Superstitions can fill peoples lives with a bit of innocent fun, but they can also be incredibly crippling. This is a list of some of the more unusual superstitions that surround food. Many of these superstitions derive from Great Britain, and therefore ultimately found their way around the world through colonization.
It was once (and perhaps still is) a superstition that if you found a hole in a loaf of bread you cut, it symbolized a coffin and meant that someone was soon to die. If a person found a loaf in this state, there would be days of discussion to guess who it might be that would be stricken down. Of course, these days we are less likely to cut our own loaves of bread, so this one is likely to die into obscurity.
It was once a superstition that if you did not crush the ends of an egg after eating it, a witch would gather the shells and use them to craft a boat that she could use to sail out to sea to raise storms. This is a very ancient superstition which seems to originate in the 1580s. If you shattered the end of the shell, it would create enough holes to make it useless as a boat. We won’t even go into the logic of how a full-sized human might be able to stand in an egg shell - that was obviously not on the minds of our superstitious forebears.
This innocent old superstition dictated that all loaves of bread must be marked with a sign of the cross before baking. The idea was that the cross would prevent the devil from sitting on the loaf - and thereby prevent him from cursing or spoiling the bread. The upside to this superstition is that bread rises much better in the oven when crossed - though obviously not from the influence (or lack thereof) of the wicked one.
We all know of the superstition surrounding the spilling of salt, but here is a slightly more unusual one. It used to be considered bad if you helped another person to the salt - there was even a little phrase that evolved from the superstition: “help to salt, help to sorry.” Salt is such an important part of human life that it is no wonder that it appears so frequently in the history of superstition.
It used to be considered bad luck for two people to pour tea from the same pot. In addition, if you left the lid off the teapot while brewing tea, it was meant to mean that a stranger would visit soon. There were even a series of small rituals you could perform to determine the exact day, hour, and gender of the visitor by means of tapping the wrist.
Superstitions surrounding Christmas are as numerous as Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands. One such superstition says that all members of a family must have a turn stirring the Christmas cake mixture or else bad luck will befall them. Young unmarried girls were especially supposed to have a turn - otherwise they would remain alone for another year.
In many parts of Europe, farmers would take a fresh egg into the fields in the hopes that it would bring a good healthy crop. Eggs were also used to tell fortunes - two yolks would mean a marriage was coming up soon, a black spot on a yolk was a bad omen - and an egg with no yolk at all was just about as bad as you could get.
In Greece there is an ancient superstition called the Evil Eye. It is believed that when someone gives you the evil eye, bad luck (usually minor) will befall you. Now you may be wondering why this is on a food superstitions list; the reason is that the way to prevent the evil eye from affecting you is to carry around a piece of garlic. This is unlikely to help you when you are having a night out looking for a date!
Before we all sit back on our laurels and laugh at the superstitions around the world that would never afflict us; let us remember one of our own most revered superstitions, the pulling of the wishbone. In Western (especially American and British) tradition, two people use their pinky finger to break the wishbone. The person who wins the longest piece gets good luck and usually makes a wish. We may all say we aren’t superstitious - but this is something we have all done at one time or another which leads us to our last (and equally common) superstition:
Throwing rice at a wedding is such a common event that we don’t even bat an eyelid when we see it happening. But what most of us don’t realize is that this a very superstitious tradition with a very long history. The throwing of rice is meant to bring prosperity, wealth, and happiness to the couple. Frankly though, with the amount of money people spend on weddings these days, it would be more useful to throw wads of cash rather than rice.
