god of happiness among the Romans, Sumerians, and Carthaginians. What was this god Moloch, or "Fortune" as we call him today? His statue, cast in copper or silver, was carried on a two-wheeled cart. He had a copper stove on his back, and a copper frying pan in front of him; from behind, firewood was thrown into Luck until the statue became red-hot. And his priests carried axes in their hands, large and honed. What sacrifice did Luck accept? Only infants from the hands of mothers. They came to the village where you live. They dragged the chariot of Good Luck with a red-hot frying pan, and called, clapping their hands: “Who wants good luck, make a sacrifice to Good Luck!”. Archimandrite Cleopas (Ilie)

CAN PEOPLE WISH "GOOD LUCK"? “You wouldn’t wish this on your enemy!” – they say in those cases when some kind of misfortune or misfortune occurs. However, we are used to constantly wishing each other “Good Luck”, without even realizing what a terrible curse we send to the one to whom this wish is intended! The fact is that Luck or, as we better know, Moloch, was the main deity among the Semitic peoples, who was one of the incarnations of Baal (or Baal, Beelzebub, Belshazzar), i.e. devil. Baal is mentioned several times in the Bible in the Book of Judges - 2:11, 3:7, 10:6; about Moloch - in the Book of Amos 5:26 and 1 Kings 11:7. The cult of Moloch-Baal among the Semites consisted in wildly unbridled voluptuousness, seeking artificial excitations. Its external symbol was always the phallus, which was depicted as a column with a truncated top. At the temples of Baal lived the so-called kedeshims and kedeshoms, sacred fornicators and harlots, who doomed themselves to the service of the temple by earning money by their fornication. The purpose of this cult was to deeply corrupt the people resorting to it. The fruits of this worship were the well-known sad events that occurred with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the cult of Baal was especially pronounced. Both now and earlier, the main feature of the Semitic peoples - worshipers and servants of Satan, is lies and deceit. The priests of Baal-Moloch were no exception, who, trying to veil the true purpose of the cult, so as not to scare people away from its diabolical essence, spread the idea that they serve the fertile Sun, the source of warmth and vital fire manifested in it. As in all pagan cults, the servants of Moloch made sacrifices to him. As a rule, these were human sacrifices, which were performed in honor of Moloch through a burnt offering, supposedly passing them through the solar life fire. Newborn babies, especially children of noble families, were considered the most pleasant sacrifices to Baal: “and they built the heights of Tophet in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command and which did not enter my heart” (Jer. 7 :31). The children lay down on the outstretched arms of the idol, which had the face of a calf, a fire was burning below. These monstrous sacrifices were performed at night with the sounds of flutes, tambourines and lyres, which drowned out the cries of unfortunate children, and also increased the excitement among the people. The altars of the gods were constantly stained with the blood of children, while in the years of major festivities or in times of disaster, people and in particular children were sacrificed by the hundreds and thousands. “First comes Moloch, the terrible king, spattered with the blood of human victims and the tears of fathers and mothers. But because of the noise of the drums, the cries of their children are not heard when they are thrown into the fire in honor of the terrible idol. - John Milton "Paradise Lost". This is what the idol looked like:

“The statue of Moloch was built specifically for accepting human sacrifices and burning them. She was of colossal stature, all copper, and empty inside. The head was bullish, because the bull was a symbol of strength and the sun in its fierce form. The arms of the statue were of monstrous length, and victims were placed on huge outstretched palms; hands, driven by chains on blocks hidden behind the back, raised the victims to the hole located in the chest, from where they fell into the flaming inferno, which was placed inside the statue, on an invisible grate, and the ash and coals that fell through it formed an ever-increasing heap between the legs of the colossus ... the children were laid alive on the terrible red-hot palms of the monster. Relatives were strictly forbidden to show sadness. Children, if they screamed while they were being prepared for a terrible rite, were soothed by caresses. As ugly and impossible as it may seem, mothers were obliged not only to attend the terrible celebration, but to refrain from tears, sobs and any manifestation of sadness, because otherwise they would not only lose all the honor due to them due to the great honor rendered to them nationwide, but they could bring the wrath of the offended deity on the whole people, and one reluctantly made offering could destroy the effect of the entire sacrifice and even bring misfortunes worse than before to the people. Such a weak mother would have been shamed forever. Drums and flutes kept up an unceasing noise, not only to drown out the screams of the victims, but to increase the excitement among the people. [Ragozina Z. A. History of Assyria. St. Petersburg: I-e A. F. Marx, 1902. S. 151-152]. As mentioned above, Moloch-Valaam also had the nickname "Luck". Why? Because it was believed that the family that sacrificed their child to the deity would certainly have a good year in terms of agricultural work and harvesting. Therefore, when the priests of Moloch brought their idol cast from copper or silver on a two-wheeled cart to the next village, they clapped their hands and shouted “Whoever wants good luck in business, make a sacrifice to Baal!” Then mad women took their babies and gave them to the servants of Satan... death penalty(Lev.18:21; Lev.20:2), however, until the Babylonian captivity (586 BC), the Semites did not stop practicing them.

