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You are here: Home / Language / Why is Spilling Salt Bad Luck and Where Did the Superstition Come From?

Why is Spilling Salt Bad Luck and Where Did the Superstition Come From?

February 15, 2020 by Karen Hill

As man’s first food seasoning, and later a food preservative and a medicine, salt has been a precious commodity for ten thousand years, so spilling it was costly as well as bad luck.

This superstition was enhanced by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, within which Judas has spilled the table salt as a foreboding of tragedy.

Because good spirits sat on the right shoulder and evil on the left, tossing spilled salt over the left shoulder became an antidote.

Today, spilling salt is still a symbol of bad luck to some people.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why is it Considered Bad Luck to Walk Under a Ladder and How Did the Superstition Originate?
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