Also called spilled salt, spilling salt superstition, throwing salt over left shoulder
Spilling salt is an old omen of bad luck or a quarrel. The customary remedy is to take a pinch of the spilled salt with your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder, where the Devil is said to wait, to blind him.
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Take care: Salt in the eyes stings; throw gently and away from people. Keep salt away from pets, since large amounts are toxic to dogs and cats.
Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper shows an overturned salt cellar by Judas's elbow, and this is often given as the origin. But spilled salt was already an omen centuries earlier, so the painting reflects the belief rather than starting it.
Valeriano explained that salt stands for lasting friendship because it preserves; spilling it at table hinted at a broken friendship or quarrel.
Many families avoid passing salt directly into another's hand, saying it brings sorrow or a quarrel; set the salt down for them to pick up instead.
Salt was valuable in the ancient world and central to hospitality, so spilling it seemed a bad sign. Roman writers already treated spilt salt as an ill omen, and the Renaissance scholar Piero Valeriano in 1556 explained it through salt's symbolism of lasting friendship. Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, painted around 1495 to 1498, shows Judas beside an overturned salt cellar, which later writers took as the source of the belief, though the omen is older.
The remedy of throwing a pinch over the left shoulder is recorded in English folklore from the 17th century onward, and by the 19th century it was explained by the idea that the Devil lurks behind your left shoulder. It is one of the most widely practised superstitions in Britain and America. The often-repeated claim that Roman soldiers were paid in salt is not supported, although the word 'salary' does come from Latin salarium, linked to salt.
A modern protective mix of ordinary salt darkened with ash, charcoal or black pepper, sprinkled across doorways and windowsills to keep unwanted influences out. It is not the same thing as kala namak, the edible Indian black salt.
Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven years of bad luck. Folk remedies include burying the pieces, washing them in running water, grinding them to powder, or keeping your reflection out of the broken glass, all done while staying safe from sharp shards.
A ring of salt poured on the floor around a person or a working space to mark a protected area that harmful influences cannot cross, drawing on the much older magic circle of ritual magic.
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