Gambling and gambling houses have multiplied in a terrifying amount. What follows from this? The answer is simple, because statistics show how the number of addicts to gambling and raising rates is growing from year to year.

We cannot achieve greatness unless we start small. How we cannot reach the top of the stairs if we do not climb from step to step. With betting, you want to be on top without taking steps in that direction. I would consider bets a good thing if my father advised me to do them. However, the priests do not recommend rates, but work and help to their own kind.

Work and money

Money is something we cannot live without. Even the Egyptian desert fathers sold their needlework (what each of them made in his cell) so that you could buy yourself the most necessary things or material for new work. With all this, we see how they treated money: they never worked for the sake of enrichment and accumulation, but only to maintain their existence!

Work is God's commandment and fundamental law human life that has existed since the creation of man. From the very beginning, the duty of labor was assigned to man: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden, to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Thanks to work, a person fulfills all his life obligations, realizes every meaning of his existence in the world: “Work for six days and do all your work” (Ex. 20, 9).

Honest work is the only righteous way to get money. Gambling and betting reduce this path to zero, being aimed at making easy profits.

Unfortunately, there are also many Christians who are obsessed with the dream of getting rich overnight, or who simply enjoy gambling and betting. Christians don't talk about luck: luck implies a kind of fate, and this is incompatible with belief in God Almighty.

Gambling and Scripture

Many justify this “weakness” or “passion” by claiming that the Scriptures do not clearly state that gambling and gambling is a sin. For all that, we are well aware that many passions are described in Holy Scripture, but are not called our own. modern names.

The Holy Apostle Peter succinctly says: “They promise them freedom, being themselves slaves of corruption, for whoever is overcome by anything, to him is also a slave” (2 Pet. 2:19). Is it not the same freedom and prosperity that gambling promises to the world?

So, to what you are defeated, to that you are a slave. If you can't stop playing and betting, it means that money and the lust for money dominate you, and the consequences of this are not difficult to understand.

“He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who hunts for glamours will endure hardships” (Prov. 12, 11). As the prophet well put it, he called the “obsession hunter” the one who does not work, but seeks “bread”, that is, money and material well-being, on other paths than those bequeathed to us by God.

A sentence pronounced on those who strive for material well-being without applying special efforts, short and cruel, as they deserve: "If you do not want to work, do not eat" (2 Thess. 3, 10). Who does not work and wants to get everything the easy way, he sits "on someone else's hump" and lives off the labor of other people. Therefore, only labor allows a Christian to truly fulfill the commandment of love for one's neighbor.

In order to find meaning, so as not to disturb others, in order to calm down, the apostle Paul commands Christians to work and eat the fruits of their labors: “We exhort and persuade such people by our Lord Jesus Christ, that they, working in silence, eat their own bread” (2 Thess. 3, 12). Gambling, when it brings money, gives the player the "bread" of others, and not the fruit of his own hands.

Sooner or later, the consequences of the income received through gambling will become tangible, for "the reward of a man is according to the works of his hands" (Prov. 12, 14). Depression is very common among those who are addicted to gambling, it subsequently leads to the breakup of families and severing ties with once dear people.

Church canons about gambling

Gambling is a way of entertainment, but also a way of unrighteous acquisition, it is a covert theft (25th Apostolic Canon), and church rules condemn them according to the sinful result that stems from theft, drunkenness, wasted time, outrages, etc., especially in relation to the clergy (Apostolic canons 42 and 43, canons 9 and 51 of VI Ecumenical Council).

The Holy Fathers recommend innocent and useful entertainment - walking in the park, garden, mountains, but not playing cards or similar games of chance, when the body remains motionless, which means it does not rest, the mind is tense, and the soul is agitated due to failure in unrighteousness. acquisition or, in case of good luck, due to excitement and disputes, leading to sin. Smoking, gambling, drunkenness and shameless entertainment bring to the surface the base qualities of the human soul and the development of sinful lusts in it (Gal. 5: 19-21; Eph. 5: 3-5; Apostolic decrees. Book 8: 32, 16) .

