Response to superstitions

When I was growing up, I was always told to never kill a cricket because they were good luck, especially if you found one in your house. I was always curious as to why and if it was only a southern superstition, but never really questioned it. So, I did a little research. Turns out there's a lot of folklore surrounding the cricket. In China, many people keep crickets in cages for good luck. I'm sure most of you remember in the Disney movie Mulan they were given a cricket in a cage named Cri-kee by the grandmother for good luck. Believe it or not, cricket fighting is actually a common gambling pastime in Southeast Asia. Of course we've all heard different stories about the sounds a cricket makes. The chirping of a cricket is recognized as a way to "humorously indicate a dead silence," a sign that a night scene is taking place (movies, tv, radio), and money is coming (Barbados).[1] In Barbados, a cricket must not be killed if it chirps in a house because it is said to bring money. This is obviously the most similar superstition to the one I grew up with, but its very interesting how this came to the South. With a little more research I found that in the 1600s, many Barbadians migrated to the Carolinas becoming some of the first settlers there.[2] Its fascinating to think that this superstition about a little cricket has survived about 400 years and still remained in the South.