For example, someone who is superstitious might avoid walking under ladders, spilling salt, or passing black cats because they think it will bring bad luck.
Other examples of superstitious behaviors include: Knocking on wood, Not opening an umbrella indoors, Wearing lucky socks to a game, and Wearing a certain pair of "lucky" shorts before a race.
Hmmm. That thing about throwing salt over your left shoulder to hit the devil in the eye when you spill salt? NO! That just gets salt on the floor!
But I DO knock on wood every time I say something and don't want to jinx myself by saying it. My mother used to do that, and her mother, and so on. Mostly I knock on my own head because there is never any wood nearby...
Not walking under a ladder had religious significance - the 3 objects of a ladder,a wall and the ground makes a semblance of the Holy Trinity,and to walk through that was once considered as causing an offence to it. Of course in old comedy skits,anyone walking under a ladder would have a can fall on them and get covered in paint.
