These are considered Unlucky

* Friday the 13th
* A black cat crossing one's path
* Killing a ladybug/ladybird
* The number 13 (Many buildings skipped 13 when numbering their floors for this reason)
* Killing a spider in one's home
* Breaking a mirror (seven years bad luck)
* The number 4 (in China, the word's pronunciation in Mandarin is similar to "si", which means death. A similar belief is present in Japan.)
* Stepping on a crack (the mother's back will break; rhymed as "step on a crack, break your mother's back")
* Stepping on a line in pavement or floor cover (similar to above, rhymed as "step on a line, you'll break your spine")
* Spilling over salt (When salt was more precious than gold, if one split some it was believed to mean that a demon was trying to steal one's salt, but by appeasing it with a little salt over the left shoulder, the demon would leave)
* Putting a hat on a bed
* Opening an umbrella indoors
* Walking underneath a ladder (when being hanged, the condemned man would often be made to pass underneath a ladder before climbing it and onto the gallows)
* Saying "good luck"
* Replying "thank you" to someone wishing good luck
* Picking up a penny face-down (can be avoided by giving the penny away)
* Putting shoes on a table. In the UK, this is considered to bring extremely bad luck, traditionally the death of a person in the house. This is sometimes specified to only be unlucky when new shoes are put on a table
* In the British Navy it was traditionally considered unlucky to have a woman on board ship, although this may be a more practical matter. Having a naked woman on a ship was considered good luck, however.
* Among sailors it is considered unlucky to kill an albatross or a porpoise
* Among sailors it is considered bad luck to have anything blue aboard
* Saying "good luck" to an actor going on stage (the preferred expression is: Break a leg)
* In theaters, "Macbeth" must not be uttered by anyone unless it is necessary to the show. For example, if the company is performing Shakespeare's Macbeth, one says "the Scottish Play" and refers to the characters as "Mackers" and "Lady Makers"
* Sinistrally (being left-handed)
* Seeing one magpie
* A bird flies into one's window (a person in the family will die today, or has died last night). In some variants, it is believed to only be bad luck if the bird dies.
* Using a Ouija board; it is believed by some to attract bad spirits
* In some areas it is believed to be bad luck to kill a mockingbird; this becomes a part (albeit not a large part) of the story To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as inspiring the title.
* Cutting your nails at night
* Five leaf clovers
* Turning a horse shoe upside down is said to drain the good luck from it and bring about bad luck
* Avoiding eye contact when toasting with another person (7 years of bad sex in Mexico)

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