“Let none of the laity and clergy henceforth indulge in a reprehensible game. But if anyone is seen doing this, then let the cleric be expelled from the clergy, and let the layman be excommunicated from the communion of the Church” (canon 50 of the VI Ecumenical Council).

Father Cleopas and "luck"

The situation is much more difficult when prayers ask for “good luck” in such games. Elder Cleopas Ilie, in one of his conversations, mentions such cases:

What was this god Moloch, or "Fortune" as we call him today? His statue, cast in copper or silver, was carried on a two-wheeled cart. From his back he had a copper stove, and in front of him - a copper frying pan; from behind, firewood was thrown into Luck until the statue became red-hot. And his priests carried axes in their hands, large and honed.

What sacrifice did Luck accept? Only infants from the hands of mothers. They came to the village where you live. They dragged the chariot of Good Luck with a red-hot frying pan, and called, clapping their hands: “Who wants good luck, make a sacrifice to Good Luck!”. And listen to crazy women, they said to each other: “Kuma, will you give your child away?”, And she answered: “I will give it so that there is good luck!”. The woman took the child from her father's hands, transferred it to the hands of the idol servant, he cut it into pieces and put it on the Luck pan to fry. So he put up to 40-50 children at a time on that pan.

Gambling and betting

By the very nature of their activities, bookmakers and gambling houses can become a temptation: we find there a godless world worshiping metal and paper idols (money). In such places, foul language of all kinds (especially against the Holy Place) and anger feel at home.

The Fathers of the Church admonished us to constantly avoid temptations and not to rely on our own strength, that we could cope with them. I'd like to say that I don't see anything inherently wrong with betting "from time to time", but I can't say that. This "from time to time" is so sly that one should not even try to test it. Great sin and great sickness lie behind these "games" because they very easily turn into passion (dependence). From the "game" come in the end to discord in the family and to its disintegration.

The money obtained in gambling is impure money, this is the money that someone stole, but someone did not feed his family on it.

The risk of getting used to the rhythm of quick profits, when, after standing and thinking like that, you get into the money, is too tempting to call it a “game”. The risk that follows the "breakdown" of easy prey is so great that most fall into heavy addiction.

There is a possibility that at some point there will be no more winnings. Simultaneously with the problem of lost amounts, severe depressions also arise. Then a person who has not been taught anything else considers himself incapable of serious work and comes to especially severe frustrations.

Doctors believe that this "passion" is associated with socio-demographic factors. Men react differently to a bet than women. Difficulty adjusting to social change, leaving home, and being alone can be factors that contribute to “gambling addiction.”

As in the case of drugs, alcohol and smoking, gambling addiction (ludomania) develops gradually. Once becoming a passion, gambling entails a whole string of failures, and hence severe depression, and sometimes even leads to suicide and crime.

In psychotherapy, there is the concept of addictive behavior, which occurs when passion becomes stronger than one's own will and a mature view of things. In civilized countries, addiction to gambling is recognized as a mental illness.

Gambling addiction is an addiction based on the fact that the gambler cannot control his own desire to gamble, take risks. Taking risks helps him take his mind off everyday problems, because high level adrenaline makes him feel like everything is fine. In the case when he wins, he feels like someone significant, standing “above the whole world” and then wants to feel it again, and when he loses, he hopes that he will take revenge, that luck will return to him. It makes him take risks again and again. O more or less money.

In Orthodox morality, to be dependent on some kind of passion means, however, to be mentally ill, not to be free, it means slavery, it means a dungeon into which you yourself imprison yourself and from which you cannot escape, because it is no longer possible to subdue your will.

Orthodox psychotherapy in the roots of this passion sees the love of money and material wealth and pleonexia (self-interest and greed). Here we are not talking about the fact that getting money is a sin, but about the method of obtaining it and about a perverted attitude towards money, that is, about a passionate, pathological desire to neurotically accumulate money.

In some cases, such patients reach hospitalization, where psychotherapy is combined with drug treatment. We already have doctors in our clinics who specialize in treating addictions of this kind.

Release from gambling networks

The first step in treating any addiction is to recognize it. Having once admitted that he is addicted to a certain thing, the interested person must begin to fight against it. It is necessary to avoid being alone with yourself, because this will inevitably push for the return of the corresponding dependence.

Conversations with loved ones and confession with a priest bring real benefits.

