by Chloe Rhodes
NEVER CUT AN ELDER TREE
The elder tree is revered in pagan folklore for its magical powers and its ability to ward off evil. As a symbol of the natural cycle of life, death and rebirth, its blossom was worn at the May fire festival of Beltane and its branches were used for blessings. It was also an important source of herbal medicine, and its flowers, bark and berries were all used in restorative remedies. Countryside tradition held that it was unlucky to cut down an elder, perhaps because of the early European folktale that it was home to a tree spirit, or dryad called Hylde-moer, who would haunt anyone who chopped the tree down. People were particularly careful to avoid using it to make cradles, as one legend said that Hylde-moer would visit any child laid in a cradle made from her wood and pinch it black and blue. Branches of elder, though, were often cut down and hung over doorways to keep evil spirits at bay and it is only according to Christian legend that bringing elder inside is unlucky.
Christian distrust of Druid customs may have fuelled fear of the elder and during the Middle Ages it was viewed with suspicion by many because of its association with magic and witchcraft. As well as its use in medicine it was also used to make witches’ wands. It was said to be the tree that Judas hanged himself from and was sometimes referred to as the ‘Death Tree’ because its earlier associations with rebirth meant that it was often used at funerals. (See Never Bring Lilies Indoors.) It was also thought unlucky to smell the tree or to sleep beneath one.
ALWAYS STIR CHRISTMAS CAKE CLOCKWISE
Fruit cake has been central to Christmas tradition for centuries; its first incarnation was as a plum porridge eaten on Christmas Eve in preparation for a day of fasting on Christmas Day. Over time wheat flour replaced the oatmeal of the original recipe and butter, sugar and eggs were added, as were endless rituals surrounding its preparation. Stirring was a crucial aspect and everyone in the household had to have a turn, even small babies would have their hands held to the spoon to guarantee good luck, and all the stirring had to be clockwise. This rule has nothing to do with the Christian celebration of Christmas; rather, it has its roots in a mistrust of anything moving in an anti-clockwise direction inherited from ancient sun worshipping religions.
Stirring anti-clockwise or ‘widdershins’ as it was called, was said to go against nature because it was against the direction of the sun as it moved through the sky. The significance of the sun and its trajectory was enormous in early religion and many remnants of sun-worship remained in the countryside lore by which many people lived, even long after Christianity replaced paganism as the dominant belief system.
Some of the mistrust of moving in a circle ‘widdershins’ came from the fact that it was said to be used in witchcraft to summon the Devil and to set spells and curses in motion. A Yorkshire legend states that dancing ‘widdershins’ nine times around a ring of toadstools would put your life in the hands of the fairies. There were Christian reasons to fear it too, however, given that it might attract the attention of the Devil and it was considered an omen of death to walk ‘widdershins’ round a churchyard on the way to a funeral.
Many traditions of Christmas cake-making remain even now, though these days we tend to eat it throughout the holiday period, including on the fasting-turned-gorging festival that is Christmas Day.
TOUCHING A CORPSE FOR GOOD LUCK
The modern world has become so distanced from death in the present age that it is hard to imagine feeling an urge to touch a corpse, except perhaps that of a loved one in the moments just after death. Funeral homes and mortuaries are a recent development in human history and for thousands of years the bodies of the recently deceased were kept at home until the time of their burial. During this time it was customary for friends and more distant family members to ‘view the body’, and while they viewed it they often touched it too.
This practice came from a belief that, as an embodiment of the transition from the world of the living to that of the dead, the corpse possessed supernatural powers that could be harnessed by touching it. A touch to the forehead was said to release people from the fear of death and also ensured that you wouldn’t be haunted by the ghost of the deceased. Touching the hand was said to cure warts by passing the essence of the wart to the body, which would cause the warts to shrivel as the body decayed. Other ailments such as goitres, tumours and haemorrhoids were treated with an application of perspiration from a new corpse.
Seventeenth-century records also suggest an even more macabre belief in the power of the dead body; it was said that if the nose of the corpse began to bleed, it meant its murderer was present in the room, and if a suspected murderer was brought to touch the corpse of someone he was accused of killing, it would begin to bleed again to confirm his guilt.
Those wishing to glean good luck from touching a corpse did have to be wary of making an unpleasant discovery though; other superstitions said that if a corpse stayed warm for an unusually long time, or if rigor mortis didn’t seem to set in, another death would soon follow.
