Spilling Salt

General Information About Item:

  • Type of Lore: Customary, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States
  • Informant: Zoe Marzi
  • Date Collected: 5/21/20

Informant Data:

  • Zoe Marzi is a Sophomore at Dartmouth College who lives in a suburb of Boston MA with her mother, father, and sister. Zoe is an English major. Zoe’s father’s side of the family is Irish, and her mom’s side is Italian.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The informant believes that the superstition detailed below is an Irish superstition, as she learned it from her father. She also speculates that it is partially religious in origin (she mentions it might have something to do with scaring away the devil).
  • Social Context: The informant suggested that this superstition applies universally, regardless of social context – she would correct her friends if they did not follow the superstition.

Item:

  • When someone spills salt, they must shake some salt into their right hand and toss it over their left shoulder.

 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

 

Transcript:

  • “If anyone in my near vicinity spills salt accidentally, I tell them that they have to then shake some salt into their right hand and toss it over their left shoulder. If I do it (spill salt), I 100% do that every time, but even if one of my friends does it, I’ll tell them to also throw salt over their shoulder.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant mentioned her suspicion that this is a piece of Irish folklore due to her receiving it from her father. She also mentioned that it might have some connection to the Fey, a vague collection of supernatural creatures in European folklore, based on a story she had heard where a fey creature must count all the grains of salt that they see spilled.

Collector’s Comments:

  • My father is also Irish, and I also know of and practice this superstition. However, I knew it in less specificity. In my version, the salt must be thrown over the left shoulder, but the hand with which it is thrown does not matter. Additionally, the salt thrown must be a portion of the salt that was spilled, not new salt from the container.

Collector’s Name: Ted McManus

Tags/Keywords:

  • Salt, Superstitions, Fey, Irish, Luck