SURPRISING ORIGINS OF SUPERSTITIONS

SPILLING SALT

Spilling salt has been considered unlucky for thousands of years.

Around 3,500 B.C., the ancient Sumerians first took to nullifying the

bad luck of spilled salt by throwing a pinch of it over their left shoulders.

This ritual spread to the Egyptians, the Assyrians and later, the Greeks.

HANG A HORSESHOE ON YOUR DOOR

OPEN-END-UP FOR GOOD LUCK

The belief in the horse shoe’s magical powers can be traced back to the

Greeks, who thought the element iron had the ability to ward off evil.

Not only were horseshoes wrought of iron, they also took the shape of

the crescent moon. For the Greeks, the crescent moon was a

symbol of fertility and good fortune.

FOUR ELEVEN FORTY FOUR

The roots of this popular music superstition can be traced to the

illegal lottery known as “policy” in 19th-century America. Numbers

were drawn on a wheel of fortune, ranging from 1 to 78. A three-number

entry was known as a “gig” and a bet on 4, 11, 44 was popular by the

time of the Civil War. The stereotypical player who picked this gig was

usually a poor African-American male, which explains why the use of

the term «4-11-44» appears in many later blues and jazz recordings.

KNOCKING ON WOOD

Usually, when we speak of our own good fortune, we follow up with a

quick knock on a piece of wood to keep our luck from going bad.

But do you know where this superstition comes from? Many pagan groups

and other cultures worshiped or mythologized trees. Some people

used trees as oracles, some incorporated them into worship rituals and

some, like the ancient Celts, regarded them as the homes of

certain spirits and gods.

THE NUMBER 13

Fear of the number 13, has its origins in Norse mythology. In a famous

tale, 12 gods were invited to dine at Valhalla, the city of the gods.

Loki, the god of strife and evil, crashed the party, raising the number of

attendees to 13. The drama that followed between the attendants

made number 13 a cursed number.

WISHING WELL

A wishing well is a term from European folklore (Germanic and Celtic tribes)

to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted.

The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water housed

deities or had been placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a

source of life and often a scarce commodity.

BAD LUCK TO WALK UNDER A LEANING LADDER

This superstition originated 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. A ladder

leaning against a wall forms a triangle, and Egyptians regarded this shape

as sacred (as exhibited, for example, by their pyramids). To them, triangles

represented the trinity of the gods, and to pass through a triangle

was to desecrate them.

BREAKING A TURKEY WISHBONE

The Etruscans were the earliest civilization to live on the Italian peninsula,

settling in between 900 and 800 BC and they were also the first to practice a

form of divination involving a hen pecking at grains of corn scattered

about in a circle divided into sections with letters. When the fowl were

killed, the bird’s collarbone was laid in the sun to dry. An Etruscan still

wishing to benefit from the oracle’s powers had only to pick up the bone

and stroke it (not break it) and make a wish; hence the name “wishbone.”

TRICK OR TREAT ON HALLOWEEN

This tradition can be traced back 2,000 years (and quite possibly much

longer) to the Celtic belief that the spirits of the dead still remained present

on our plane of existence, and required food and drink to be placated.

Failing to leave out an offering was sure to invite the disgruntled spirits

to cause mischief and ill fortune in retaliation.