A cigarette is something that’s not really considered healthy but a sizable population of people enjoys it. Smoking is also seen as a sign of style and charisma among some people. But there is one superstition attached to smoking which is called a lucky cigarette.
Smokers generally have a habit, which stems from a superstition, of flipping one cigarette upside down and saving it for the last. That last cigarette is popularly known as the lucky cigarette. So let’s find out in detail about this superstition how and when it originated.
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The Story Behind The Lucky Cigarette
People who frequently smoke mostly flip one cigarette upside down and save it for the last. That last one is dubbed the lucky cigarette and its origin seems to be the soldiers of World War II.
During WWII, the number of soldiers who smoked increased exponentially. As it was one of their ways to boost morale and find a few seconds of happiness. One cigarette brand called Lucky Strikes was a part of C-ration.
Cigarettes were also helpful in increasing alertness and filling the appetite and hunger for food as rations were paper thin. Several military officers have said in the past that tobacco was as essential as bullets during the war.
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World War II Changed Smoking Habits
The US military superstition of flipping a cigarette upside down and saving it for the last was born during the second world war. It was carried by the soldiers only to be smoked after all the other cigarettes were consumed.
Another theory states that the lucky cigarette came after the fact that if a soldier lived long enough to finish the entire pack, the last one would be the lucky one.
The name of this superstition stemmed from the tobacco brand as well as the joy of feeling lucky to be alive to smoke that one last cigarette. One theory states that to reduce tar and nicotine yields, they could be smoked only one way.
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