Splitting a pole
Splitting a pole happens when two people walk past a post on opposite sides, and in many American families someone must quickly say "bread and butter" to undo it. It is a tiny repair ritual for a tiny split.
What it may mean
Two friends are walking down a sidewalk, a lamppost comes up between them, and one goes left while the other goes right. In many American families that is splitting the pole, and someone has to say "bread and butter" at once, or bad fortune follows, sometimes a quarrel between the two. A folklore collector explained the logic: once butter is spread, nobody can pull it back off the bread. The same writer noted that the custom seems to have begun among Black Americans, and a 1903 encyclopedia already counted it unlucky for a person, an animal or a post to pass between two people walking together. Close pairs need a phrase like that, something quick that rejoins them after a tiny split: an inside joke after an argument, a text sent from the car. The words matter less than saying them fast.
Depending on how you saw it
Arm in arm around a trash can
An Irish American student remembered two friends strolling arm in arm who let go at a garbage can, and then one shouted "bread and butter" as they linked up again on the other side. What small obstacles do you and a close friend walk around together without discussing them?
Two brothers and a stone
The ancient Greeks, the 1903 encyclopedia says, thought it ominous if two brothers walking together were separated by a stone. Families have been watching for small things that come between siblings for centuries. Which pair in your family has let something small stay between them too long?
Walking between two people
In Albania, the same book says, going between two people standing close together would separate them, and their friendship would end. Most of us still step around a conversation rather than through it. Whose conversation have you cut through without noticing you split it?
Why it happens in nature
Sidewalks are crowded with poles, signs, hydrants, trash cans and other people, so two walkers side by side often have to part for a step or two. Each person tends to dodge toward their own side, which is why splitting around an obstacle happens so often without anyone deciding it.
What folk beliefs say
United States
Splitting the pole, walking on two different sides of an object such as a pole, is held to be bad fortune, threatening a split in the pair's relationship or worse, unless one of them says "bread and butter"; the collector notes the belief seems to have originated among Black Americans.
Source: nkmcmill (collector), “Bread and Butter” (Splitting the Pole) (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2024), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
Memphis, Tennessee
A young woman in Memphis remembered her aunt getting upset when the two of them were about to split a pole on the way to a store.
Source: Marisol Garcia (collector), Splitting poles (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2019), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
United States (Irish American)
An Irish American student explained that when you are walking with somebody and something comes between you, you say "bread and butter."
Source: Kelly Girskis (collector), Bread and Butter (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2011), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
Ancient Greece
The ancient Greeks held it ominous of evil if two brothers walking together were separated by a stone.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 526. View the page
Albania
In Albania, going between two persons standing close together was said to separate them, so that their friendship would cease.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 526. View the page
To reflect on
What is your "bread and butter," the quick phrase that rejoins you with someone after a small split?