13 Spooky Superstitions From Around the World That People Still Believe

In ancient Rome and medieval Europe, salt was so expensive that spilling a single crystal was seen as a dark omen of betrayal—immortalized in Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, where Judas knocks over the salt cellar. The only cure is throwing a pinch over your left shoulder.

In ancient Egypt, a ladder resting against a wall created a three-sided triangle sacred to the gods—walking through it profaned the trinity. Later in medieval Europe, leaning ladders resembled the gallows, leading locals to believe anyone who walked underneath would hang.

When the ancient Romans pioneered glass-backed mirrors, they believed reflections captured a fragment of the viewer's soul. If the glass shattered, the trapped soul was damaged until the body physically regenerated itself—a cycle Roman physicians believed took seven years.

Dating back over 5,000 years to Mesopotamia, the Evil Eye curse holds that a glare of envy—or even excessive praise of a newborn baby—can cause sudden illness or ruin. Millions across the Mediterranean still hang blue glass Nazar amulets on homes, babies, and airplanes.

Rooted in Slavic pagan folklore, whistling indoors was believed to summon household wind spirits that swept every coin straight out the window. Even today across Russia and Eastern Europe, whistling inside a home or backstage at the Bolshoi Theatre is strictly taboo.

In Japan, the thumb is called oyayubi ("parent finger"). For generations, children and drivers passing a cemetery or funeral hearse have tucked their thumbs tightly inside their fists, believing that leaving them exposed allows wandering spirits to shorten their parents' lives.

Across Japan, China, and Korea, vertical chopsticks in a bowl of rice (tsukitate-bashi) are reserved exclusively for funeral altars and ancestral shrines, where they resemble burning incense sticks for the departed. Doing so at a restaurant table is seen as beckoning death.

Roman historians recorded that solitary owls screeched through the streets of Rome right before the assassination of Julius Caesar. Across parts of Europe, Africa, and the Americas, hearing a barn owl hoot from a chimney at midnight is still feared as a harbinger of loss.

In medieval Europe, nocturnal black cats were accused of serving as shape-shifting familiars for witches, sparking centuries of superstition when one crossed a traveler's path. Yet in Britain and Japan, a black cat walking toward you is celebrated as a sign of prosperity.

In Icelandic folklore, the Jólakötturinn (Yule Cat) is a house-sized feline prowling the snowy countryside on Christmas Eve to devour anyone who has not received at least one new piece of wool clothing before the holidays—a spooky tale originally used to speed up autumn wool weaving.

During the annual Ghost Festival across East and Southeast Asia—and Día de los Muertos in Mexico—families believe the gates of the afterlife open. People avoid swimming at night, leave the front row of opera shows empty for unseen spirits, and set out candlelit feasts.

A 17th-century prophecy warns that "if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it." Even in 2026, the British monarchy employs a dedicated Ravenmaster and keeps seven resident ravens on the fortress grounds as insurance.

No superstition shapes modern architecture like triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13 in the West) and tetraphobia (fear of 4 in East Asia, where "four" sounds identical to "death"). More than 80% of high-rise hotels and hospitals skip these floor numbers on their elevator buttons.