Spilling sugar
Spilling sugar rarely stirs the worry that spilled salt does. In old customs sugar stood for sweetness wished on others, from Greek brides to Turkish newlyweds, so the spill can stand for the sweetness you share or hold back.
What it may mean
Salt and sugar look almost the same on a kitchen counter, yet tradition treats their spills very differently. Spilled salt was feared as a sign of a quarrel. Sugar chiefly appears in old customs as a wish for others: a Greek bride carried a lump in her glove so her married life would be sweet, and Ottoman Turkish newlyweds passed a piece of sugar from mouth to mouth on their wedding night. Sugar was something you gave. A spill, then, is sweetness running ahead of you, scattered before anyone asked for it. That makes it a light occasion to ask whether you share the sweet things you keep in reserve (praise, thanks, a little affection) or save them so carefully that they spill only by accident. Not every tradition is kind to a sugar spill, and plenty of households just reach for the broom.
Depending on how you saw it
Tipping the sugar bowl at the table
A sugar bowl on its side spreads white across the cloth, and someone tends to laugh. One old belief even read it as money on the way. What would you do with a little unexpected sweetness this week?
Sugar spilled while baking
When you measure sugar for a cake, a little always escapes the cup. Bakers learn to work over a tray. Where could you set up a simple tray in your routine to catch what slips?
Sugar crunching underfoot days later
Sugar bounces far and hides in corners, so you hear it under your shoes long after the spill. Ants may find it first. Which small, sweet gesture of yours keeps turning up in someone's memory long after you have forgotten it?
Why it happens in nature
Granulated sugar is made of hard crystals that bounce and scatter when spilled, so grains end up far from the spot. Sugar also attracts ants and other insects, which find even small amounts quickly. A dry cloth or a dustpan works better than a wet sponge, which dissolves the grains into a sticky film.
What folk beliefs say
Greece
In Greece, a bride who carried a lump of sugar in her glove was believed to have sweet joy all her life.
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. 97. View the page
Ottoman Turkey
When an Ottoman Turkish couple married, the groom passed a piece of sugar from his mouth to hers at night and she returned it, to carry sweetness and bliss into their lives.
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. 115. View the page
Westport, Massachusetts
In Westport, Massachusetts, breaking a sugar bowl was said to foretell a quarrel.
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. 508. View the page
To reflect on
Which sweet words or gestures do you keep in reserve that someone might be glad to receive now?