However, something must motivate the addict.

For a Christian, the gospel can be powerful enough to shield him from every passion and every addiction. The pure life of the saints and the teachings of the holy fathers are sufficient to strengthen the soul and motivate it to gain freedom from passions.

For a person who does not pay attention Holy Scripture help can come through the people they love. Love for another person, for a child, or the desire to create a healthy family are often the strongest motives. When this does not help, there remains the only way out of the situation that God can give.

Sometimes love for a person is not enough to save the obsessed with passion from this charm of the evil one. Therefore, since every pernicious dependence occurs through the cunning of the devil, in most cases God's help is needed.

Of paramount importance is the confession of one's passion. The priest has grace that ordinary Christians do not have, and with it he can strengthen the will of those who come to confession. Sincere confession attracts the mercy and help of God. “God, I don’t want to do this anymore, help me! I love my family and the people around me, strengthen my will and help me get rid of this chain!

Fasting and prayer are the strongest weapons against the wiles of the evil one. If the obsessed with passion cannot fast, then let his relatives fast, and God, looking at their love, will have mercy on the “sick” and give him the strength to free himself from addiction.

When fortune is on the side of a person, he gets everything he has planned, moreover, without much effort. Then they say that luck accompanies him. But how not to scare her? How not to provoke the onset of a dark streak?

There is a sign that you can not wish good luck to anyone. Not one person, not a group.

If you wish this before starting the journey, it will be difficult if before important matter, - everything will fail if before the competition - there will be a loss.

Good luck in Orthodoxy

Deeply believing people believe that everything in the world and in life happens according to Divine intention, that if you fulfill all the requirements, live by the rules, pray, fast, everything will work out. And luck has nothing to do with it.

If you are lucky just like that, without any effort on the part of a person, then these are the machinations of evil spirits. Therefore, from the point of view of many Orthodox, even to pronounce the word "good luck" is a great sin.

So do not wish good luck to believers. So they can be offended to the core.

Blood offerings to Moloch, the god of fortune

The negative connotation of the concept of "luck" in Orthodoxy has an explanation. In the mythology of some ancient tribes living on the eastern coast Dead Sea was the god Moloch.

According to popular beliefs, he fulfilled any desire and gave a person, as well as his entire family, good luck in all matters for a year. But for this, Moloch had to make a sacrifice.

And not just a victim, but their newborn child, who was burned at the stake during the ritual of sacrifice.

Scary, but many families did it. So, the word “luck” in the church is not even recommended, and even asking for it is even more so.

Who should not wish good luck - folk signs

But not only believers do not like when they are wished good luck. Who knows, suddenly Fortune has already turned her face? If you continue to call for good luck, you can scare it away, and vice versa, attract trouble.

Athletes believe in the omen that during the competition you need to scold them last words to be lucky and win.

Doctors cannot be wished for good luck or quiet duty. According to signs, after this the change will be so difficult that it will be remembered for a long time.

You can not wish good luck to hunters, fishermen and all those who earn their own food. On this account, there is a sign that otherwise the evil spirits will certainly disrupt the whole craft.

They do not wish good luck to the actors before the performance, to the students before the exam, to the sailors taking over the watch.

Before an important meeting or any responsible event, it is better to say “no fluff, no feather” and hear the answer “to hell!”. Then Fortune will definitely turn around and help you achieve your goal.

Can people wish "good luck"?

Be vigilant, wish each other well-being and God's Help, not a demon!

“I see that in some commemorations you mentioned the demon Luck, writing: “About the luck of a daughter”, “About the luck of a son”, “About the luck of a family”. Why did you write the devil in my commemoration book? Do you know who Luck was? It was the biggest demon that mowed down millions of souls. Moloch, or "Luck", was the god of happiness among the Romans, Sumerians, and Carthaginians. What was this god Moloch, or "Fortune" as we call him today? His statue, cast in copper or silver, was carried on a two-wheeled cart. From his back he had a copper stove, and in front of him - a copper frying pan; from behind, firewood was thrown into Luck until the statue was heated. And his priests carried axes in their hands, large and honed. What sacrifice did Luck accept? Only infants from the hands of mothers. They came to the village where you live. They dragged the chariot of Good Luck with a red-hot frying pan, and called, clapping their hands: “Who wants good luck, make a sacrifice to Good Luck!”.

– Archimandrite Cleopas (Ilie)

Can people wish "good luck"? “You wouldn’t wish this on your enemy!” - they say in those cases when some kind of misfortune or misfortune occurs. However, we are used to constantly wishing each other “Good Luck”, without even realizing what a terrible curse we send to the one to whom this wish is intended!

