March 24, 2004
Informative articles dedicated to superstitions and odd traditions.
Did you know the colour blue was originally felt to protect a male child? New spiderwebs where you'd just cleaned means someone is plotting to hurt you or your family. You throw spilled salt over your shoulder to hit the devil in the eye, you know.
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This is really bothering me, but I can't find it online. I had read/heard somewhere (a man at the pub?) that until the 20th century, pink, along with red, was thought more appropriate for boys, as the more virile colour.
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That sound more like an urban legend to me, jbm but, well, you know how they liked to dress on those wacky elizabethan years.
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That spilled salt one really bugs me. The reason I found/posted this was that I was cleaning the kitchen this morning, spilled some salt and without even thinking about it threw some over my left shoulder. What does the devil have to do with salt? All I could find was a site saying about how salt was valued for preserving meat, etc, so was seen as an antithesis to decay. Hmm, maybe I should have made this a Curious, George...
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Some people say the salt one has to do with Judas Iscariot knocking over the salt at the last supper, as in the Leonardo picture (but wasn't the superstition the reason for painting it like that?). You throw the salt over your left shoulder because that's where the Devil is lurking, apparently. BTW, in England a black cat crossing your path is supposed to bring good luck - not so anywhere else??