I’m a gypsy – 19 secret beliefs we have including why you should NEVER drop a knife & you’ll never hear a women whistle
A GYPSY girl has revealed the 19 superstitions travellers believe in that country people don’t know about.
Romylee Doherty, a 20-year-old traveller, explained that it’s a nightmare when gypsies drop knives on the floor in the kitchen and she also revealed the real reason why single women should never whistle.
Not only this, but Romylee also claimed that in the community, you should never get your haircut on a Sunday and you should certainly never have any peacocks or swan decor in your home.
Romylee took to social media to share the secret beliefs country folk don’t know about, leaving many totally open-mouthed.
She said: “For the last three days straight, the only TikToks I’ve been seeing on my For You page are the traveller beliefs – the things you believe in, things that are unlucky.
“We are very superstitious, very superstitious people and I’ve been watching them and a few of them I do agree with. It’s different for different breeds of people, I’ve realised that.
“It’s a bit weird for me, because I have Irish beliefs and then I have English beliefs, because mum’s English and my daddy is Irish. So I thought I’d do a video on my beliefs.
“You’re gonna laugh for the air because they’re mental.
“So I’m gonna start off strong with, I think this is an English and an Irish one – we don’t mention not God, the other guy [The Devil] in our household. We don’t mention him. We call him the bad boy, the cover, the muller. We don’t mention him. It’s unlucky. It harbours him round. We just don’t mention it.
“Another thing is an English thing that a man does. We don’t cut our hair or nails on a Sunday. If you wanna cut your hair, you have to wait till the Monday because it’s unlucky and it’s my bad luck.
“Another thing, this is an Irish thing, but I still do it. If you compliment someone or say a baby say ‘oh, my God, she’s unbelievable’ you’ve gotta say ‘God bless’ at the end of it.
“Or say someone gets a new bag or a motor or something like that, you gotta say ‘God bless’ at the end of it because you’re wishing them bad luck, so you gotta say ‘God bless’ at the end of it.”
Not only this, but Romylee revealed why traveller women hate to drop knives and what they do when this happens.
She continued: “This is what my mom does – if you drop a knife, you can’t pick it up. She’s literally dropped knives and she slided them up the wall so she didn’t have to directly pick them up because it’s bad luck.
“And you can’t stir with a knife because that’s bad luck and you’re stirring trouble if you stir with a knife.”
Romylee then explained why single women shouldn’t whistle, what you have to do with cutlery when giving someone food and the ritual they must do before leaving and entering their home.
The gypsy claimed: “Another English one – it’s unlucky for a single girl to whistle because she will never get married. I did it once. I was whistling, I can’t remember why, I was just whistling and my mum was like ‘stop it, it’s unlucky.’ So that’s an English one for you.
“Another Irish one – my daddy used to do this – if you’re giving someone some food and you have a knife and fork in your hand, you have to face it down the other way. Never face the knife and fork up the way and never cross the knife and fork because it’s unlucky.
“Another one – this is an Irish one – I don’t know if everyone believes that, but that’s what my family did. If you’re leaving the house, you have to bless your face before you leave the house, and then when you come back, you have to bless your face again when you walk through the door.
“I don’t know, I think it’s for safe journeys and stuff like that. Like you got home safe and you left safe and everything like that. But that’s the thing that my dad’s side does.”
As well as this, Romylee mentioned the three words they never mention, what they must do if a close family member dies and the walking habits they adopt.
She said: “We don’t mention these specific animals [rats, monkeys, ferrets]. We call them long tails.
“We have a belief if you shave a baby’s hair when it’s first born, it will grow back thicker and longer. That’s an Irish belief. My mum didn’t do that with us. But they do that and I don’t know if it actually works or not because we never did it on any of us.
“If someone passes away in the family, you have to wear black for 12 months. That’s just really close family members, to be fair, if it’s someone really close to you. But I feel like most families say that.
“An Irish thing, when some passes away, you have to light a candle everyday for 12 months, so they basically find the light. It’s a Catholic thing, but it’s an Irish thing.
“I don’t know if any other families believe in this. Maybe we’re just like a weird family and we do things like this, but this is what we believe in.
“Oh my god, yeah, you can’t walk under things, you can’t walk underneath ladders and stuff like that, it’s strange but you won’t grow basically if you walk under the things.
“Oh yeah, never walk over a baby because they won’t grow. That was the one I was looking for there.
“Oh, you can’t tickle the baby either – if it’s a newborn baby, because it makes them have a stutter or something like that. I don’t even know if that’s proven or not, but we do believe in that.
“Another thing, if we drive past a graveyard or there’s a funeral or something like that, you always bless your face. Always bless your face. That’s just the thing we do.”
If that wasn’t enough, Romylee also revealed a ‘luck money’ ritual traveller men believe in, as well as why traveller women won’t have swans or peacocks in their homes.
She concluded: “I feel like every traveller does this, it’s the men’s thing. Say he’s buying a motor or something, or a trailer or what not, you give luck money back. So whether it be literally years ago, you give a bit of silver back for luck.
“But now, obviously it’s changed, so you give £10, £20, £50, something just for luck, just to give back, you know.
“It is unlucky to have any peacock or swans in your home. My mum believes in that. It’s very unlucky.
“One time she bought a clock or something like that, and she didn’t know it was a swan, but it was a swan clock and two seconds later the swan clock was thrown out the back door. We didn’t keep it. It’s unlucky.
“That is all I can think of off the top of my head right now. There’s so many more, but I cannot think of them for the life of me right now, but there’s a lot.
“To this day, I still believe in them. It’s mental.”
The TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @romyxdoherty, has clearly left many stunned, as it has quickly amassed 41,200 views in just 23 hours.
Social media users were open-mouthed at the traveller beliefs and many took to the comments to share the superstitions they believe in.
One person said: “My nana always said don’t put your handbag on the floor or you’ll lose money.”
Another added: “I can’t have knives crossed or if I drop a knife I ain’t picking that up. My mum brought me up that way and never cross [on] the stairs never either.”
A third commented: “3 drains, saluting magpies, not walking under signs, if you spill salt throw some over your left shoulder etc the list goes on it’s horrendous.”
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