What people say
Bad luck if it crosses in front of you — in most of Europe and North America.Animals · 3,670 searches a month
Black cat crossing your path
Black cat crossing your path: bad luck if it crosses in front of you — in most of Europe and North America. First recorded in 1560s England, as an association with witchcraft, it is about 466 years old — the 19th oldest of the 40 superstitions we have dated. Black cats are adopted from shelters at lower rates than other colours, which is the one real consequence this superstition has.
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
1560s England, as an association with witchcraft
That makes it
about 466 years old
Rank by age
19 oldest of 40 dated here
Category
Animals
Searched
3,670 a month
Medieval European fear of cats as witches' familiars, sharpened during the witch trials. The direction of crossing mattered because it echoed reading omens from the flight of birds, a much older Roman practice.
What is going on
Black cats are adopted from shelters at lower rates than other colours, which is the one real consequence this superstition has.Where it applies. Reversed in Britain and Japan, where a black cat crossing is good luck. The same event carries opposite meanings depending on where you stand.
Recorded around the same time
Black cat crossing your path is the 19th oldest of the 40 dated superstitions here. Of those, 6 are younger than a century and 5 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →