Scissors carry two almost opposite meanings in documented folklore. Their blades can symbolize the cutting of friendship, relationships, or household harmony, yet the iron or steel from which scissors are made has also been treated as protection against fairies, harmful beings, and other supernatural threats.
What happens to the scissors matters as much as the object itself. Dropping them, leaving the blades open, using them on a particular day, passing them directly to another person, or deliberately placing them near a bed can all change the interpretation. These are regional and family traditions rather than universal beliefs, and closely related actions sometimes receive contradictory meanings.
When Scissors Are Thought to Cut Relationships
Giving Scissors Can Cut a Friendship
Irish and American folklore records treat scissors as a risky gift because the blades may symbolically sever the relationship between giver and recipient. A small coin can neutralize the danger in several versions by turning the gift into a symbolic purchase rather than a freely given cutting object.
Scissors Should Be Set Down Before Another Person Takes Them
A Polish tradition preserved in a University of Detroit Mercy folklore collection warns against handing scissors or a knife directly to another person. The safer action is to place the object on a table and allow the other person to pick it up, avoiding the symbolic cutting of friendship.
Dropped, Broken, and Open Scissors
Dropped Scissors Can Announce a Visitor
Several older records connect falling scissors with an approaching visitor. A County Dublin collection gives a particularly specific version: dropping scissors foretells the arrival of a priest. American records also associate scissors sticking point-first into the floor with company coming, sometimes using the direction of the blades to indicate where the visitor will come from.
Scissors Sticking Upright Can Mean Bad Luck—or Company
The meaning reverses between collections. Texas folk belief records scissors landing upright as an omen of bad luck, while older American material from New York and New England interprets a point sticking into the floor as a sign that a visitor is coming. Adams County, Illinois, records still more variants, including both good-luck and visitor readings.
Breaking Scissors Is an Unlucky Sign
American collections preserve the idea that breaking a pair of scissors brings bad luck or disappointment. The omen is distinct from simply dropping them: the damaged tool itself becomes the unfavorable sign.
Leaving Scissors Open Is Unlucky
A Greek belief recorded by the James T. Callow Folklore Archive says that leaving a pair of scissors open brings bad luck. This differs sharply from northern European protective customs in which deliberately opened scissors could be useful because their iron and crossed shape were assigned defensive meaning.
Days When the Scissors Stay Closed
Some Traditions Avoid Cutting on Particular Days
The forbidden day varies. An Adams County, Illinois, collection records bad luck from using scissors on Sunday, while a folklore record from County Waterford, Ireland, says some people would not cut with scissors on Monday. The disagreement shows that the taboo belongs to local calendar lore rather than to one fixed rule.
Household Conflict and Empty Cutting
Snapping Empty Scissors Can Invite Trouble at Home
A Punjabi informant from Lahore, Pakistan, recorded by the Dartmouth Folklore Archive described a warning against repeatedly opening and closing scissors when nothing is being cut. In that family tradition, the action was associated with domestic problems or quarrels in the household.
Iron Scissors as Protection
Iron and Steel Scissors Can Repel Harmful Beings
Swedish and Scottish folklore gives scissors a protective role because of their metal. Sweden’s Institute for Language and Folklore explains that an open pair could offer two layers of protection: iron itself and a form resembling a cross. Scottish witchcraft records likewise identify iron scissors as protection against harmful fairy power.
Scissors Hidden Under a Chair Could Restrain a Witch
Cambridgeshire folklore collected by Enid Porter included a safeguard in which metal objects such as keys or scissors were placed beneath the chair of a suspected witch. The metal was thought to make the person’s harmful power ineffective. The Museum of Cambridge preserves the custom as part of regional witchcraft folklore.
Scissors Used for Divination
Scissors and a Riddle Could Identify a Suspected Thief
In Scottish divination, scissors could be fixed into a riddle, an older form of sieve, so that two people could hold the arrangement while naming a suspected thief. Movement of the riddle was interpreted as an answer. National Museums Scotland records an early nineteenth-century Fife example and an earlier Perth court case involving related riddle divination.
Pregnancy, Birth, and Night Protection
Open Scissors Under a Mattress Were Linked with Easier Birth
A 1973 Tennessee record in the James T. Callow Folklore Archive says an expectant mother should sleep with open scissors under her mattress for an easy birth and a healthy child. This is a recorded folk belief, not a medical practice, and placing open blades in or around bedding creates an obvious injury risk.
Other Pregnancy Traditions Avoid Scissors Entirely
A Taiwanese folk belief recorded by the USC Digital Folklore Archives warns pregnant women against cutting things with scissors or knives because the action symbolically risks cutting the unborn child. A related Chinese-family account forbids scissors on the bed during pregnancy. These traditions reverse the Tennessee idea of scissors as beneficial near a pregnant sleeper.
Scissors Under a Pillow Can Serve as Night Protection
A Chinese-origin family tradition recorded at USC describes placing scissors under a pillow to keep nightmares away. A separate Filipino family account connects scissors beneath a pregnant woman’s pillow with protection from the aswang or tik tik. Both are folkloric protective practices rather than evidence that scissors affect dreams or supernatural danger, and sharp objects should not be kept in bedding.
