Salt or to be more precise, editable salt or table salt is a mineral in rock form. Since humans began using salt to improve the taste of food probably after watching animals such as deer lick or eat it has been until the early 1900’s rare and hard to come by. The Romans were said to have used it in part to pay their soldiers with and in China salt was even taxed.
The act of throwing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder after spilling some has its origins in the fact that since before modern times it was so hard to get it was considered bad luck or as Tarzan would say “Bad JuJu” to spill any. Therefore if you should happen to spill some you throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder to combat the bad luck.
This was also echoed by Leonardo da Vinci in his 15th century mural the last supper where Judas is depicted as spilling salt on the table before he denied Jesus. In the mural Judas is seated on the left of Jesus or as superstition would hold the evil or bad side. The reasoning behind this therefore goes that if you spill salt to break the bad luck you throw a pinch of it over your left or evil shoulder.
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