Fascinating Cuban superstitions

In Cuban culture, avoiding death and the evil eye is almost a full time job. So many things can go wrong that we are sometimes surprised how we made it to adulthood. :D Either we are superstitious or simply choose not to pay too much attention to this sort of beliefs, it’s important to know them and, why not, talk about them with the people we meet in our life abroad, as a symbol of our love for our home country.

So we put together a list of the most common Cuban superstitions:

  • Don’t open an umbrella indoors, because it’ll rain mala suerte on you faster and harder than you can possibly imagine.
  • Don’t put your purse on the floor. As far as Cubans are concerned, the quickest way to become penniless is to put your purse or handbag on the floor. Whether it’s true or not, we’re not going to take our chances.
  • Do not bring home sea shells. There’s no explanation for that, but don’t waste time collecting sea shells, because they will never make it into the house, as the vigilant eye of Cuban mothers or grandmothers won’t miss such a source of bad luck.
  • If you drop salt on the floor, fights are coming your way. Avoid drama, pay closer attention when handling the salt.
  • Itch in the palm of your hand means you will soon get some money. So if you feel an itch in your palm, you can already start the house redecoration process, or looking for a new car or making plans for the holidays… :)