How many of us believe that a single magpie brings bad luck and salute every one we see? It says a lot about human nature that old country superstitions are still given credence when rational explanations can now be offered for most aspects of life. Jilly Cooper is a habitual magpie saluter. ‘I greet them with the following: “Good morning, Mr Magpie, and how are your wife, children, dog, mistress?”.’ Nicholas Soames always removes his hat if a hare or a fox pass him by.
For Candida Lycett-Green, a superstition about the Uffington white horse holds particular resonance. ‘If you stand on the horse’s eye, spin around three times and wish for the person you want to marry, it will come true. I did and it worked.’ Robin Page takes note of the solemn one that says it’s bad luck to find a robin in the house. ‘A robin came into our house a few days before my father died.’
Are you superstitious, or is it all nonsense? Email countrylife_letters@ipcmedia.com
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Oak before ash, we’re in for a splash
Ash before oak, we’re in for a soak
This saying might be well known, but the effects of global warning have played havoc with its reliability. The Woodland Trust reports that oak has come into leaf first in 40 of the past 44 years: ‘Traditionally, they fought a close contest, but recent warm, dry springs have seen oak advance more quickly.’
Magpies: one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a story never to be told
Magpies have long been associated in European folklore with unhappiness and trouble, and the RSPB reports that populations of this striking bird have increased significantly in the past 50 years. Bad news for those who believe saluting a lone one negates bad luck.
Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight
Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning
This favourite saying receives full backing from the Met Office. ‘Most poor weather approaches the UK from the west and clears towards the east, and sunlight at low levels appears red due to it being scattered by dust.’
A robin in the house is a portent of death
On Dartmoor, this superstition was taken to such an extreme that if you received a Christmas card portraying a robin, you were supposed to rip it up immediately, as it meant that the sender was wishing you bad luck.
If it rains on St Swithin’s day (July 15) on the steps of Winchester Cathedral, it will rain for the next 40 days and 40 nights
The dying wish of this early Bishop of Win-chester was to be buried outside his cathedral. When his body was moved to a shrine inside, the change was disrupted by 40 days and nights of rain, said to express the saint’s displeasure at the move. Yet in 2007’s phenomenally wet summer, southern England had a rare respite from the rain on July 15.
Never bring hawthorn or lilac into a house, as they will bring bad luck, and possibly a death, upon those who live there
Hawthorn is one of the sacred trees of witchcraft, and lilac was used to line coffins to mask the odour of death.
Rain before seven, fine by eleven
The Met Office gives its grudging backing to this old saying, but ‘as fronts pass at night as often as they do during the day, morning rain isn’t always a predictor of a dry afternoon.’
If a hare crosses a sailor’s path on the way to his ship, he should return home
Hares have had a long association with witchcraft, and, years ago, it was believed that a hare was a witch’s favoured form of disguise.
Don’t eat wild blackberries after Michaelmas (September 29) ‘for they will have the Devil in them’
This has a practical core as, by that time, many blackberries will be past their best.
A horseshoe brings good luck
St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury in 959, is thought to have begun this belief. Dunstan was a blacksmith, and when the Devil asked him to reshoe his hoof, he nailed a horseshoe to it and caused him great pain. Dunstan agreed to remove the shoe on the condition that the Devil ne;ver entered a place where a horseshoe hung above the door.
Comments
Laurel Ennis
February 03 18:31