The fact is that Luck or, as we better know, Moloch, was the main deity among the Semitic peoples, who was one of the incarnations of Baal (or Baal, Beelzebub, Belshazzar), that is, the devil. Baal is mentioned several times in the Bible in Judges 2:11, 3:7, 10:6; Moloch in Amos 5:26 and 1 Kings 11:7.

The cult of Moloch-Baal among the Semites consisted in wildly unbridled voluptuousness, seeking artificial excitations. Its external symbol was always the phallus, which was depicted as a column with a truncated top. At the temples of Baal lived the so-called kedeshims and kedeshoms, sacred fornicators and harlots, who doomed themselves to the service of the temple by earning money by their fornication.

The purpose of this cult was to deeply corrupt the people resorting to it. The fruits of this worship were the well-known sad events that occurred with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the cult of Baal was especially pronounced.

Both now and earlier, the main feature of the Semitic peoples - worshipers and servants of Satan, is lies and deceit. The priests of Baal-Moloch were no exception, who, trying to veil the true purpose of the cult, so as not to scare people away from its diabolical essence, spread the idea that they serve the fertile Sun, the source of warmth and vital fire manifested in it.

As in all pagan cults, the servants of Moloch made sacrifices to him. As a rule, these were human sacrifices, which were performed in honor of Moloch through a burnt offering, supposedly passing them through the solar life fire. Newborn babies, especially children of noble families, were considered the most pleasant victims of Baal: “and they built the heights of Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command and which did not enter my heart” (Jer. 7 :31). The children lay down on the outstretched arms of the idol, which had the face of a calf, a fire was burning below. These monstrous sacrifices were performed at night with the sounds of flutes, tambourines and lyres, which drowned out the cries of unfortunate children, and also increased the excitement among the people. The altars of the gods were constantly stained with the blood of children, while in the years of major festivities or in times of disaster, hundreds and thousands of people, and in particular children, were sacrificed.

“First comes Moloch, the terrible king, spattered with the blood of human victims and the tears of fathers and mothers. But because of the noise of the drums, the cries of their children are not heard when they are thrown into the fire in honor of the terrible idol ”(John Milton“ Paradise Lost ”).

“The statue of Moloch was built specifically for accepting human sacrifices and burning them. She was of colossal stature, all copper, and empty inside. The head was bullish, because the bull was a symbol of strength and the sun in its fierce form. The arms of the statue were of monstrous length, and victims were placed on huge outstretched palms; hands, driven by chains on blocks hidden behind the back, lifted the victims to the hole located in the chest, from where they fell into the flaming inferno, which was placed inside the statue, on an invisible grate , and the ash and coals that fell through it formed an ever-increasing heap between the legs of the colossus ... the children were laid alive on the terrible red-hot palms of the monster. Relatives were strictly forbidden to show sadness. Children, if they screamed while they were being prepared for a terrible rite, were soothed by caresses. As ugly and impossible as it may seem, mothers were obliged not only to attend the terrible celebration, but to refrain from tears, sobs and any manifestation of sadness, because otherwise they would not only lose all the honor due to them due to the great honor rendered to them nationwide, but they could bring the wrath of the offended deity on the whole people, and one reluctantly made offering could destroy the effect of the entire sacrifice and even bring misfortunes worse than before to the people. Such a weak mother would have been shamed forever. Drums and flutes kept up an unceasing noise, not only to drown out the screams of the victims, but to increase the excitement among the people. (Ragozina Z. A. History of Assyria. St. Petersburg: Ie A. F. Marx, 1902. P. 151–152).

As mentioned above, Moloch Balaam also had the nickname "Luck". Why? Because it was believed that the family that sacrificed their child to the deity would certainly have a good year in terms of agricultural work and harvesting. Therefore, when the priests of Moloch brought their idol cast from copper or silver on a two-wheeled cart to the next village, they clapped their hands and shouted: “Who wants good luck in business, make a sacrifice to Baal!” Then crazy women took their babies and gave them to the servants of Satan...

This kind of ritual infanticide was subsequently prohibited by the Mosaic Law and punishable by death (Lev. 18:21; Lev. 20:2), but until the Babylonian captivity (586 BC), the Semites did not stop practicing them.

After the revolution of 1917, when the Russian land was desecrated by trampling on the faith and apostasy from God, the ritual sacrifice of babies was planted through the permission at the state level of abortion. Russia became the first country in the world to legalize abortion. As a consequence, this "legitimate" horror spread throughout the world. And until now, these monstrous sacrifices are being made, but already disguised as a medical procedure...