Documented Scissors Beliefs by Country and Culture
| Country or Culture | Documented Variation | Meaning | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | Giving scissors parts friendship unless a small coin is returned | Relationship misfortune | County Dublin folklore record |
| United States | Giving scissors or another sharp object can sever friendship | Relationship misfortune | Ohio folklore archive record |
| Polish tradition | Do not hand scissors directly; place them down for the other person | Avoid severing friendship | Polish belief recorded in Michigan |
| Ireland | Dropping scissors foretells a priest coming to the house | Visitor | County Dublin folklore record |
| United States | Scissors sticking point-first into the floor can foretell company | Visitor | Late nineteenth-century regional records |
| United States | Dropped scissors that remain sticking upright foretell bad luck | Bad luck | Texas folk-belief record |
| United States | Scissors sticking into the floor can announce an unknown visitor | Visitor | Adams County folklore collection |
| United States | Breaking scissors is unlucky | Bad luck | Adams County folklore collection |
| Greece | Leaving a pair of scissors open is unlucky | Bad luck | Greek belief preserved in a U.S. folklore archive |
| Ireland | Some people avoid cutting with scissors on Monday | Bad luck avoidance | County Waterford calendar lore |
| United States | Using scissors on Sunday can bring bad luck | Bad luck | Adams County folklore collection |
| Pakistan | Opening and closing scissors without cutting anything can cause household problems | Household conflict | Punjabi family tradition from Lahore |
| Sweden | Open iron scissors can protect against harmful supernatural beings | Protection | Swedish folk tradition documented by Isof |
| United Kingdom | Iron scissors protect against harmful fairy power | Protection | Scottish witchcraft and folk-belief records |
| United Kingdom | Scissors placed beneath a suspected witch’s chair could neutralize harmful power | Protection | Cambridgeshire folklore |
| United Kingdom | Scissors fixed into a riddle were used in divination concerning a suspected thief | Divination | Scottish historical folk practice |
| United States | Open scissors beneath an expectant mother’s mattress were associated with easy birth | Pregnancy and birth | 1973 Tennessee folklore record |
| Taiwan | Pregnant women avoid cutting with scissors or knives | Pregnancy precaution | Taiwanese family folk belief |
| Chinese family tradition | Scissors placed beneath a pillow keep nightmares away | Night protection | Family tradition recorded by a university folklore archive |
| Philippines | A pregnant woman keeps scissors beneath her pillow against the aswang or tik tik | Supernatural protection | Filipino family tradition recorded by a university folklore archive |
The Same Blades Can Threaten or Protect
The strongest contrast in scissors folklore comes from the object’s physical qualities. Its cutting edge makes it an easy symbol for separation: friendships can be “cut,” household peace can be disturbed, and pregnancy taboos can treat ordinary cutting as symbolically dangerous. In other traditions, the material matters more than the cutting action. Iron and steel become protective, while opened blades may resemble a cross.
Even accidental events refuse to carry one consistent meaning. Scissors sticking into a floor can announce a visitor in one American collection and bad luck in another. Irish records narrow the visitor further to a priest. These differences are best understood as separate local traditions rather than competing versions of a universal scissors rule.
📚 Roots of Belief
- Dúchas.ie — Beliefs about Happenings in the House, Killossery — A National Folklore Collection record from County Dublin documenting the belief that giving scissors can part friendship unless a farthing or another small coin is returned.
- University of Detroit Mercy Libraries — James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Sharp Objects Records — University folklore records documenting beliefs about sharp gifts severing friendship, token payment, and a Polish tradition of placing scissors down rather than passing them directly.
- Dúchas.ie — Superstitions, Brittas — A National Folklore Collection record from County Dublin stating that dropped scissors foretell a priest coming to the house.
- Project Gutenberg — Current Superstitions, edited by Fanny D. Bergen — Digital edition of the 1896 folklore collection containing regional American variants in which dropped scissors sticking into the floor foretell visitors and sometimes indicate their direction or age.
- Texas State Historical Association — Folk Belief — Institutional reference on Texas folk belief recording both the upright-scissors bad-luck omen and the friendship-cutting gift belief with a penny countermeasure.
- University of Illinois Digital Library — Folk-Lore from Adams County, Illinois — Digitized folklore collection preserving multiple scissors beliefs concerning dropping, sticking into the floor, breaking, counter-actions, visitors, luck, and Sunday use.
- University of Detroit Mercy Libraries — James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Greek Scissors Record — University archive entry preserving a Greek belief that leaving scissors open is bad luck.
- Dúchas.ie — Lore of Certain Days, Summerville — National Folklore Collection material from County Waterford recording that some people did not cut with scissors on Monday.
- Dartmouth Folklore Archive — Miscellaneous Superstitions — University folklore record from a Punjabi informant raised in Lahore documenting the belief that opening and closing scissors without cutting anything can lead to domestic problems.
- Institutet för språk och folkminnen — Skydd mot väsen — Sweden’s Institute for Language and Folklore explains the protective use of scissors, combining the traditional power assigned to iron with the cross-like form of opened blades.
- University of Edinburgh — Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Glossary — Academic witchcraft database identifying iron scissors as objects used for protection from the harmful power of fairies.
- Museum of Cambridge — Safeguards Against Witchcraft — Museum account drawing on Enid Porter’s Cambridgeshire folklore work and documenting the placement of metal objects, including scissors, beneath a suspected witch’s chair.
- National Museums Scotland — Riddle Me a Creepie and a Cruik — Museum discussion of Scottish riddle-and-scissors divination, including a Fife theft example and an earlier Perth case.
- University of Detroit Mercy Libraries — James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Birth Beliefs — A 1973 Nashville record stating that expectant mothers should sleep with open scissors beneath the mattress for an easy birth and healthy child.
- USC Digital Folklore Archives — Don’t Cut Things When You Are Pregnant — University folklore record describing a Taiwanese pregnancy taboo against cutting with scissors or knives.
- USC Digital Folklore Archives — Scissors Under Your Pillow Will Keep Away Nightmares — University archive record from a Chinese American informant raised in Shanghai documenting a family tradition of placing scissors beneath a pillow against bad dreams.
- USC Digital Folklore Archives — The Aswang/Tik Tik — Filipino family folklore account describing scissors kept beneath a pregnant woman’s pillow as protection against the aswang or tik tik.