Tag Archives: salt

Throwing Salt Over your Shoulder

Age: 22

“I feel like this is a fairly common superstition slash like, like little thing that you do, um, but this was particularly common on my dad’s side. I don’t know why. He’s from the Midwest, and I think that maybe people are just more superstitious there. They’re like pretty rural Midwestern. My dad was the one who taught me to always throw salt over my left shoulder when I’m cooking. So, if I’m grinding salt from a salt grinder, I won’t do it. But if I pour salt into my hand to put it onto something, you always have to take a few grains and throw it over, specifically your left shoulder. The left is the side of the devil. If you throw the salt grains over your left shoulder, they’ll hit him in the eye, and he’ll run away from you, which I think is also an Italian thing. It’s weird, because I don’t have any Italian ancestry.”

Context: The informant, who is ethnically Irish and grew up in California, recalls an Italian tradition that was taught to her by her dad. She typically does this while cooking, and notes that her family is very superstitious and follow many rituals that center around good and bad luck.

Analysis: I think that it’s interesting to note that Folklore is so strongly spread across cultures and places that even the informant was wondering how her family came across this specific ritual even though she has no Italian ancestry. Different kinds of folklore can be removed from its origins and put into different cultural contexts, even though the Italian ancestry is absent, its still meaningful within the informants family. Folklore has a common connection to good or bad luck based on rituals, and this salt throwing example is no different. Life is very unpredictable, stressful and sad, so it makes sense why this ritual emerged in order to “take control” of the uncontrollable (life). Since it involves protection against the devil from the Bible, I believe this may also fall into Folk magic since it is a way to ward off evil.

Minor Genres: Proverbs – Salt

  1. Text: “Δεν γνωρίζεις πραγματικά κάποιον μέχρι να φας ένα καράβι αλάτι μαζί του” or “You don’t truly know someone until you’ve eaten a boatload of salt with them”.
  2. Informants Context: In my village where I was originally born, we were not educated. We had very little compared to what people have today. I was born and raised in the village of Nestane, in the province of Arcadia, Greece. Because we had so little available to us, our lives became dependent on how we could trust one another within our small community. There was no one who could help us besides the people who were in the community. We had no technology back then, there weren’t big cities near by and travelling to the ones that were farther away was very expensive. We had very little money. So again, the only support we had around us was through the people we knew. This is why Greeks are so close to their family – when you come from humble means, your blood is the only thing you can trust and rely on. So, when you meet someone new who isn’t your family, you can’t know whether to trust them or not. It’s not possible to truly know someone until you’ve spent a large amount of time with them. That’s what the saying means. You don’t know the true character of a person until you’ve shared enough meals with them that you can fill all the salt from those meals combined into a filled boat. This was a common saying that emerged out of my village, often spoken by people around us. It was my father who first gave me this advice. He always intended to make me aware of how two-faced people could be. Be very careful about who you let into your house. Once you have shared meals with a person though, you will have “passed through salt” with them. This is all one needs to know that they have become like family.
  3. Collectors Interpretation: This is not only a succinct and revealing proverb, it is also a ritual of initiation. Anyone who participates and upholds this mantra must first go through a long and intimate relationship with another Greek before they know they can truly trust each other. It reflects how Greek culture hinges around concepts of loyalty, perception and trust. It’s typical that Greeks will have said they have, “passed through salt” together once they’ve known each other long enough. This means that the two people have known each other long enough to pass this initiation alongside each other and become true friends. This proverb also relates to personal concepts of trust and trauma that the informant may have lingering from their childhood of humble means. As this is the proverb of a village, it comes with great authority – it is the voice and agreed upon value of an entire community.

Fields

AGE: 87

Date_of_performance: May 9, 2025

Language: Greek

Nationality: Greek/Canadian

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: Greek

Residence: Canada

Salt After Funeral

Nationality: American/Chinese/Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student

Description: After a funeral, people would put salt on themselves in order to keep spirits out of their home.

Background: The informant observed the ritual from his mother.

Transcript:

ML: My mom puts salt on herself before entering the house after a funeral.

Me: Is there a reason that your mom does that?

ML: I think it’s a japanese thing, it wards off spirits so they don’t enter your home. she sprinkles it on top of her head right before entering our house when she comes back. She tells us to leave the salt by the doorway when she goes to a funeral so she can just grab it and pour.

My thoughts:

In many traditions, salt is seen as a way to ward off spirits. While I do not know precisely why that is the case, I have a few theories. It might be tied to salt’s ability to preserve food, linking it to an ability to ward off death and decay. Of course, the entire concept of preventing evil spirits from entering your home is a staple in not just Japanese culture but Asian culture in general. Home is a sacred place because that is where we spend most of our time. Evil spirits can curse your house and give you family bad luck. So there are often rituals such as this to ward off and prevent bad spirits from entering the home. On the opposite side, there are also rituals, such as presenting offerings, to draw in good spirits to the home and create good fortune.

Bread and Salt for new homeowners

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 55
Occupation: Educational Consultant
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/25/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece:

What is the tradition?

“It’s Jewish tradition when someone has a new house to bring bread and salt. Actually, I don’t think that’s it’s a Jewish tradition, I think it’s just a housewarming tradition because that sounds very Christian, like bread for Jesus, and salt for demons… I don’t know (laughs). Bread is so… for you’ll never go hungry and salt is for you’ll always have flavor, and [jokingly] won’t die from lack of electrolytes. It’s become a thing amongst a lot of ethnic groups within the country.” 

Have you ever brought bread and salt as a housewarming gift?

“Yes! We brought some bread and some salt to, I don’t remember. Over the years, I’ve done it, maybe three times? A handful of times. Bring a thing of Morton’s salt and a loaf of bread, or maybe a sack of flour so it’s actually useful.”

Context: 

The informant is my mother. She is was raised Conservative Jewish and has an Ashkenazi (Easter European) Jewish background. She has lived in America her entire life. This information was collected during a family zoom call where we were checking in with each other.

Analysis: 

I found it interesting that my informant couldn’t identify which religion this practice came from, and then decided that it didn’t matter. This highlights how engrained this tradition is in American housewarming culture. I thought that my informant’s alteration of bread to flour was very utilitarian. I’ve seen other alterations of this tradition, like a Trader Joe’s body scrub set that features one salt scrub and one sugar, bur bread themed, scrub. This tradition has become such a norm that even large commercial producers are adopting a version of it they can sell as housewarming gifts.

Out of Salt, Out of Money

Nationality: American
Residence: NJ
Primary Language: English

Text/Interview:

BR: “I have always lived by the saying, ‘Out of Salt, out of money.”

Context:

BR heard this for the first time when he got his first paycheck but remembers a similar saying from even before that. BR truly believes that you are never out of money until you have no salt. He always keeps salt around his house and has even given salt as a housewarming gift for people. BR believes that salt is a comfort level and it goes deeper than simply seasoning your food.

BR: “Salt gives both food and life flavor. When you run out, your life will go bland.”

My Interpretation:

I think this is a very interesting proverb and BR really touched upon its deeper meaning. This proverb lends an excellent insight into American life. Although you may be down, you are never truly desolate unless you have no salt. This gives people agency, as salt is the easiest thing to possess. Thus, if you possess this basic element of daily life, you have a shot.