Is It Possible To Celebrate 40 Years Of A Man - Signs And Superstitions

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

A terrible anniversary: can a man celebrate 40 years

The fortieth anniversary is a serious milestone, so the desire to celebrate it, and even on a grand scale, is quite natural. However, you may have heard of bad omens associated with this date. Can a man celebrate his 40th birthday? What do religions and omens say about this? Let's try to find the roots of negative superstition.

Signs of the fortieth anniversary

Many superstitious people are convinced that celebrating their fortieth birthday means condemning oneself to an early death. It is believed that whoever celebrates this birthday will not live to see the next one. There are also less cruel superstitions that predict only everyday misfortunes such as poverty or quarrels in the family. But where did this belief come from?

Christian view

For a Christian, the number 40 has a special meaning. The Great Flood lasted 40 days, the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years, 40 days and Jesus resisted the temptation of the devil. The fortieth day is also important for the Christian service for the dead. This is due to the fact that, according to the Bible, on the fortieth day after death, a person's soul goes to its new abode - to heaven or hell.

Perhaps, in this regard, the number 40, in principle, began to be associated with something negative, and superstitious people decided that it was not worth celebrating such a date. But they did not take into account that it is also mentioned in a positive context - for example, it is 40 days that Great Lent lasts (which appeared due to the forty-day fasting of Jesus in the same desert), 40 days separate the resurrection and the ascension of Christ.

Do not forget that not only fatal and terrible events are associated with the number 40 in the Bible, but also positive

"Bad" word origin

You may have heard another version of the origin of superstition. Say, the word "forty" is easily broken into "rubbish" and "rock" - that is, "trash" and "hard fate." Due to the similarity of these words, superstitious people may refuse to celebrate their fortieth birthday, fearing to incur the same "rubbish" and "rock".

Another theory, which is sometimes told by the supporters of this omen, connects the word "forty" with the word "term", supposedly this date indicates the death of the birthday man. But in fact, this numeral most likely has nothing to do with either terms or garbage.

Sable skins were tied in 40 pieces and called it "magpies" - perhaps this is where the number came from.

If you believe in omen

Sometimes even the most ridiculous omens come true just because we believe in them. Celebrating 40 years in the belief that it can hurt you will not bring you joy or benefit. How can we “neutralize” this curse? You can try to deceive yourself and believe in a bad omen:

• remove the number 40 from the holiday. Celebrate the successful completion of 39 years of life, the second twenty - there are tons of options to disguise the age on the holiday. If you are convinced that the whole problem is in the number, then this method should work. Give up greeting cards with forbidden numbers and balloons with them;
• celebrate the next day. Or every other day. Or next week. You have already successfully overcome the fatal line, now there is nothing to be afraid of;
• skip the birthday celebration and throw a party for another occasion. Nowadays it is not difficult to find calendars with holidays for every day. And if you write your birthday on Wikipedia, you can find other reasons for fun - the dates of birth of famous people, major discoveries are listed there. Just inform all guests in advance that your birthday is a secret, and the formal reason is completely different.

Religious bans on celebrating the fortieth anniversary

Is it forbidden in Orthodoxy to celebrate the fortieth anniversary? Definitely not. As mentioned, the Bible's excuse for a bad omen is no good (after all, 40 years there is not an unambiguously bad number). And this religion does not encourage all sorts of superstitions. Therefore, priests, on the contrary, have a negative attitude to the superstitious fear of their own fortieth birthday.

Do Catholics have such superstition? No, Catholic Christians do not consider the number 40 to be somehow creepy or ominous, so they have no bad omen regarding their fortieth birthday.

And what about Muslims? These believers don't mind the number 40, but they don't approve of birthday celebrations as such. However, this jubilee is mentioned in the Qur'an, namely in Sura Akhaf. The fortieth anniversary is celebrated as the approximate period in which a person becomes the most conscious, responsible, and best of all learns the essence of his religion.

The opinion of numerologists and astrologers

Esotericists have different attitudes towards such superstitions. In numerology, the four is often interpreted as a symbol of suffering and death. However, celebrating the fourth birthday of their children, for example, does not bother anyone.

The Japanese also share the same opinion about the meaning of the number 4 - but due to the similarity with the sound of the word "death"

Astrologers, however, claim that at the age of forty, a person's life is influenced by Uranus and Pluto - planets with a "bad reputation", which are believed to attract troubles. Therefore, these experts assure that the year after the anniversary is usually difficult for a person. However, this has nothing to do with whether the birthday party was held or not. Astrologers are sure - the planets do not care whether you celebrated a round date.

Such superstitions bring trouble only if the birthday person believes in them. Then he really begins to get into various unpleasant situations - but only because of his own fear and confusion.