I found this page about grasshopper symbolism when I went to look up something with which to tease Leeann. The site, What’s Your Sign, has a lot of other stuff like that – signs, totems, symbolism and similar superstitions.
To be honest, I am generally of the opinion that all that stuff is a bunch of hooey but at the same time I find it mildly fascinating. I guess it’s curiosity – wanting to know what other people believe and what’s important to other cultures. And, I have to admit, believing in totems and good luck symbols and such, all seems so pleasant and sane compared to the deadly serious martyr religions.
You might find this strange but I actually sort of like grasshoppers so it’s easy for me to think of them as being “lucky.” Some people say that believing a thing is lucky makes it lucky so maybe it would be good to let ourselves believe that common, ordinary things are lucky, if we can. But, aside from the question of whether or not grasshoppers are lucky, I think they’re kinda neat. I’m rather proud of this photo I took of one on our deck. (I would post it here but I think poor Leeann has been freaked out enough for one day. I can’t afford to loose even one reader.)
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(No sermons nor religion bashing, please!)
May 10th, 2011 - 8:47 am
Cricket on the hearth is seen as lucky in some cultures. Grasshoppers out eating the garden, I would think not so much. (I am not a big fan of the large grasshoppers we have here.)
May 10th, 2011 - 9:48 am
Brrr, grasshoppers. Can’t stand ‘em. Not their evil buggy eyes, or the way they rattle their wings, or the way they spit this brown stuff I used to call “tobacco juice” at you. I had one jump on my leg when I was about six and I was traumatized for life.
Brrr.
May 10th, 2011 - 5:58 pm
Never did care for grasshoppers in the carapace so to speak. In the abstract as artwork, they are fine. Jumping in my face and my hair, not so fine. Not as bad as June bugs though… brrr.
May 10th, 2011 - 7:42 pm
Grasshoppers in the grass are OK. Grasshoppers applied to the front of my motorcycle helmet with a 70 MPH difference in velocity I don’t care for.
May 10th, 2011 - 8:13 pm
There are a lot of insects I can’t stand: for example, ants, silverfish, cockroachs, stinkbugs, termites, houseflies and of course, mosquitos. However, grasshoppers and crickets always seemed kinda cool to me. Of course, one of the first hobbies my brothers and I adopted upon moving to Texas involved collecting these insects and putting them into jars….which I doubt they appreciated that much.
May 11th, 2011 - 7:22 am
Heh. Just part of my evil steak I guess but I’m always amused when people are afraid of or grossed out by harmless bugs.
May 11th, 2011 - 5:16 pm
Found a wolf spider in a telephone pedestal today. I do love my job.