The Fascinating Story Behind 12 Unusual British Superstitions

The United Kingdom is filled with quirky and strange superstitions that have roots in the past. While many might now appear nonsensical—or perhaps overly focused on witches—they reveal a deep connection to the ancient traditions of the British people. Here are 12 of the oddest, and their origins.

1. Encountering a chimney sweep on your wedding day is said to bring good fortune.

Sweeps are believed to bring good fortune in various European countries, including Germany, Austria, Poland, and Hungary. In some parts of continental Europe, they’re especially lucky on New Year's Day if they’re carrying a pig. In the UK, however, the time of year doesn’t affect their luck. While European traditions involve rubbing their buttons or taking a bristle from their brush, in Britain, people usually wave, tip their hat, or blow a kiss at a sweep.

A rather convoluted tale often cited as the origin of the tradition involves George II being saved by an unknown sweep when his horse bolted. Legend has it that the king, deeply grateful for the rescue, declared that from then on, sweeps would 'bring good luck to the land.'

However, the widespread belief across Europe suggests a deeper, shared origin. For centuries, fire was thought to have mystical qualities that transferred to the ash and soot, and by extension, to the sweep who spent his day covered in it. It was believed that cleaning the hearth on New Year’s Day would bring good fortune to the home for the entire year.

But why does Britain associate sweeps with weddings? The roots might trace back to Roman traditions. Vulcan, the god of fire, was tied to both destruction and fertility. Myths told of how the hearth and its ashes were believed to be connected to magical pregnancies. This idea was mirrored in an ancient festival dedicated to Bel, the god of fire, held at the Beltane Festival in May, which was associated with courting, marriage, and fertility rituals.

2. Bringing hawthorn flowers into the house is said to bring death.

The belief in the mystical powers of hawthorn, also known as the May tree, dates back to ancient British Celts, who considered it one of the three sacred trees, alongside ash and oak. Hawthorn was often planted in hedgerows to shield livestock from witches. To this day, many farmers refuse to cut them down, letting them stand solitary in fields. As late as 1998, farmers in Yorkshire were observed hanging a mare’s placenta in a hawthorn tree to ensure luck for her foal.

According to folklore, hawthorn trees are said to be the dwelling places of fairies, and branches are frequently placed at doorways for good fortune. In early spring, the trees bloom with an abundance of white flowers, linking them to fertility and renewal. This association made them a central element in Beltane and May Day celebrations, where people would dance around the Maypole and weave hawthorn blossoms into garlands.

Inside the home, however, hawthorn has a more ominous reputation. In some areas, like Herefordshire, branches are twisted into globes and hung in kitchens, where they are burned on New Year’s Day to bring luck for the coming year. Yet, the blossoms are largely seen as a harbinger of death, with a strong taboo against bringing them indoors. This is due to their scent, which is often likened to decaying flesh. In the 17th century, Francis Bacon noted that the plague carried 'the smell of a mellow apple and (as some say) of May flowers.' A well-known saying went, 'Hawthorn bloom and elder flower; Fill the house with evil power.'

Modern science has now uncovered the reason behind this: The flowers contain trimethylamine, a chemical that forms when tissue starts to decompose. In times when bodies were often kept in the home before burial, this scent would have been all too familiar to people.

3. Plant holly if you want to stop a witch in her tracks.

Like hawthorn, holly is considered one of Britain’s most magical plants. The Druids revered it as a symbol of fertility and immortality. Holly was also an important part of Beltane and May Day festivities. Later, Christianity adopted these pagan beliefs, and holly’s leaves and berries came to symbolize the thorns and blood of Christ’s crown.

Trimming holly for decoration, especially during Christmas, and bringing it inside is believed to protect a house—a practice that predates the Christmas tree by centuries. However, you should never cut down the entire tree, as doing so is thought to open a pathway for witches to pass through the hedgerows. For added protection, people often plant holly outside the house, and a naturally growing sapling is considered even luckier.

4. Tossing salt over your left shoulder is said to strike the devil in the eye.

Superstitions about salt are widespread across Europe, including in Spain, Germany, Ukraine, and France. In the UK, spilling salt is considered an unlucky omen. A common remedy is to throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder (where, according to Christian tradition, the devil resides).

