What is a synonym for “superstition” but without the negative connotation?

In my native language (Latvian) there is a word that denotes a superstition, but in a more positive way, somehow. It’s hard to explain, so let me give some examples:

If you swing on the swings a lot during Easter, you won’t get bitten by mosquitoes later in the summer.

If you eat eggs without salt on Easter, you will be a liar;

On Christmas eve you have to run around the house three times, barefooted. Then your teeth won’t hurt.

And so on and so forth.

You can’t really call them superstitions because nobody believes in them anyway. It’s more like fun sayings. Although swings are really popular on Easter here — mostly because people simply like swings. In this case the above quote can be semi-humorously used to justify swinging. :)

The majority of such superstitions have to do with celebrations, but there are quite a few that apply to generic situations, too, like “Broken dishes bring luck”.

The point is that when one starts believing in it and religiously practicing it, it turns into a superstition. But when it’s just a fun quote for the appropriate situation, what is it called then?

Is there a word or phrase like that in English, too?

Solution 1:

Making my comment into an answer

"Legend has it .."

However, the dictionary for legend says

An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.

and though the phrase above works, I feel legend implies a story or a fable, rather than the sayings which the original question mention.

Solution 2:

How about:

Old-wives' tales

There is also:

Folklore
Old Adage
Myth/popular myth
Old folks sayings

Solution 3:

I think the word that fits more is belief:

"There is a belief that if you eat eggs without salt on Easter, you will be a liar."

Also popular belief can work.

Folklore is like an hypernym, it is "the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.", so it includes also traditional beliefs, yes, but it's not the beliefs themselves.

Solution 4:

Folklore is a very nice Anglo-Saxonism, coined from folk + lore

Tradition can also be used, for things "handed down" from generation to generation.

Ritual is the word usually saved for other people's traditions and folklore, that we don't understand or something that we strongly believe in (so I think it is not really appropriate for your usage).

Myth is not necessarily negative (still I would not call it much more positive than superstition).

Custom can be used for activity that is a part of folklore or tradition.

edit:

Folk belief seems to be quite neutral (it refers not only to superstitions, but to various true or false beliefs).