Tea Superstitions

Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble

A witches' brew may seem like just the thing for a Halloween Night, but I will admit that eye of newt and toe of frog are not very appealing.

I have quite a different brew in mind ... fragrant with the leaves of darjeeling, ceylon black, jasmine, mint or hibiscus. A heady brew to be enjoyed on a spooky night, with a tiny plate of cookies beside it, and always welcome on any brisk, fall evening.

While you're swirling the last few drops of your aromatic tea in your cup, you can cultivate a sense of the mysterious with a little tea leaf reading of your own, or by contemplating some traditional tea superstitions which will set the tone for a mystical All Hallow's Eve ...

• Scattering tea leaves in front of the house will ward off evil spirits and protect the household and all inside it. 
• Accidentally spilling tea leaves in the house brings good luck! Oops, I think I just knocked over some loose-leaf tea! 
• If you make weak tea, you will lose a friend. 
• If you make your tea too strong, you will make a new friend. 
• When making tea, it is bad luck to pour the hot water into an empty teapot, before the tea leaves are in it. (This does not include the hot water used to warm the teapot beforehand, of course.) 
• If you leave the lid of the teapot off while the tea is brewing, a stranger will arrive to deliver bad news. 
• If tea accidentally spills out of the teapot while it is being carried, a secret shall be revealed. 
• A female visitor must never pour tea in another woman's home. If she does, one of them is sure to have a baby within the year! 
• In fact, one should never pour tea in another's person's home, or bad fortune will befall both! 
• If a man and woman pour tea from the same teapot, they will have a baby together. 
• The more tea leaves that end up in your cup, the fuller your life will be. 
• If any pieces of the leaves float to the top, "there's a stranger in your tea" and a stranger or a new lover will come calling soon. 
• A stem from a leaf of tea standing upright in your cup is good luck. 
• Putting milk in your tea before the sugar may result in being unlucky in love and never marrying. 
• The more bubbles you have floating in the middle of your teacup, the richer you will be. 
• If the bubbles stick to the side of the cup, then romance is coming your way. 
• Catching bubbles on your spoon brings good luck. 
• It is bad luck to stir tea in the teapot. 
• It is bad luck to stir your tea with anything other than a spoon. 
• Stirring your tea counter-clockwise will result in a quarrel with a friend. 
• Placing two spoons on the same saucer indicates a wedding or the birth of twins will happen soon. 
• Dropping a teaspoon on the floor means that a child will soon enter the house. 
• If you have undissolved sugar left on the bottom of your teacup, someone is sweet on you. 
• When using tea bags, if the tag falls off your tea bag while still in your cup, you will receive bad news within the week. 
• If the tea bag falls off of the string, you will lose something important. 
• A young woman will not have good fortune or a full life until she brews her first pot of tea by herself. 
• The person who takes the last piece of cake from the plate at tea will be the first to get married. 
• The number of teapots a bride gets for her wedding determines the number of children she will have. 

I'm sure it's nothing but superstitions!

Happy Halloween!