Mediterranean cultures have believed in the mystical curse of the evil eye for centuries, often countering it by pretending to spit on babies or loved ones to ward off the negative energy.

A closer look

Mediterranean cultures have believed in the mystical curse of the evil eye for centuries, often countering it by pretending to spit on babies or loved ones to ward off the negative energy. Because jealousy is supposedly what draws the evil spirit, telling a mother her newborn child is beautiful might accidentally curse the kid with a terrible string of bad luck. To fix this, you have to immediately aggressively dry-spit in the baby's general direction, which is arguably the worst possible way to compliment someone's child in modern society. Nothing says ancient mystical protection quite like mimicking a biological assault on an infant just because you thought they looked mildly cute in their little stroller