這是一個黑貓的傳說

Why is a Black Cat bad luck?

It wasn’t until the Middle-Ages when the European church began accusing people of witchcraft that cats began to fall out of favor in folklore and tradition. Cats – especially black ones – were accused of being witch’s familiars. Over in Scotland, people once believed in a fairy called the Cat Sith who took on the appearance of a giant black cat. Cat Sith was believed to have the ability to steal a dead person’s soul before the gods could claim it. For this reason, the Scottish folks sat night and day with a dead body prior to its burial, to protect it from the Sith.
直到中世紀，歐洲教會開始指責人們使用巫術後，民間傳說和傳統才開始不再喜歡貓。貓（尤其是黑貓）被指控為巫婆的妖精。在蘇格蘭，人們曾經相信一個名叫貓妖精（Cat Sith）的仙女，妖精以一隻巨大的黑貓出現。貓妖精（Cat Sith）被認為有能力在眾神之前偷走死者的靈魂。因此，在葬禮之前，蘇格蘭人日以繼夜地陪伴屍體，以保護其免受妖精的傷害。

In the 1500s, there arose the belief that witches could shape-shift themselves into the form of Black Cats so they could roam freely about the country wrecking havoc and spying on people. There is an English folktale in which a father and son, traveling home late one night, saw a black cat cross their path. The son threw a stone at the creature, fearing it was a witch’s familiar, and the stone hit the cat in the left leg. The injured animal gave forth an unholy shriek and fled under the stoop of a house belonging to a woman long suspected of being a witch. The next morning, the father and son met the old woman at the local marketplace and saw that she was limping on her left leg. From that day, the people in that town were sure that the woman was an evil witch that prowled their town at night in the shape of a black cat, looking to do mischief against anyone who crossed her.
在1500年代，人們開始相信女巫可以將自己塑造成黑貓的形態，以便他們可以到處自在地漫遊，破壞和監視他人。有一個英國民間傳說，一個父親和兒子深夜回家，看見一隻黑貓越過他們前面的道路。兒子向牠投擲了一塊石頭，擔心它是女巫的妖精，石頭砸到了貓的左腿。受傷的動物發出嘶啞的尖叫聲，逃到一間房子的門廊，而那房子正屬於一個長期被懷疑是女巫的婦女。第二天早晨，父子倆在當地市場遇見了這位老婦，發現她的左腿一瘸一拐地走。從那天起，那個鎮上的人們就確定這名女子是一個邪惡的女巫，晚上以黑貓的形狀四處尋覓，企圖對妨礙她的人惡作劇。

節錄：https://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2014/03/why_is_a_black_cat_bad_luck.html

文章朗讀

superstition 迷信
superstitious 迷信的
disciple 門徒
Bubonic plague鼠疫
involuntary movement 不由自主動作
sneeze 打噴嚏

單字發音

收聽節目

《Let’s chat 一起來閒聊》，是個只有聲音的節目，是Christine (台灣) 和Gavin (澳洲) 一起用雙語錄製的，我們每個裡拜挑選一則有趣的生活新聞來閒聊，重點部分會用中文解釋。
一則音頻30分鐘，你可以利用通勤、運動或做家事的時候收聽。

在生活當中，我們總是有特定的信仰或習慣，認為這麼做可以避免壞運或招來好運。這樣的習俗古今中外都一樣。有人稱作迷信，在西方社會，最具迷信代表的莫過於黑貓。

今天的節目會解釋黑貓迷信的由來，以及為什麼西方國家會這麼忌諱13號黑色星期五。如果你在國外旅遊，應該也有遇過打噴嚏時，對方會說bless you，等下的節目也會跟你解釋為什麼他們會這麼說。