Sinister Lefthanders on This Day in History

This Day In History: Today is International Lefthanders Day. The day was first observed in 1976, there are approximately 708 million left-handed people in the world. Men are more likely to be left handed than women, and I am lefthanded myself. Another word for lefthandedness is sinistrality, which comes from the word sinister. In fact, if you look at the etymology of the word "left" in many languages you will discover many negative connotations, and it doesn't end there. The expression "to have two left feet" refers to clumsiness. The English expression "to get up on the wrong side of the bed" is in other languages translated as "to get up with the left foot" which means to have a bad day and do everything wrong.

In many religions, including Christianity, the right hand of God is the favored hand. For example, Jesus sits at God's right side. Those who fall from favor with God are sent to left, as described in Matthew 25: 32–33, in which sheep represent the righteous and goats represent the fallen: "And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left." In 19th-century Europe, homosexuals were referred to as "left-handed". In Protestant-majority parts of the United Kingdom, Catholics were called "left-footers", and vice versa in Catholic-majority parts of Ireland and Irish America. During the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Church would condemn and occasionally execute those who used their left hand. During the time of the Salem Witch Trials, use of the left hand could lead to one’s burning at the stake. Black magic is sometimes referred to as the "left-hand path", which is strongly associated with Satanism.