Interesting article I read today. Anyone else have any particular rituals, traditions, or "superstitions" they follow?

I'm in the market for something to repel klutziness. Long story. :D

Brenda

Can't Sell Your Home? Some Turn to St. Joseph

St. Joseph is the patron saint of the home, but in a slow housing market, many turn to him to help sell their home.

The idea is to take a statue of the saint and bury it upside down next to your "For Sale" sign with his feet pointing toward the sky.

Sellers and real estate agents report what you might call "miraculous" results. LyonÂs Realty agent Dorothy McWilliams first became aware of the practice back in the 1990s when a client was having a very tough time trying to sell her home. "Then all of a sudden, it got an offer on it, and I was really happy about that," Dorothy said. "And later she told me, well, you got that offer because I buried St. Joseph in the backyard, two days ago."

If that wasnÂt enough to convince McWilliams, three years later she was trying to sell the clientÂs daughterÂs home, but again, no takers. "All of a sudden, we got two offers on it, and after we negotiated the offer, they informed me that they also had buried St. Joseph in the backyard!"

The tradition may come from an ancient practice of burying religious medals in the ground when a priest was not available to bless the land.

Another story says that St. Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Catholic nun, buried medals of St. Joseph when she was searching for land for a new convent.

Today, there are actually St. Joseph Home Selling Kits you can buy that explain the tradition and offer instructions on exactly what to do and what prayer to say. But the Rev. James Murphy of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento doesnÂt like the idea of burying the statue. "This is not the mind of the Church," he said. "It comes dangerously close to superstition. ItÂs giving magical powers to a statue that it doesnÂt have."

At the Catholic Store on Broadway in Sacramento and Heavenly Gifts in Roseville, the owners try to shift the emphasis away from actually burying a statue of St. Joseph. "We donÂt like to think of this in a superstitious way," said Sandra Perez, owner of the Catholic Store, "Because thatÂs not the idea. The idea really is to have your faith."

Michelle Craddock of Heavenly Gifts agreed. "I tell people who want to bury it to do so as part of the tradition, but only do it for that reason," she said. "Some people come in and say: 'I need to bury St. Joseph to sell my house!' And I say, no, you need to pray!"