THE MANIFESTATION OF SUPERSTITION IN TERMS OF COVID-19

Abstract

Superstition, generally means a belief that is not based on human reason or scientific knowledge and it is a practice based upon one’s trust in luck or other irrational, unscientific or supernatural forces. (dictionary, 2020) In the current situation, even when the literacy rate of the society is increasing, it is seen that superstition is predominant in terms of COVID-19. This disease is a pandemic that has left people bewildered. 2019-nCoV is a novel corona virus extracted from the lower respiratory tract of patients infected with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia. It was named 2019-nCoV by the WHO. (Pooja Sharma, 2020) The virus originated sometime in the middle of December in China at a live seafood market and then spread to the Wuhan area. From the Wuhan area, it travelled to western countries like Italy, the USA and Europe. (Abazi, 2020) COVID-19 is a public health emergency. History has shown that public health emergencies often lead to stigma and discrimination towards certain communities and groups or affected persons. (Addressing Human Rights as Key to the COVID-19 Response, 2020)

Superstition has manifested itself in various ways in human society for a long time. Some numbers, colors, special days, special objects, special events, some special animals have been considered evil by man. Sometimes people have unscientific ideas in the name of religion. Belief in miraculous powers has remained with mankind as well as the advancement of science. Epidemics have announced for ages. The main interest of this paper is that superstitions still exist terrible in human society in the 21st century due to the impact of Corona epidemics on society. In order to survive the Corona epidemic in different parts of the Hooghly district, most of the people in the society have expressed superstitious attitude which is described in the following text of this paper.