Unmarried men can see what their future wives will look like in pulled up cabbage stalks!
CELEBRATIONS AND FESTIVALS
The first person seen on New Year’s Day should be male
Take care that the first person you meet on 1 January is a man. The custom of ‘first-footing’ dictates that the gender of the person encountered immediately after midnight on New Year’s Eve carries great significance. It is very unlucky if it happens to be a woman. If the person is a man, especially one who is both tall and dark, this betokens good luck for the year to come. Since the nineteenth century, this superstition has been found in many parts of Britain, but is especially well known in Scotland. Some local variations demand that not only must this ‘first-footer’ be male, but also a particular kind of person with flat feet and eyebrows that meet in the middle; meanness and blindness are considered unlucky features, as are men with professions such as doctor and vicar. Thieves and those armed with a knife are similarly inauspicious. Unsurprisingly, it is common to arrange a visit from a desirable first-footer rather than leave their identity to chance. Accordingly, the man in question should enter a house shortly after the turn of the year, ideally carrying a coin, a piece of bread and a coal to symbolise prosperity for the coming year. He will wish everyone present a happy new year, stoke the fire and enter every room in the house in turn. Often he is required to enter through the front door and exit though the back.
Fires must be kept burning on New Year’s Eve
Don’t let the fire in the hearth go out before the morning of 1 January. According to old wives’ tales, circumstances on this night will affect fortunes for the next twelve months and the fire, as heart of the household, should be treated with special reverence. Lit coals should not be taken away from a hearth for the same reason. Related superstitions dictate that new clothes should be worn on New Year’s morning, and that getting up early on this day meant an industrious and productive year. It is unwise to lend out money or belongings and, while things may be brought into a house at this time, on no account must items be taken out. In some cases, this meant keeping hold of household waste until the New Year had properly begun, in order that the period ahead should be a prosperous one.
The first water of the year is lucky
Before the advent of water on tap, the girl who drew the first pail of water of the year would, it was thought, be lucky in love. The first water on New Year’s morning was considered to be special, and was called the ‘cream’ or ‘flower’ of the well.
The rising sun dances on Easter Sunday
In some rural communities, locals would gather to watch the sunrise on Easter Sunday. As early as the seventeenth century, superstition held that on this, the day of Christ’s resurrection, the sun could be seen dancing for joy. It was even said that, if looked at through smoked glass, the image of the holy lamb could be seen in the heart of the sun.
No washing on Good Friday
To launder clothes on Good Friday was considered unlucky and sacrilegious. The water would, it was said, turn blood red, and a death might even occur as a result. Many old wives’ tales forbade work of any sort being done on this day, since it was a holy day. However, it was also one of the few days of leisure that working people were allowed in the Victorian period, so often people would ignore the prohibition and tend their gardens and vegetable plots, and in fact there are an equal number of contradictory superstitions. For instance, it is said that bread baked on this day is special, and that crops planted on this day will produce a double harvest.
A future husband may be seen in the mirror at Halloween
If a single girl wishes to know the identity of her husband-to-be, she should place a veil over a mirror on Halloween. When the veil is removed, she may see the face of the man in question. Several other old wives’ tales involve telling one’s fortune on this day: unmarried men can see what their wife will be like by pulling up cabbage stalks and examining them. A short, fat stalk meant a similarly shaped wife!
Such stories seem to be related to the belief that the festival of Halloween is a time when supernatural spirits can be seen roaming the earth. The ghostly masks and costumes worn at this time, as well as grotesque faces carved from pumpkins, are intended to confuse and frighten away these spirits. Some theories say Halloween is a relic of the pagan festival of Samhain, which celebrates the winter solstice. Others argue that it is actually Christian in origin: Halloween is the eve of All Souls’ Day, a time when the dead are remembered and their souls may be released from purgatory into heaven by the ringing of bells.
Should you hear footsteps behind you at this time of year, however, be careful not to turn round: it could be a spirit coming to take you into the afterlife!
Christmas decorations should be taken down by Twelfth Night
As is well known, it is considered unlucky to leave Christmas decorations up beyond Twelfth Night (6 January). This is a relatively recent custom, though, and prior to the twentieth century decorations were recommended to stay up until 2 February, or Candlemas. They were also put up later, and having decorations in the house before Christmas Day was not advised. Superstitions have likewise changed about their disposal. Customs from the Victorian period say that burning them is bad luck, whereas much older superstitions from the seventeenth century say just the opposite.
Father Christmas
Nowadays the idea of Santa Claus delivering presents down the chimney is synonymous with Christmas itself. The familiar rotund and jolly image of Father Christmas in his red and white suit may be a recent invention, dating from the 1930s when Coca-Cola gave him a suit that matched their logo, but the figure has an older history. According to many sources he originates in the figure of St Nicholas, a Turkish bishop of the fourth century who was well known for his benevolence to the poor. One unlikely-sounding but nevertheless charming story suggests that he was in the habit of distributing coins down the chimneys of those in need at Christmastime. On occasion, St Nicholas’s charitable donations would land in stockings left by the fire to dry, thus giving rise to the tradition that Christmas presents are delivered in this unorthodox way.
Christmas cake
A traditional family Christmas would not be complete without a rich, fruity Christmas cake. The custom of making Christmas cake dates back several hundred years, and its preparation is bound up with various superstitions. In the nineteenth century it was eaten on Christmas Eve, but a piece had to be saved for Christmas Day itself. The cake mixture must be stirred by everyone in the house, and they may make a wish while doing so. However, it must be stirred in a clockwise direction, never anticlockwise – or ‘widdershins’ – as this brings bad luck upon the house and its inhabitants. Widdershins is said to be opposite to the direction of the sun on its course through the heavens, and so is contrary to the ‘correct’ or natural direction. Consequently, it is said to summon up the Devil, and many curses and spells in witchcraft involve circling in an anticlockwise motion.