IF A TOAD OR FROG ENTERS THE HOUSE IT WILL BRING BAD LUCK
This superstition comes from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when toads and frogs were thought to be the familiars of witches. Originally the sight of either creature inside the house was taken as a sign that an enemy was trying to hurt you. If someone who wished you ill fortune had been to a witch to ask her to place a hex on you, it was believed that that witch could inflict pain or suffering by sending their representatives into the households of those to whom they intended harm.
Dorset historian George Roberts wrote in an 1834 account: ‘Toads that gained access to a house were ejected with the greatest care and no injury was offered, because these were regarded, as being used as familiars by witches, with veneration or awe.’
Toads and frogs were commonly held to be used in this way and were said to be suckled by the witch from a wartlike ‘witch mark’. Witches were also said to be able to take the shape of animals in order to move around unnoticed, and frogs and toads were sometimes suspected of being witches in amphibian form. All sorts of ailments, from muscle weakness to toothache – which it was believed could be as a result of spells being put on the victims – were explained by the presence of a frog or toad in the house. Remedies to help counteract their evil influence varied and there was much contradictory advice in circulation in the 1800s about what action to take if you found one. Some said that simply getting them beyond the boundaries of the home was adequate protection, while others said that if you killed a trespassing frog or toad you would defeat your human enemies and render them powerless to try to harm you again.
PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR THE COAST CAN’T DIE UNTIL THE TIDE IS EBBING
The power of the moon over life on earth has been recognized, if not understood, for millennia. The observation that death seemed to be linked to the ebbing of the tide can be found recorded as early as AD 77 in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, which notes: ‘Aristotle adds, that no animal dies except when the tide is ebbing . . . The observation has been often made on the ocean of Gaul; but it has only been found true with respect to man.’
The moon was thought to exert an influence on all fluids on earth, from the oceans to the fluids within the human body, especially those linked to life and death. The female reproductive cycle is known to be responsive to the moon’s phases and more births are said to occur in coastal regions when the tide is in. Spanish coastal areas shared this belief, although those suffering from chronic disease were said to let go of life at the moment when the tide turned.
In The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer recorded that the belief prevailed both on the Pacific coast of America and in Southern Chile: ‘A Chilote Indian in the last stage of consumption, after preparing to die like a good Catholic, was heard to ask how the tide was running. When his sister told him that it was still coming in, he smiled and said that he had yet a little while to live. It was his firm conviction that with the ebbing tide his soul would pass into the ocean of eternit
y.’
In the UK the superstition was perpetuated by its inclusion in Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield, in which Mr Peggotty observes that people can’t die along the coast, ‘except when the tide’s pretty nigh out . . . If he lives till it turns, he’ll hold his own till past the flood and go out with the next tide.’
ACCIDENTS HAPPEN IN THREES
Another superstition still held by many people today, this is one of the particular brand of beliefs in which the perceived antidote often does more damage than good. Popular from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, it may be linked to a similar notion that deaths come in threes, although it is the explanation of simple accidents that results in the most broken crockery. For at least fifty years the superstition had such a strong hold that if someone dropped or broke anything valuable, they would often deliberately smash another two items of lesser value with the aim of ‘seeing out’ the curse on dispensable items rather than waiting for the next two accidents to creep up on them unexpectedly.
A less destructive way to beat the jinx, common towards the end of the nineteenth century, was to break a match if two accidents had already occurred, but these days it is not so simple. Over time this belief has expanded its negative influence to become ‘bad things come in threes’, which may be a blending of the accidents with the deaths mentioned above. With such a wide range of misfortunes possibly heading our way there is little we can do except brace ourselves for the worst and take solace in the knowledge that at least we saw it coming.
Thankfully another linked idea allows for a degree of optimism: the belief that the third time for anything is lucky. This is thought to have much older origins and can be traced to at least the fourteenth century, when it appears in the Middle English romance poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with the lines: ‘With thee when I return hither; for I have tried thee twice, and faithful I find thee; now, third time, best time.’
CUTTING A LONE HAWTHORN BUSH WILL BRING DEATH
In his Natural Histories Pliny the Elder recorded that harming a thorn bush would result in thunderbolts being hurled down onto the spot. To the ancient Romans lightning represented the wrath of Jove, which is an indicator of the seriousness of the crime. Hawthorn was sacred to the Romans: its branches were used as torches at marriage ceremonies and hawthorn leaves were tied to babies’ cradles to protect them from evil. As with many plants popular in pagan mythology, the Christian Church turned people against the hawthorn. (See also Never Cut an Elder Tree.) At the crucifixion, Jesus’s crown of thorns was said to have been made from twisted hawthorn, so it was seen as an omen of death to bring its flowers into the house. The tree was later said to be used by witches to inflict pain on the subjects of their spells.
