There's something about superstitions that say a lot about human nature.

Don't walk under a ladder.

Don't open an umbrella inside.

Don't step on a crack or you break your mother's back.

It sounds a little absurd, right?

Yet for some reason, we sometimes follow these weird unspoken rules.

But do superstitions exist because they really do signal some bad omen.

Is there something ingrained in our DNA that gives us that gut reaction that says,

I'm not messing with that?

Or is it just hysteria?

When enough people believe something it turns into mass paranoia.

Ron and May Hall in South Yorkshire England might have an answer.

In the early 80s, May and Ron's house unexpectedly caught fire, and only one thing survived the flames.

A popular painting of a little boy with tears rolling down his face.

Now the halls weren't wildly superstitious people, but they took one look at that unscathed portrait, turned to each other and said,

this thing is cursed. Because this didn't just happen once, but dozens of times, all over England,

around the same decade, sending the whole country

into a tizzy and creating this brand new superstition.

Don't hang a portrait of the crying boy in your home, restaurant, or office.

Otherwise, the whole place will burst into flames. It kind of gives a whole new meaning to the phrase,

if these walls could talk, doesn't it?

I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is so supernatural the story of the crying boy portraits. You know how they say you can feel an artist's emotions through their work.

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