Some believe that the superstition about spilling salt originates from Judas spilling salt during the Last Supper, as depicted by Leonardo da Vinci. However, the mineral's role as a protective force goes back long before Christianity. In the UK, throwing salt into the fire was thought to ward off witches, as was placing it on the lid of a butter churn. There was also the tradition of placing a bowl of salt on a corpse to prevent ghosts from walking. In 1873, salt was still used in a ritual to lift a curse, with the chant, 'Salt, salt! I put thee into the fire, and may the person who has bewitched me neither eat, drink, nor sleep, till the spell is broken.' Twenty years later, it was even believed to attract a lover to visit.

While most of these old practices have faded, throwing salt in the devil's face to distract him is still a common superstition. Just make sure you know who's standing behind you before you do it.

5. Never put shoes on a table (for reasons that have nothing to do with germs).

Britain has always had a deep-seated superstition surrounding shoes. For example, it was once common to leave a shoe in a mine or hide one in the walls or floorboards of a house as a form of protective magic. Shoes have also been tied to wedding rituals for centuries. In Anglo-Saxon times, bridegrooms would tap their bride on the head with one of her own shoes to assert authority. By the Tudor period, this evolved into the custom of throwing a shoe at a newlywed couple. Thankfully, these practices have long since faded, though shoes are still often tied to the back of wedding cars.

The superstition that placing shoes on a table brings bad luck is particularly British, although Italy has its own version that forbids placing shoes on a bed. While it might seem logical from a hygiene standpoint, this belief is actually rooted in ideas about death, not germs. The most widely cited reason for this superstition involves mining communities in northern England, where a miner’s boots would be placed on the table when he passed away.

There may have been a broader tradition linking shoes to the dead, particularly those who had met a violent end. A case from Victorian Edinburgh describes how a police constable removed and buried the shoes of a murdered man on a beach rather than keeping them as evidence. Though the constable never explained his actions, it was widely believed that he did this to prevent the victim’s ghost from endlessly walking the streets of Arran, where he had been murdered.

6. Saying Macbeth in the theater will send the actors into a frenzy.

There is one superstition in the theater that all actors must adhere to: the prohibition of saying Macbeth or quoting from the play, except during rehearsals or performances. This custom is believed to have started with the play's first performance, when the actor portraying Lady Macbeth unexpectedly passed away.

Since that tragic event, the play has been associated with a series of mishaps and disasters. Actors have been injured or killed, theaters have burned down or closed, equipment has malfunctioned, lines have been forgotten, and props have caused harm to the audience. Among the most notorious incidents are the onstage murder of the actor playing Duncan in 1672, riots in New York in 1849 that led to 22 deaths, and a near-fatal accident involving Sir Laurence Olivier in 1937.

However, there is hope, and a way to reverse the bad luck: If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of uttering the name of the Scottish king in a theater, you must immediately exit, spin around three times, spit, curse, and then request permission to return inside.

7. Smash your egg shells if you want to prevent your boat from sinking.

The suspicion surrounding eggs—especially the shells—dates back to the Romans. Pliny the Elder linked them to a 'dread [of] being spell-bound by means of evil imprecations.' By the time Reginald Scot wrote his Discoverie of Witchcraft in 1584, the belief had spread across Europe that witches could 'saile in an egge shell.' People feared that witches used the shells as boats to travel out to sea, where they would stir up storms to sink ships. In fact, merely boiling an egg could lead to accusations of witchcraft.

The superstition surrounding eggs was so deeply ingrained that not only was it used as evidence in witchcraft trials, but it also became a common practice to smash eggshells. Irish immigrants to America in the 1840s would break their shells to prevent fairies from returning home, and as late as 1934, children were still warned: 'Oh, never leave your egg-shells unbroken in the cup; Think of us poor sailor-men and always smash them up, For witches come and find them and sail away to sea, And make a lot of misery for mariners like me.' Sailors still avoid eggs on board, and the name itself has become taboo, with some choosing to call them roundabouts instead.

8. Never harm an albatross (especially with a banana).

Sailors are known for their strong superstitions, with a set of dos and don’ts to ensure safety on the water. One such belief is to never bring a banana aboard a ship, as it is said to prevent the boat from catching fish and, even worse, could potentially sink it.

One of the most well-known superstitions related to the sea involves the albatross, a bird believed to bring both good and bad fortune. For centuries, sailors have considered them supernatural beings because of their ability to travel vast distances without ever needing to land. The bird is said to carry the souls of deceased sailors, offering protection to the ship. Therefore, spotting an albatross is thought to be a lucky omen.

