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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren vog Obam here Stevie Wonder once

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Speaker 1: saying that superstition is when you believe in things that

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Speaker 1: you don't understand. And maybe he's right. Step on a crack,

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Speaker 1: break your mother's back, break a mirror, get seven years

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Speaker 1: of bad luck. We've all heard the sayings and rhymes,

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Speaker 1: but how many of us really know what they mean, or,

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Speaker 1: more importantly, where they come from. As of twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: a survey by Research for Good found that just over

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Speaker 1: half of Americans strongly or somewhat believe in superstitions like

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Speaker 1: finding and picking up a penny, being good luck. Superstitions

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Speaker 1: rise to our minds when we want more control or

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Speaker 1: certainty about something. We want an explanation for why things

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Speaker 1: go wrong or right, and for whatever reason, we're quick

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Speaker 1: to attribute success or failure to something seemingly innocuous, like

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Speaker 1: a rabbit's foot or a clover with an unusual number

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Speaker 1: of leaves. Psychologists believe that when we carry items like these,

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Speaker 1: they actually do have a placebo effect, fueling positive thinking. Conversely,

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Speaker 1: if we lose that lucky object, we think negative thoughts,

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Speaker 1: and today we wanted to talk about a few of

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Speaker 1: the superstitions that come from sailing and fishing. A lot

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Speaker 1: of these beliefs date back several centuries and are still

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Speaker 1: held in varying levels of seriousness today. For example, it's

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Speaker 1: bad luck to sail on a Friday. If you whistle

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Speaker 1: or sing into the wind on a boat, a storm

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Speaker 1: is short of follow Sailors who wear earrings or have

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Speaker 1: tattoos won't drown, And it's bad luck to have women

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Speaker 1: on board because they make the see angry or jealous.

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Speaker 1: But two of the most enduring superstitions have to do with,

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Speaker 1: of all things, bananas and suitcases. In both cases, these

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Speaker 1: items are strictly forbidden on board. Many charter fishing boat

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Speaker 1: crews have steadfast restrictions about bringing bananas on the boat

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Speaker 1: because it's believed that they'll cause bad luck. If found

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Speaker 1: a board, the boat may return to the dock to

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Speaker 1: purge the offending fruit. Some charters go so far as

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Speaker 1: to prohibit brands like Banana Boats, sunscreen, or Banana Republic

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Speaker 1: clothing on board. Mariners have even been known to object

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Speaker 1: to fruit of the loom underwear. One sport fisher claimed

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Speaker 1: had treated wearers to wedgies and then cut the labels out.

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Speaker 1: This is particularly odd because the fruit of the loom

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Speaker 1: graphic doesn't even have a banana on it, though some

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Speaker 1: say the banana was left off because of this very superstition.

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Speaker 1: There are a few different ways people say bad luck

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Speaker 1: may come to you if you bring bananas on a

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Speaker 1: fishing boat. One is that boats carrying bananas don't catch fish.

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Speaker 1: The origin of this belief made date back to the

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Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds and trade through the Caribbean. The wooden sailing

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Speaker 1: boats of that time had to move quickly to deliver

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Speaker 1: bananas before they spoiled, and fishermen had a hard time

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Speaker 1: catching fish on such fast moving boats, which maybe how

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Speaker 1: the superstition came about. Another that originated during this time

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Speaker 1: is that bananas will cause a boat to sink, perhaps

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Speaker 1: after many boats never made it to their destinations, of

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Speaker 1: which were coincidentally carrying bananas. Another banana related superstition says

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Speaker 1: the cargo could be more directly deadly to the ship's

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Speaker 1: crew working near them, and to be fair in actuality,

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Speaker 1: fermenting bananas do give off methane gas, which could conceivably

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Speaker 1: get trapped below deck and kill any crew members unlucky

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Speaker 1: enough to stay in the hold too long. Another popular

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Speaker 1: theory goes that venomous spiders may have hitched rides in bananas,

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Speaker 1: and once those bananas were on board, the boat would

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Speaker 1: be host to any number of lethal credits. And then,

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Speaker 1: of course there's the theory that banana appeals just caused

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Speaker 1: crew members to slip and fall on deck. But I

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Speaker 1: mentioned suitcases being a no go to. They're considered harbingers

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Speaker 1: of death or illness. Even when camera crew boarded the

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Speaker 1: crab boats to film Discovery Channel's reality series Deadliest Catch,

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Speaker 1: they were asked to leave their equipment suitcases on the dock.

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Speaker 1: This superstition has variations too. Some sailors are wary of

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Speaker 1: all luggage, Some only band black suitcases and bags, which

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Speaker 1: are considered bad luck because black is the color of

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Speaker 1: death and a metaphor for the depths of the dark,

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Speaker 1: cold sea. And some say that travel bags resemble body bags.

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Speaker 1: So why do cruise hang on to these superstitions? And

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Speaker 1: probably for the same reason that the superstitions began. Even

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Speaker 1: with modern understanding of science and weather patterns, we still

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Speaker 1: perceive the sea as a mysterious and treacherous place. And

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Speaker 1: many fishing operations are indeed dangerous work. Beliefs and superstitions

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Speaker 1: are passed down from generation to generation, and it's a

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Speaker 1: brave sailor who turns their back on tradition. Would you

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Speaker 1: be willing to see what happens when you reject a

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Speaker 1: centuries old superstition? Today's episode is based on the article

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Speaker 1: why are Fisherman Superstitious of Bananas? On how stuffworks dot

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Speaker 1: Com written by Deborah Ronka. Brain Stuff is production of

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Speaker 1: our Heart Radio and partnership with how stuffworks dot Com,

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Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows