Spitting on someone is a very real occurrence in Greece, but luckily, it involves more noise (“Ftou, ftou, ftou”) and less spit.
Spitting has been held as a sign of luck and good wishes by Greek people for centuries. It is not unusual for the bride to be spat upon from both sides all the way up the aisle!
Greeks spit for a number of superstitious reasons, the most common is to keep evil away from you.
For example, if you hear of someone speaking of misfortune or bad news and fear the possibility of the same thing happening to you, you would spit three times on your own person. Greeks say ”Ftise Ston Korfo Sou” or loosely translated, spit on yourself/your cleavage. It wards off the evil from coming to you.
Spitting is also commonly used to avoid misfortune, so you don’t give the ‘evil eye’ to yourself or create a jinx. For example, Greek fishermen will spit in their nets before lowering them into the sea to ward off evil and get a good days’ catch.
See an assortment of Greek superstitions, customs and traditions on realcorfu.com.
And here are 27 things that will happen at every Greek wedding from BuzzFeed.com.