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PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE STRANGE ORIGINS OF COMMON FOOD SUPERSTITIONS  
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Tony Dunnell
August 27, 2025
historyfacts.com
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_ Food superstitions are believed to bring luck, prosperity, health,
wealth, and a range of other supposed benefits. _

The wishbone-breaking tradition existed at least as early as the 17th
century or early 18th century, Debrocke/ClassicStock/ Archive Photos
via Getty Images

 

Humans are superstitious creatures by nature, with many strange habits
that seem entirely illogical. We avoid walking under ladders or
opening umbrellas indoors in fear of bad luck. We knock on wood to
prevent disappointment. We shun the number 13 and we can’t quite
decide whether black cats are good or bad omens. None of these actions
makes much practical sense, and the same is true for a range of
superstitions involving food. 

Food is a necessity that keeps us functioning and alive, but eating is
also a cultural experience, rich with symbolic gestures, long-held
traditions, and curious rituals. These include plenty of superstitions
believed to bring luck, prosperity, health, wealth, and a range of
other supposed benefits. And while modern science may dismiss these
practices as mere folklore with no logical basis, there are plenty of
common food-based superstitions we just won’t let go. 

Here are six superstitions involving food, all of which demonstrate
the human desire to find greater meaning or significance in the
otherwise simple and essential acts of cooking, eating, and sharing
meals.

Credit: Bob Beegle
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Denver Post via Getty Images 

THROWING A PINCH OF SALT OVER YOUR SHOULDER

According to one common
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food superstition, if you accidentally spill salt, you should
immediately throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder. The origins
of this strange belief aren’t entirely clear. It possibly dates back
to the ancient world, including the Romans and Sumerians
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when salt was a highly prized commodity and therefore spilling it was
frowned upon. 

Later, during the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci created one of his
most famous works, “The Last Supper,” in which Judas Iscariot is
portrayed knocking over
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of salt with his elbow, suggesting that the connection between spilled
salt and bad luck was well established by that time. But why do we
throw the spilled salt over our left shoulder? The common belief
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the devil and evil spirits are said to lurk over the left shoulder,
and the pinch of jinx-reducing salt is destined for their eyes. 

EATING BLACK-EYED PEAS ON NEW YEAR’S DAY

In the American South, eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is a
common tradition and superstition said to bring luck
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and prosperity throughout the year ahead. When enslaved Africans
brought
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black-eyed peas to America, the beans were initially used
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for livestock and enslaved people only. Black-eyed peas gained wider
acceptance during the Civil War, when they were one of the few foods
left untouched
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by Union troops, who considered them animal feed. Southerners
therefore managed to survive on black-eyed peas during the winter, and
so began the association with good luck and prosperity, and the
tradition of eating them on New Year’s Day. 

BREAKING THE WISHBONE

Breaking the wishbone of a cooked chicken or turkey is a common
Christmas practice in the United Kingdom and a Thanksgiving tradition
in the United States. Objectively, it’s a very strange thing to do,
no matter how much luck might be up for grabs: It involves making a
wish while pulling the bird bone in two with another person, and the
person who gets the bigger piece will have their wish granted.

The origins of this peculiar superstition are debatable. One common
theory
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goes all the way back to the ancient Etruscans, who saw birds as
potent oracles. They extracted wishbones from chickens, dried them in
the sun, and then touched the bones as a form of divination. The
Romans [[link removed]] picked
up this practice later, by which time the bone was being snapped in
half, possibly to double its power. The Romans then introduced the
concept to Britain, and it eventually found its way to the Americas
via English settlers
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It’s hard to say whether the superstition really has such a long and
storied history with a direct link all the way back to the Etruscans.
We do know that the wishbone-breaking tradition as we know it today
existed at least as early as the 17th century or early 18th century,
when the bone was known as a “merrythought
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The term “wishbone [[link removed]]”
first appeared a century or so later. 

DOUBLE-YOLK EGGS BRING GOOD FORTUNE

Statistically [[link removed]], about one
in every thousand eggs has a double yolk. So, if you regularly crack
open and cook eggs, there’s a chance you’ll come across one at
some point. For the superstitious, an egg with two yolks is widely
considered a sign of impending good luck. It’s not known where or
when this superstition emerged, but the reasoning behind it is clear
to see. Eggs have long been associated with life, rebirth, and
potential, making a double yolk a natural candidate for a symbol of
abundance, prosperity, and good luck. Double yolks are sometimes
regarded as a sign of an upcoming marriage
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or that a woman will soon become pregnant with twins. 

BLOWING OUT THE CANDLES ON A BIRTHDAY CAKE

The superstitious tradition of blowing out candles on birthday cakes
has surprisingly ancient origins. Some historians believe
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it goes as far back as the ancient Greeks, who may have made cakes
adorned with lit candles to honor Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and
moon. This, in turn, was adopted by the Romans, who helped spread the
tradition.

In modern Europe, the ritual of celebrating birthdays with a cake and
candles — as we do today — has been around since at least the 18th
century. One of the first documented accounts
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comes from the 1746 birthday party of Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, a
German bishop, who had a massive cake covered in candles. At this
point, in Germany at least, the act of extinguishing the candle flames
was seen as a way to carry desires up to the gods — not dissimilar
to how we blow out candles and make a wish today. 

EATING 12 GRAPES AT MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR’S EVE

The tradition of eating a dozen grapes
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New Year’s Eve comes from Spain, and while the origins are still
debated, it dates back to at least the 1880s. According to some
historians, the Spanish bourgeoisie decided to imitate the French New
Year’s celebration of drinking champagne by skipping the middleman
and going straight for the grapes. Others suggest the tradition began
as a shrewd marketing tactic by grape growers who had a surplus
harvest to unload in the early 1900s. 

Either way, the ritual caught on: By eating one grape at each of
midnight’s 12 clock chimes, you are destined for a lucky year, with
each grape representing one of the 12 forthcoming months. The custom
soon spread throughout Latin America, in countries as diverse as Cuba,
Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Peru. Some Latino populations in
the U.S. have also maintained the grape-eating superstition.

* food history
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* culinary traditions
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* superstitions
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