SUPERSTITIONS : Placing A Hand In Front Of The Face When Yawning LORE & SOURCES Is it simply politeness and the desire not to spread 'germs' that causes us to place the hand before the face or is there a deeper significance? According to 'Sperenza' Wilde in her book Superstitions of Ireland, making the sign of the cross before the mouth when yawning prevented the devil rushing into the body and taking up residence there. Presumably he would slip around from the back where he was normally in residence, avoiding flying salt, and run down the throat! Mothers would close the baby's mouth, or make the cross before it when it yawned, for fear of the devil taking over the innocent young. Today's covering of the mouth derives from this. BACK TO TOP

Check out the latest Crypt Polls!

-»¦«-

F o u n d   a   b r  o k e n   l  i n k ?   L e t   u  s   k n o w