Knocking on the hen house at Christmas
During the Christmas period, an unmarried girl may find out her wedding prospects by knocking on the hen coop at night. Clucking from the hens in response means she can forget about marriage for the following year, whereas a noise from the cock indicates she will soon be a bride. Another way of divining the future during the festive period involves a maid throwing a shoe over her shoulder. Should the tip point towards the door, she will not remain in service long, but, if it is the heel that faces the door, her employment is secure.
A girl may dream of her husband on St Agnes Day
St Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, was martyred on 20 January, and on this night it is reputed that an unmarried girl may ascertain who she will marry through her dreams. A variety of means were used to produce nocturnal visions of the husband-to-be. In some places she was supposed to eat a ‘dumb cake’, which she must bake and consume in silence directly before going to bed. In other places, she should have no food that day, and instead go to bed without breaking her fast.
The first bird seen on Valentine’s Day indicates a husband-to-be
A single woman should keep a keen eye out for the first bird she sees on Valentine’s morning. If the bird is a robin, it is said that her future spouse will be a sailor; if she sees a sparrow, she will marry a farmer. The lucky girl who sees a goldfinch is destined to marry a rich man, for perhaps obvious reasons.
New clothes should be worn at Easter
At least one item of new clothing should be worn at Easter to mark the end of Lent. The much-prized Easter bonnet, often the most ostentatious item in a woman’s wardrobe, was part of this tradition and was one of the few occasions when ordinary people would spend their meagre wages on fancy clothes. In consequence for refusing to wear a new garment on this day, the parsimonious or slovenly will receive their punishment from the heavens in the shape of bird droppings!
Washing in the dew on May Day is good for the skin
Those worried by ageing skin should rise early on 1 May and attempt the tricky task of collecting the morning dewdrops in order to bathe in them. The magical properties of the May Day dew is said to improve the complexion and keep the skin youthful. This idea is related to other May Day superstitions that stress fecundity and rebirth. Dancing around the maypole, for instance, is a tradition rooted in pre-Christian fertility rituals: the phallic pole is decked with greenery and young maidens weave a dance around it. The same is true of the ‘green man’, a figure who is represented on this day by a youth clad in leaves and flowers.
A piece of Yule log prevents lightning from striking
The Yule log, a familiar image from the festive period, is traditionally a block of oak or beech wood burned on Christmas Eve. Once lit, it must not be stirred on the first night, and the fire is then kept alight until Twelfth Night. A piece of the charred log is reputed to repel house fires and lightning, as well as warding off other misfortunes. Mixed with water, the burned wood could also be used as a remedy for consumption. Yule, coming from the Anglo-Saxon geol, originally meant the midwinter solstice, and the smouldering Yule log must have symbolised comfort and safety through the bitter depths of winter in earlier societies.
Christmas shadows indicate death
In the glow of a yuletide fire, the shadows cast on a wall are held to be significant. A close eye should be kept out for any figures that lack heads, as this means that person will not see another Christmas.
Shrove Tuesday pancakes are lucky
Lent, traditionally the period of abstinence and fasting, is immediately preceded by Shrove Tuesday or ‘pancake day’. On this day, any rich food in the house such as eggs, milk and cream had to be used up and made into delicious pancakes, a custom that is still widespread today. Eating them is considered lucky as long as they are consumed before eight o’clock in the evening, after which they are not to be eaten. The reason for this injunction is mysterious, unless it was intended to aid digestion. It was not only the eating of rich foods that was permitted on Shrove Tuesday, but also other kinds of abandon. Riotous behaviour such as cock-fighting would take place, and prostitutes would be hounded out of their houses. Presumably the abstinence of Lent was considered to atone for this day of debauchery.
Jumping over fire at Easter
In the Easter period, young couples may jump over a fire to ensure they have plenty of offspring. A similar piece of folklore, common in the nineteenth century, meant that farmers would sometimes drive their cattle over a fire, or patrol the boundaries of their fields at this time of year with a flaming torch in the hope of ensuring a good yield of crops. These superstitions can be traced back to the pagan ‘fire festivals’ that were held to mark the end of winter and the start of spring, a time that corresponds to Eastertide in the Christian calendar. For early societies the fire rituals were important symbols of rebirth and fecundity. The idea still lingers on today in some forms: ashes and a burned lump of coal continue to be used as fertility symbols by some.
Corn dollies at harvest time
A small female figure made out of corn stalks and hung over doorways was once a common sight in farming communities, and is still sometimes seen at harvest time. The ‘corn dolly’ was once a central part of the harvest celebrations. As the ripe corn was cut, it was said that the ‘corn mother’, or spirit of the corn, was driven into the last sheaves left in the field. Accordingly, these were not harvested as usual, but made into a life-sized female effigy, clad in women’s clothes and flowers, and carried back from the fields in triumph. This effigy, or smaller variations of it, was kept over winter to ensure the corn spirit allowed a sufficient harvest the next year. The practice is an old one, and at one time could be found all over Europe in one form or another.
Wassailing on Twelfth Night
On Twelfth Night, apple orchards would at one time be filled with drunken and carousing people. This practice of ‘wassailing’ or ‘apple-howling’ was intended to deter evil spirits and prevent them from interfering with the apple crop. The occasion was traditionally marked by cider drinking and the singing of special wassailing songs designed to drive away ghosts. From the earliest times and in many different religious traditions, apple orchards have been sacred places, and they were considered especially vulnerable to the attentions of malign forces. However, wassailing was also an excuse for a party to celebrate the end of the Christmas period and consume any leftover alcohol before beginning the New Year in earnest.