Is it bad luck to put a tent up indoors? It’s a question pitched to us once in a while (pun intended). However, it seems to be more of an extension of logic than a genuine traditional belief. So, let’s look at this together and find out whether you need to worry about “bad luck” the next time your 10 year old wants to put up a little two person tent on the living room floor.
Why Do People Think Putting Up A Tent Indoors Is Bad Luck?
There’s really little evidence of genuine history behind this belief. The only assumption to make is that some people have put two and two together and come up with five.
The belief likely originated with the old favorite—putting an umbrella up inside is bad luck. So, why not tents, right? After all, nowadays both tents and umbrellas are made from various artificial fibers like nylon and polyester. Also, both umbrellas and tents serve a similar function: they both protect us from the elements, particularly rain, while we’re outdoors.
So, even if we don’t really agree, we can at least understand how people might come to wonder if putting up a tent indoors is bad luck. After all, it’s very similar to putting up an umbrella indoors.
Does It Make Sense To Extend Bad Luck From Umbrellas To Tents?
One thing to understand, though, when making a case to extend the bad luck from umbrellas to tents, is the possible origins of the umbrella bad luck superstition. There are, of course, competing theories as to how we came to believe that opening up an umbrella indoors is bad luck.
Ra, The Sun God
One origin story, though, tells that Ancient Egyptians used to use parasols to protect themselves from the intense Egyptian sun. The Egyptians came to believe that opening such a parasol indoors would be an affront to their sun god, Ra.
So, how does this compare to putting a tent up in doors? Well, not very well, to be fair. Because tents are primarily used to sleep in at night, there’s not much chance of them offending the mighty sun god. They might upset the mood god, though—what do you think?
Potent Projectiles?
Another competing theory about the origin of the “opening an umbrella indoors is bad luck” superstition is that it came about because, genuinely, opening an umbrella indoors was bad for your health! That’s because early umbrella designs weren’t as safe as the ones we use today. There was an honest chance that a spring or a spoke could fly off, becoming a potent projectile indeed.
Again, it doesn’t really translate well to the tents. Luckily for us, most tents don’t contain springs that shoot out. Sure, when you’re slipping in one of the poles to hold up the darn thing you might knock down one of grandma’s ornaments, but they’re not really dangerous like old-timey umbrellas were.
Conclusion – Is It Bad Luck To Put A Tent Up Indoors?
Luckily for you, this one isn’t bad luck. So, if you have done a test run of putting your tent up indoors and are panicking that you’ve incurred some bad luck, then don’t worry. This one definitely isn’t bad luck, but we can see how some people came to think it might be!
Here’s the final answer:
Is it bad luck to put a tent up indoors? No.