Or do you think that aborted babies are not victims of the demon Luck? Indeed, it is precisely in order to avoid sorrows and for the sake of good luck at work or in personal life, for the sake of a comfortable life, people sometimes make a decision without hesitation: “the baby in the womb must be killed!” And from the fact that the honest word "infanticide" was replaced by the cunning and harmless-sounding word "abortion", and the child with the soulless word "fetus" - the essence does not change - the child in the womb will be torn alive into pieces or burned with an alkaline solution, and then destroy. Moloch is pleased and a short time can reward child killers with luck, but sometimes he can just laugh his demonic laugh and say: "Why do you need luck, you're already mine ?!"

Very often in Everyday life before an important matter, we wish good luck to each other. This is considered a polite gesture and, in theory, does not carry any negative connotation. However, not everyone considers such a wish for good. Some people may take it almost as a personal insult. Who should not wish good luck and why?

Creepy Moloch

Luck in the usual sense of the word is a positive event that occurred as a result of a certain set of circumstances. Few people know that luck in the Bible is directly related to the ancient Semitic pagan god Moloch. The mention of him, in particular, is found in the Old Testament Third Book of Kings and the Book of the prophet Jeremiah.

Moloch is the god of good luck and luck among the Sumerians and some other peoples, and later among the Carthaginians. The statue of the deity was cast in silver, in front of it was a copper frying pan with boiling oil, and behind it was a burning stove. Infants were offered as sacrifices to Moloch.

It was believed that the one who donates his child has a whole year of good luck ahead. For the sake of good harvest, success in trade and any other activity, people sacrificed their children. As a result, the very word "luck" acquired a negative connotation among the ancients, associated with the thousands of innocent victims of Moloch.

Christianity

The first Christians were well aware of the bloody cult of the god of luck, so the corresponding wish began to be regarded as a terrible punishment. Archimandrite Cleopas (Ilie) noted in his writings that the wish of good luck for a Christian is the desire to bring Moloch on a person. Thus, at first glance, a harmless wish is actually a grave sin.

This belief is common among believers to this day. Christians rely solely on the will of God, and not on chance or luck, and even with obvious pagan overtones. The Gospel of Luke says: “God was pleased that man be saved, just as the angels cried out saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Believers believe that what is happening to us is sent down by God. And human achievements are the result of his own labors and diligence, as well as the help of God, and not by any coincidence.

In Islam

A similar approach is followed in Islam. Faithful Muslims also may not be happy if they wish them good luck. Good luck is prosperity, and any good can only come from Allah.

If you just wish good luck, then it is not entirely clear where this blessing comes from? In the 18th chapter of the Qur'an al-Kahf, it says: “I will do it tomorrow. Unless Allah wills it! If you have forgotten, then remember your Lord and say: "Perhaps my Lord will lead me in a more right way."

True Muslims, if they want to wish well-being, usually mention Allah. "Success to you from Allah" and so on.

Hunters and fishermen

It is also not customary to wish good luck to fishermen, hunters and all those who earn their livelihood in this way. As noted by the Soviet ethnographer and religious scholar Sergei Tokarev, the signs associated with hunting and fishing are the most ancient, because the survival of those people depended on success in this matter.

It was impossible to wish good luck, because it was believed that they could hear it evil spirits, which then will certainly disrupt the entire fishery. It was from this belief that the well-known wishes came to us - “no tail, no scales”, “no fluff, no feather” and the like. It was believed that evil spirits, satisfied with what they heard, would leave the person alone.

Belief without changes has reached our days. True, in modern times it extends not only to fishing and hunting. For example, you cannot wish good luck to a person before an exam.

Actors and doctors

Good luck or a good performance cannot be wished to the artists either. According to the old English tradition, which began in the second half of the 16th century, the actors wanted to break a leg before going on stage. This was done approximately according to the same scheme as in the case of hunters and fishermen: if they wished bad things, then there would be success.

Why "break your leg"? Firstly, the actor had to kneel at the end of the performance and bow his head to the audience, and secondly, to pick up the coins that they threw to him instead of flowers.

Now, both in Russia and abroad, many artists join hands before the performance and shout “God bless!”. There are also those who repeat the triple “pah”.

Doctors are also superstitious. It is believed among doctors that if you hear a wish of good luck addressed to you, then the duty will certainly be restless and fussy.