Bread and butter (superstition)

{{Short description|Superstitious practice related to physical separation}}

{{About|a superstitious charm||Bread and butter (disambiguation){{!}}Bread and butter}}

"Bread and butter" is a superstitious blessing or charm, typically said by young couples or friends walking together when they are forced to separate by an obstacle, such as a pole or another person. By saying the phrase, the bad luck of letting something come between them is thought to be averted.{{citation |title=Signs and Superstitions Collected from American College Girls |author=Martha Warren Beckwith |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=36 |number=139 |date= Jan–Mar 1923 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.2307/535105 |jstor=535105}} Both walkers must say the phrase,{{citation |title=The Encyclopedia of Superstitions |author=Richard Webster |date=2008}} and if they do not do this, then a bitter quarrel is expected to occur.{{citation |title=Louisiana folklore miscellany |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=1981}} The concept derives from the difficulty of separating butter from bread once it has been spread – buttered bread cannot be "unbuttered".{{citation |title=101 American superstitions |author=Harry Collis |date=1998}} Another phrase used in this way is "salt and pepper".{{citation |title=Ozark tales and superstitions |date=1983 |author=Phillip W. Steele }}