Superstitions

Superstitions is a folklore almanac that knows what day it is. Open it and it tells you the superstition that belongs to today, and why: because it is a Friday, because the moon is full, because it is Midsummer Eve, or because the Perseids peak tonight.

More than 2,800 superstitions, every one read by hand against a named source published between 1620 and 1920, from 74 works of British, Irish and North American folklore. Each is given as its source records it, with the place it was recorded and its entry number. Nothing is invented and nothing is presented as true. The app shows the lore; what you make of it is up to you.

EVERYTHING IS COMPUTED ON YOUR PHONE The calendar, the moon and the sky are all worked out on the device, with no connection needed: • Every feast and holy day, including Easter and the movable feasts, by the Gregorian computus • The phase of the moon, night by night • The peak of each major meteor shower, from the position of the sun • Every solar eclipse to 2050 • Sunrise, sunset and the height of the sun at your chosen place

TODAY One superstition for the day, chosen by the strongest thing that is true of it: a feast or an eclipse outranks a full moon, which outranks the weekday, which outranks the month. Every other belief keyed to the day follows, grouped by reason. Step back and forth through the calendar to read any day of the year.

OCCASIONS When should you marry, travel, move house, cut your hair, plant, or go to sea? Choose what you mean to do and a window of a week to a year, and the app lists the days the old traditions favour or forbid, and which rule each comes from. Where traditions disagree, you see both.

SKY The moon heads the page. Tell the app what you see, a red sky, a halo round the moon, a rainbow, a shooting star, mist or thunder, and it gives you the lore that belongs to it. Turn on live weather if you like and it reads the conditions for you each hour, showing the figures behind every sign.

DICTIONARY AND SEARCH Look up a thing rather than a belief: 138 things in eleven groups, from magpies and hares to mirrors, salt, clover and the moon. Browse ten topics and 87 themes, or go through the sources one work at a time. Search matches the belief, the place and the things it mentions.

SAVED Keep the beliefs you like, and find again the ones you read recently. Share any belief with its source.

WIDGETS A small and a medium Home Screen widget show the day's superstition, chosen for the size you pick and always shown whole, never cut off. The medium widget carries a gold emblem for the belief; the small one does too, when there is room. The day's lore rotates, so the same weekday brings a different saying each week. Lock Screen widgets show the moon and the day's reason.

DAILY NOTIFICATION An optional daily notification at the hour you choose, with the day's superstition, worked out on the phone.

PRIVATE AND OFFLINE No account, no sign-in, no tracking and no advertising. The whole collection is inside the app and works without a connection. The app asks for nothing on first launch. Live weather is the only feature that goes online, and it is off until you turn it on. Location is only asked for if you choose to use it for the sky; you can enter a place by hand instead. Weather data from MET Norway.