As Michael Scott once said, “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.”
Superstitions go hand in hand with human history. Whether it’s knocking on wood for good luck or believing that a broken mirror will give you bad luck, you’ve most likely heard of or participated in some superstition or ritual through the years.
Using data from Google, the most common superstitions were mapped out by state and there were some common answers. But there was one superstition that’s more popular than all of the rest, and it’s the most popular here in Ohio:
Throwing salt over your shoulder.
The belief of tossing spilled salt over your shoulder isn’t unique to Ohio. The origins of this superstition go way, way back. Around 3,500 B.C., the ancient Sumerians first introduced the idea of counteracting the bad luck of spilling such an important mineral by tossing a little over your left shoulder. This ritual spread throughout ancient societies, taking on various explanations through the years.
The superstition really took off when Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper. In the iconic painting, Judas Iscariot is portrayed as knocking over a salt shaker with his left elbow.
Throwing salt over your shoulder for good luck was the most popular ritual according to the study. It’s the go-to superstition in a total of 17 states, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.