In the Mexican and possibly Spanish culture, to avert the Evil Eye on a newborn, it's tradition to let those in the gathering around the child, hold the baby at one point, so as to form a bond and take away the envy.
I'm not sure where this came from. A co-worker - also Hispanic - was pregnant when we last had a solar eclipse. Her relatives urged her to wear metal to 'protect' her unborn child. She was skeptical, but like most pregnant women - not wanting to tempt Fate - she found a set of spare keys and wore them around her waist on her belt that day.
She told us this story around the water-cooler and we mentioned to her that the solar eclipse was not visible in our hemisphere and had in fact happened while we were still asleep so her superstitous precaution was tardy.
"End of the world, and you slept through it." kidded a co-worker.