The world of theater is one of the most superstitious I know. We rarely see what happens behind the scenes, but it's well known that actors often believe in superstitions and have peculiar ways of wishing each other luck.

The French say “Merde!” (Shit!), and the Spanish, not to be outdone, say “¡Mucha mierda!” (A lot of shit!) — the more, the better.

On either side of the Atlantic, the US and the UK are no different in this respect. With the best intentions, they'll say, “Break a leg!” Germans take it a step further and commonly say, “Hals- und Beinbruch!”, which literally means “Break your neck and your leg”— though I recommend swapping the order. Otherwise, you’d be dead before you got to break your leg.

These are, by all means, paradoxical expressions based on superstitious reverse psychology and remain in use today: by voicing a misfortune, one hopes to prevent it. The Japanese take a more pragmatic approach. They wisely say "頑張って (Ganbatte)", meaning "Do your best" or "Put in a lot of effort," which seems a much more sensible strategy than wishing physical harm.

Russian and Italian expressions for wishing luck are both related to animals. Russians say "Ni pukhá, ni perá!" (Neither fur nor feather), to which the other person responds, "K chyortu!" (To hell!) 🤭

The wolf represents the challenge in the Italian expression “In bocca al lupo” (Into the wolf’s mouth), which is typically responded with "Crepi il lupo!" ("Let the wolf die," or "May the wolf die," not sure here.)

All in all, it's not hard to see why the world often finds it difficult to get along, to understand one another, and to be tolerant. But at least there seems to be one universal superstition everyone agrees on: uttering the words “Good luck!” is the ultimate jinx.