When we were little, the best part of winter was the chance of a snow day. We watched the weather eagerly the night it was supposed to snow, and crossed our fingers, in hopes that school would be canceled the next morning. It was exciting; we googled “the snow day predictor” and checked with our parents to see if our school had announced an early cancellation.
As little kids, we also had many superstitions, which we thought would increase the chance of a snow day. It was like we thought we could force one, and it would happen if we wished hard enough. Most superstitions were nonsensical. For example, a YouTube video would say that putting spoons under your pillow could cause a snow day, and as a little kid, you would listen and tell your friends who would do it too, and so on, and so forth. But silly as they may be, these were very fun and added to the excitement of the winter season. Students across FM High School participated in a survey about their favorite childhood snow day superstitions.
One student said, “I flushed ice cubes and put pencils in the freezer.” Flushing ice cubes was the most common response, but nobody knows how this superstition got started.
Another said, “I wore my clothes inside out.” This was another common response, but it couldn’t have been comfortable.
“I put spoons in the freezer— that used to make my parents so confused. They’d pour cereal for breakfast the next day, and there’d be no spoons to eat it with,” someone else said.
“I ate ice cream for dessert,” said one student. That is definitely a win-win situation, and also likely just an excuse for a sweet treat, but they claim it worked.
Personally, I remember the hype from the night before a supposed snow day, dragging my little sister around the house to fulfill all of these superstitious rituals. It drove our parents crazy, but they put up with it, watching fondly as we argued over who was going to dump ice cubes in the toilet, and who was going to put spoons and pencils in the freezer. We would steal their phones to check the “snow day predictor” and we would constantly hassle them about whether or not school had closed. Sometimes, I could hardly sleep after, so impatiently, waiting to see if our little rituals had worked.
These superstitions may be silly but they bring good memories for many people. We were all excited when we woke up to see snow everywhere— usually because school was canceled and we could sleep some more. As little kids, we also assumed our superstitious traditions had worked, and that the snow day had only happened because we made it happen. And that was magical.
