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Three on a match (also known as third on a match or unlucky third light) is a purported superstition among soldiers during the Crimean War to World War II. The superstition goes that if three soldiers lit their cigarettes from the same match, one of the three would be killed or that the man who was third on the match would be shot.
If three soldiers decided to smoke cigarettes together after dark and lit their cigs from the same match, superstition held that at least one of them would end up dead. Here's why. The strike of the match would alert an enemy sniper of the soldiers' presence.
Main Text: Lighting three cigarettes with the same match is bad luck. Context: DS said she heard this over the years of smoking and people had mentioned it to her if she was using matches.
Aug 27, 2023 · By attributing a limit of three to a string of bad luck, we create a sense of closure and control. It provides a psychological comfort, allowing us to believe that the streak of misfortune will soon come to an end.
- Howstuffworks
The phrase that lends the movie its title—“Three on a match means one will die soon”— comes from a superstition passed down over the years that leaving a match lit long enough would give an enemy soldier enough time to aim at the dying flame.
Ivar Kreuger was the Swedish match mogul who attempted a worldwide match monopoly in the 1920s-early 1930s, and he did a pretty good job of it, too. Then, his financial house of cards collapsed in the early 1930s and he committed suicide in 1932.
Apr 21, 2017 · “Ask somebody older about the prohibition against lighting ‘three on a match.’ Inexplicable prohibitions are part of the process by which we mark things as significant.”