译文:
10种奇怪的与食物有关的迷信行为
迷信可以让人们的生活充满乐趣，但是它同时也可以给人们的生活带来难以置信的东西。下面列举了一些非常罕见的与食物有关的迷信。这些迷信大部分来源于英国，因此通过英国的殖民扩张这些迷信也就传到了世界各地。
10
有洞的面包
曾经有一个迷信的说法是这样说的，如果你在切面包的时候，发现你所切的那块面包上面有个洞，这就象征着一个棺材，意味着很快就会有人死去。如果某个人在切面包的时候遇到了这种情况，在接下来的几天里他们就会猜测谁会是那个将要死去的人。当然，在接下来里人们就不怎么愿意去切面包了，也就没有人再讨论谁会是那个将要死的人，因此那个人也就很有可能就这样悄悄地死去了。
9
蛋壳
曾经有这样一个迷信的说法，如果你吃完一个蛋后你没有把蛋壳的底部弄碎，一个巫师就会来到蛋壳里，然后把蛋壳当成一条船，巫师会乘着这条船到海上兴风作浪。这是一个由来已久的迷信，似乎从1580年就有了。如果你把这个蛋壳的底部弄碎了，那么这条船就会有很多个洞，这条船也就没有用了。我们就会想一个实际大小的人怎么可以能够坐在一个蛋壳里面呢，可是我们那些迷信的祖先就没有想到这一点。
8
划上十字的面包
古时候的迷信有这样一个说法，所有的面包在进行烘焙之前都要在上边划上一个十字，据说这样的一个十字可以阻止恶魔坐在面包上面，进而就可以阻止他对面包下诅咒，或者是毁坏面包。但是这个迷信做法还有一个好处就是，划了十字的面包在烘烤的时候可以膨胀起来—尽管这些作用很明显不是来自于恶魔的魔力。
7
盐
我们都知道关于洒翻盐的迷信说法，但是这里还要介绍一个更为罕见的关于盐的迷信。有一句话是从迷信中逐渐演变过来的，那就是“帮助别人撒盐，也就是撒播不好的事。”所以当一个人帮助别人做于盐有关的事情时，就认为会有不好的事情发生。由于盐是人们日常生活中很重要的一部分，难怪它会频繁地出现在迷信说法中。
6
与茶有关的规矩
两个人同一个茶壶里倒茶被认为是会带来坏运气的。此外，如果你在煮茶的时候把茶壶盖弄掉，这就预示着一个陌生人将会来访。通过轻拍你的手腕等方式你可以推断出一系列与即将来访的陌生人有关的细节，如这个人来访的日期，还有来访者的性别。
5
圣诞蛋糕
与圣诞节有关的迷信行为就像伊丽莎白·泰勒的丈夫一样，数不胜数。有一个迷信说法是这样的，一个家庭的所有成员必须轮着搅拌蛋糕的混合料，否则倒霉就会降临到他们身上。年轻的未婚女子尤其应该这样做，不然的话她们在下一年还会继续单身的生活。
4
与蛋有关的运势
在欧洲的许多地方，农民习惯带一个新鲜的鸡蛋到田地里，希望这可以带来丰收。鸡蛋过去被用来预测将要发生的事—-两个蛋黄预示着很快就要举办一场婚礼，在蛋黄上有个黑点就是坏事的征兆---如果一个鸡蛋没有蛋黄，就预示着一个人要多倒霉就有多倒霉。
3
大蒜
在希腊有一个古老的迷信传说叫做“邪眼”。据说，如果有人给你“邪眼”，坏运气（通常是程度较轻的）将会降临在你身上。你也许会觉得奇怪，为什么这个迷信行为也会出现在这篇文章上。原因就在于阻止“邪眼”给你带来坏运气的方法就是你要随身携带一瓣大蒜。当你晚上外出约会时，这种做法也许是不可取的。
2
如愿骨
在我们满足于我们现在所取得的成就并且取笑那些我们从来没有遇见过的迷信行为之前，我们要想到一种我们本身就很敬畏的迷信行为，拉扯家禽的V形骨。在西方，尤其是美国和英国，在吃家禽时，两个人通常会用手将颈和胸之间的V形骨拉开。那个得到大块骨的人就会有好运同时也可以许下一个愿望。我们也许会说我们都不迷信，但是有些我们曾经做过的事情将会使我们最终（或者是很平常地）就加入了迷信的行列。
1
婚礼上的大米
当我们看见在婚礼上洒大米这一常见的习俗，我们都觉得没什么新鲜感了。但是，我们中的许多人都不知道这种习俗有着很悠久的历史。撒大米预示着可以给这对夫妻带来兴旺，财富还有幸福。坦白说，虽然现在的人们会花很多钱在婚礼上，但是如果人们能直接撒钱而不是撒大米会更令人满意。