Spilling Salt

Recorded English folk belief

Being served salt by someone else carried a separate warning of sorrow. Henderson records a second helping as its countermeasure.

William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition (1879), Portents and Auguries; paragraph beginning “As to the spilling of salt”

A recorded northern English belief that spilling salt brings ill luck.

Sources1 source

Primary source

William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition (W. Satchell, Peyton and Co. for the Folk-Lore Society, 1879), 1879, Portents and Auguries; paragraph beginning “As to the spilling of salt”Records the named locality, reported belief or custom, attributed meaning and local detail stated in this entry.