Shoes on a table

For the 1960 incident at the United Nations General Assembly, see Shoe-banging incident.

There is a superstition that bad luck will come to a person who places shoes on a table.

A belief common in the North of England is that the tradition relates to the coal mining industry. When a worker died in a mining accident, his shoes were placed on the table as a sign of respect. By extension, doing so was seen as tempting fate or simply as bad taste.^[1]

In the world of theatre, putting shoes on a dressing room table is considered by some to bring the risk of a bad performance, just as "Break a leg!" is considered good luck.^[2] Also described as an old wives' tale, the superstition may date back to medieval times.^[3] Some sources ascribe the origin to the fact that criminals were hanged while still wearing their shoes.^[4] It may have something to do with death, and the idea of placing a new pair of shoes on the table would signify that someone had just died, or you would have bad luck for the rest of the day, quarrel with someone, or lose your job.^{[citation needed]}

Even among people who are not superstitious, shoes can be associated with contamination.^[5]

Popular culture

Power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice mention the superstition in their cover of the Stevie Wonder song, "Superstition".

Blood Brothers, the 1983 musical by Willy Russell set in Liverpool, contains a song about superstition entitled "Shoes Upon The Table".

See also

• Removal of footwear indoors

References

1. "Shoes on a table are bad luck Folklore and Urban Legends". Weirdisland.co.uk. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2018-04-22.^{[dead link‍]}
2. David Pickering, Cassell's Dictionary of Superstitions (Sterling Publishing, 2002) p. 425
3. I. Marc Carlson (2008-02-22). "Shoe-perstitions". personal.utulsa.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-22.^{[dead link‍]}
4. Harry Collis and Joe Kohl, 101 American Superstitions (McGraw-Hill Professional, 1998) p. 69.
5. Padmal de Silva and Stanley Rachman, Obsessive-compulsive Disorder, (Oxford University Press, 2004) p. 34