![]() I’ve read some claims that the superstition comes from Italy, and others that the language itself points to its English origin. Buttered bread, after all, cannot be unbuttered. ![]() The idea is that the incantation will prevent a division-the pair will stick together. There is a superstitious belief that if a pair, walking together, is forced to pass on opposite sides of some obstacle, they should say “bread and butter” or risk a permanent separation. I whisper “bread and butter” fourteen times over, to stem the anxiety percolating in my stomach and rising into my chest, to feel a moment of ease. There are fourteen pillars on the sidewalk. ![]() As my son passes a pillar, the briefest of separations occurs, and I whisper “bread and butter” under my face mask, too embarrassed to speak louder. He walks on the left side, and I walk on the right so that my body is a barrier between him and the cars zooming by. Pillars jut out from storefronts, cleaving our path. The sidewalk leading to my son’s school is too narrow for us to walk side by side. ![]() This is A Modern Guide to Superstition, a column by Dorothy Bendel on folk belief and ritual in chaotic times. ![]()
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