Предрассудки

1-ая Всероссийская научно-практическая конференция

учащихся общеобразовательных организаций

«Современная палитра языков и культур: взгляд молодых»

Секция: краеведение

Исследовательская работа

Предрассудки

 учащегося 10А класса МБОУ «Гимназия № 6 им. Габдуллы Тукая» 

Научный руководитель:

Мышкина Татьяна Аркадьевна, учитель английского языка

высшей квалификационной категории

Ижевск, 2019

Regional scientific-practical conference

Section “Foreign Languages”

The research work

“ Superstitions in Russian, English and Tatar cultures”

Izhevsk, 2019

Introduction

    Do superstitions play an important role in everyday life? Really, in our life we often encounter some phenomena difficult to explain. There are a lot of different superstitions all over the world. No matter how sophisticated our society becomes, superstitions persist in having impact on success or failure. Superstitions say a lot about who we are, how we feel and how we think about our world. They tell us a lot about our perception of the meaning of various signs and symbols that appear in our everyday lives.  We suppose that there are different and similar superstitions   in   different cultures. Is it really so?

The hypothesis of the research: there are different and similar superstitions   in   cultures.

The purpose of the research work is to compare wedding superstitions in Russian, English and Tatar cultures.

      To reach the purpose we have set the following tasks:

to find out some information about the superstitions;

to find out information about the superstitions in Russian, English and Tatar cultures;

to analyze the superstitions in Russian, English and Tatar cultures;

to compare the superstitions in Russian, English and Tatar cultures in order  to find out differences and common things;

to conduct a survey among the representatives of Russian, English and Tatar cultures;

to make a conclusion

The object of the research work: superstitions

The subject of the research: wedding superstitions in Russian, English and Tatar cultures

The methods of the research:

1. Surveying the information (books, the internet, periodicals);

2. Analyzing the results of the research in order to achieve the aim of this work;

3. Comparison

5. Survey

Chapter I

1.1 What is a superstition?

   The word superstition is often used to refer to folk beliefs deemed irrational, which is appropriate since irrational means "not based on reason". This leads to some superstitions being called "old wives' tales". It is also commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.  Almost every nation has a reputation of some kind. People have believed in superstitions from the dawn of time. Pre-historic man feared great natural powers, and phenomena that he did not understand, and related them to the gods, spirits, good and evil forces that control the world. He tried to invent ways to hold back the forces of evil and from this, in actual fact, superstition was born. Over the years, man’s beliefs changed, and so did the superstitions, but they did not disappear. Many have been preserved to this day, and the rationale behind them has been forgotten and has disappeared.  They cause us to act in strange ways, believe in odd things and leave us unable to explain the reasons why. Many superstitions may seem silly, even stupid to us today, but they continue to influence our behavior.  

    There are different definitions of the term “Superstition”. A superstition is anything that people believe that is based on myth, magic, or irrational thoughts. In other words superstition is a belief or a practice that is not based on facts or events that can be proven. As for Collins English Dictionary it defines Superstitions as, "irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown". According the Oxford English dictionary superstition is a belief that is unfounded or irrational.   The writer Raymond Lamont Rown considered the Superstition to be a belief, or system of beliefs, by which almost religious veneration is attached to things mostly secular; a parody of religious faith in which there is belief in an occult or magic connection. According to Webster's dictionary, superstition is any belief that is inconsistent with the known laws of science or with what is considered true and rational; esp., such a belief in omens, the supernatural, etc. They are beliefs that are steeped in lore or tradition, and it is usually difficult to pinpoint the exact origin. Superstitions are also known as old wives' tales, legends, and traditions. They may involve other people, animals, graveyards, ghosts, inanimate objects.

       The use of superstitions is very old, particularly because for a long time people didn’t have the science to explain the cause and effect of things that happened, like certain weather occurrences or illness. Instead, these unlucky events were often associated with other things that happened like a black cat crossing your path.

  So there are different definitions of superstitions but on the whole they have common meaning - a belief that is not based on facts or events that can be proven.    In spite of now having better knowledge of how or why so many things happen, lots of people still believe in superstitions, which can be both new and old.

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