Kena Hora...

Are you superstitious?   I hope I spelled Kena Hora right.  This is probably my biggest superstition.  I know it's silly...kind of.  It goes like this: if you say something good like "hey, look at that... it's June and I haven't found one tick on any of the cats"  the next cat you pick up will be full of ticks.  To prevent the infestation after you say the 'good' thing you must spit three times into the wind and your good luck will continue.   That,  I've been told,  by a Jewish friend is how Kena Hora works.

What's your superstitions?

Warning:  This thread is for entertainment purposes only for those who think I'm 'delving into the dark side.' 

Widdle_NY:

if you say something good like "hey, look at that... it's June and I haven't found one tick on any of the cats"  the next cat you pick up will be full of ticks.  To prevent the infestation after you say the 'good' thing you

At that point I usually knock on wood.

Widdle, I have never seen any good results from spitting into the wind ...

even once, LOL!

Widdle_NY:

'delving into the dark side.' 

You are bad bad bad! LOL

I think my only real superstition is the "three" thing, that everything runs in three's.  My mother was very superstitious...if you hit a bird someone was going to die, if you dream about a snake something bad will happen..I can't even remember them all.

That,  I've been told,  by a Jewish friend is how Kena Hora works.

This is fascinating...I've never heard that term before.  I've learned something new this morning, Thanks to you, Widdle!

As for my superstitions...I get rather anxious when things (for lack of a better term) in general start going really well.  It's almost as if I'm waiting for something bad to happen to balance all the good. 

Interesting thread!

Krissy   

Very interesting. No such superstition exists in my particular Jewish family.  I have not heard the term Kena Hora, and you can be darned sure my mom never told me to spit, any time, anywhere, except at the dentist's office.

But, you know, Jews are no more monolithic than any other culture.  I'll have to look that up.

Lady Fingers - I probably spelled it wrong.  I'm spelling it by how it sounds to me. 

This is very interesting!  I have never heard of this before.  I did a quick search and found this, which includes another spelling of the term: kenenahora

http://www.pass.to/tgmegillah/printaskrabbiwiko.asp?id=14

With either spelling, it's new to me.  But I would never claim my family as the standard for American Jews. :)

Apparently the term is from Lithuanian.  Here's what I found although it doesn't sound like a superstition:

"'Konora' reminds me a bit of a Lithuanian and/or Yiddish endearment
remembered from my childhood, though it has an extra syllable in the middle - something like 'kenahora' (a number of phrases that I'd always assumed were Yiddish are turning out to be sort of Lithuanian)
don't know the precise meaning of kenahora, but it was usually said with a rueful smile & a shake of the head when referring to something exasperating but charming that my baby sister did (as in "isn't she a little dickens") ..."

nite_owl:

"It's bad luck to be superstitious" - Billy Joe Shaver

  Love it!

You can tell it's 99 degrees here today as I have time to research things that have nothing but a curiosity value for looking up. Forgive me, friends, the heat has gone to my head!!  I should be back to normal when the heat wave breaks.      Bad storms tonight?

Kenahora, although everyone thinks is a Yiddish word is actually three words slurred together in Yinglish –- the vibrant language of Native Americans of the Lower East Side: kein, the Yiddish word for no or negating, ayin Hebrew for eye, and hara, Hebrew for Evil.  Now think back to when she used it: "Such a sheine punim, kenahora." "You've grown, kenahora." "He's making money hand over fist, kenahora." (you should only be so lucky)

Widdle_NY:

Warning:  This thread is for entertainment purposes only for those who think I'm 'delving into the dark side.' 

I get such a kick out of you Widdle!!

Yeah I knock wood and when things like this happen I refer to it as kind of a Murphy's Law.  Ya know the cat has no fleas....so tomorrow Murphy will make sure the cat does!

Never heard of this before & I too love learning something new!!

Now for pronounciation...is it Kayna-ora??? or do we know?

 From what I remember, it's said exactly the same way people would say "knock on wood", after saying something good, like, "looks like we won't have rain for the Tu b'Shvat picnic, Kenehora"!

 We never spit in our family, but I think my grandmother said this.

 And Jerseygal is right, it's not one word.  I just write it in English the way it's pronounced.