It follows that killing an albatross is believed to bring bad luck. While some claim this superstition arose only after the publication of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s *Rime of the Ancient Mariner* in 1797, Coleridge himself was inspired by real-life stories of encounters with the bird, including the tale of the *Speedwell*, which faced calamity after a sailor killed an albatross in October 1718.

The superstition endures. In 1959, a ship encountered a series of troubles after an albatross was killed on board, and the Captain confessed, 'That albatross may be to blame for the strike. I had courage bringing that … thing on board.'

9. If you want to avoid drowning, get a tattoo.

For many sailors, learning to swim was never an option, especially for those pressed into service from coastal towns. An odd superstition existed among them: swimming would provoke the wrath of the sea. Perhaps this belief stemmed from the sailors' knowledge that if they fell overboard, death was inevitable since no one would turn the ship around in time to rescue them. Moreover, it was believed that saving a shipmate would cheat the sea of a soul, and as a consequence, the sea would soon claim the rescuer's life.

Sailors often purchased cauls—membranes that cover the faces of some babies at birth—and got tattoos as protection against drowning. Folklore suggested that anyone possessing a caul could never drown, while tattoos of propellers on their buttocks would allegedly help push them back to shore. Observing that animals kept in crates often survived shipwrecks due to their buoyancy led to the belief that the gods protected them. Consequently, tattoos of pigs and roosters on the feet were thought to invite the same divine protection.

10. Use a hagstone to shield your home and animals from witches.

Hagstones, stones with naturally occurring holes, have been revered as protective talismans for centuries. The hole in the stone symbolized a portal through which only good fortune and prosperity could pass. Witches, fairies, and negative energies were too large to fit through, so they were kept at bay. The stone’s power was believed to be especially strong if the hole had been formed by water or if the stone was hung with iron, such as on a keyring.

People would place hagstones in their homes to ward off witches, in stables, on the bows of boats, and even between the horns of cows to prevent fairies from stealing the milk. Hanging them above the bed was thought to prevent nightmares, known as “hag-riding,” while placing them with animals protected them from fever. In 1686, John Aubrey remarked that in the West of England, “the Carters, & Groomes, & Hostlers doe hang a flint (that has a hole in it) over Horses that are hagge-ridden for a Preservative against it.”

Hagstones are still believed to bring good luck. However, if you want one, it’s best to find it yourself. You can buy one online, but be cautious: if the hole isn't natural, the witches might slip right through.

11. If you want something good to happen, tie a cloutie to a tree.

In Celtic tradition, trees and water are considered particularly potent in magic. Both are believed to be inhabited by spirits, and both are sources of good luck when treated with respect. This explains why we toss coins into wells and fountains or touch and knock on wood for luck.

Clootie or cloutie wells were sacred springs, often accompanied by a tree. The ill would visit these sites in search of healing. The belief was that washing the afflicted area with a strip of cloth (the clootie/cloutie) and leaving it to decompose in the tree would carry the illness away. As Christianity spread, saints became associated with these wells, but the ancient practice endured. In some cases, offerings like pins, coins, and beans were also left behind alongside the cloth.

Although medical science has progressed, the tradition of offering to the gods continues today in the form of modern wishing trees. Along with clouties hanging from branches, you'll find paper notes, padlocks on bridges, coins hammered into logs, and even scarves from sports teams tied to club railings.

12. If you happen to spot a lone magpie, make sure to tip your hat (especially if you don’t have onions with you).

Before the rise of Christianity, magpies were regarded as a symbol of good fortune. However, after the legend emerged that they neither wept at the crucifixion nor entered Noah’s Ark, their reputation shifted, and they were seen as harbingers of misfortune. As early as 1507, it was reported that 'whan pyes chatter upon a house it is a sygne of ryghte evyll tydynges.' Their frequent presence around death and scavenging carrion only deepened their ominous association.

By 1780, the superstition surrounding magpies was so entrenched that a rhyme had been created to reflect the various types of luck they might bring. The rhyme, which is still commonly recited today, goes: 'One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy.' Different regions have different interpretations of the sorrow, including an impending death in Scotland, a dangerous journey in Wales, and a fruitless fishing day in Devon. In Northampton, three magpies are said to predict a fire instead of a girl.

There are ways to counteract the bad luck brought by a magpie’s appearance. The most common method is to tip your hat and greet it with 'Good morning, general (or captain).' Other regional customs include making the sign of the cross, inquiring after the magpie’s spouse, or spitting three times over your shoulder. In Somerset, the most unusual practice is to always carry an onion to shield oneself from the magpie’s bad luck.