In 1792 The Old Statistical Account of Scotland, which aimed to give details of the people, economy and geography of the country included the following explanatory entry:
There is a quick thorn, of a very antique appearance, for which the people have a superstitious veneration. They have a mortal dread to lop off, or cut any part of it, and affirm, with a religious horror, that some persons, who had the temerity to hurt it, were afterwards severely punished for their sacrilege.
Irish poet William Allingham’s 1850 work ‘The Fairies’ also mentions the perils of pulling up a thorn tree:
Is any man so daring
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.
There is also another, more sensory, reason why cutting a hawthorn was linked to misfortune. In rural England in medieval times the smell of hawthorn blossom was compared to the smell of the Black Death, which ravaged London in 1665 and killed between 75,000 and 100,000 people in the city and surrounding countryside. Scientists have since been able to identify the offending chemical responsible for this similarity: an organic compound called Trimethylamine, which is also found in animal tissue as it decays and whose presence might explain why even the non-superstitious prefer not to bring hawthorn blossom inside.
WATER DRUNK FROM A HUMAN SKULL CURES EPILEPSY
Epileptic seizures are terrifying enough for those who witness and suffer them in the modern age, but in the days before doctors had any understanding of the electrical impulses triggered in the brain, the condition was regarded with unalloyed horror. In their desperation to find a way to stop the fits, sufferers and their families were willing to try almost anything. The first mention in print of a cure involving the human skull as a drinking vessel was in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History in AD 77: ‘For epilepsy, Artemon has prescribed water drawn from a spring in the night, and drunk from the skull of a man who has been slain, and whose body remains unburnt.’
But far from being a cure that became myth, medicine derived from the human body continued to be relied upon well into the eighteenth century. The English monarch Charles II was an advocate of this grisly ‘corpse medicine’ and was given an extract of human skull that he had distilled in his own laboratory as he lay on his deathbed in 1685. Other high-profile advocates included the poet John Donne; Elizabeth I’s surgeon John Banister, and the founding father of modern scientific analysis, Francis Bacon.
All parts of the body were used, usually distilled or ground in with other ingredients, though in official medical circles the kind of person the body parts came from didn’t matter. To the superstitious practitioners searching for remedies in their own homes, however, provenance was more important. Some said that to cure epilepsy the skull had to come from a man who’d committed suicide, others agreed with Pliny that he had to have been killed by another’s hand. In Central Africa, the Azande people believed that epilepsy could be cured by eating the burnt skull of a red bush monkey, because epileptic seizures caused convulsions that looked similar to the jerky movements of the monkeys.
The human skull had other medicinal uses too. In the 1600s it was common to take moss from a dead man’s skull to staunch the flow of blood during a nose bleed or to cure chronic headaches, and a tooth from a skull rubbed on the gums was said to cure toothache.
NEVER SPEAK WHILE A CLOCK IS CHIMING
This superstition, still well known today, has its origins in the medieval belief that ringing bells had mysterious powers. Bells had been used in religious rituals since the classical era and their sound was thought by the Romans to scare away evil spirits. They also formed an important part of Jewish religious ceremonies, for which robes adorned with bells around the hem were worn to ward off any evil spirits lurking around the high priest’s ankles. In the tenth century, churches and monasteries across Europe rang bells to call the monks to prayer, to mark the moment when a monk died and during funerals, which forged a link between pealing bells and death.
During the Great Plague of 1665 church bells rang almost constantly as they marked death after death. In the city of Tournai in Belgium, the bells were kept chiming from dawn till dusk as the plague struck, and when the townsfolk claimed victory over the disease they put it down to the power of the bells, which they thought had cleared the miasma.
From the fourteenth century onwards most towns and villages had their own clocks with a bell to chime the hour and it was in this superstitious era that stories about the prophetic power of bells originated. Folklore from almost every European country tells of bells chiming between the hours to alert people to the dangers of approaching storms, parish fires or rampaging highwaymen. In Britain, babies born as the bells were chiming were known as ‘chime children’ and were thought to possess healing powers, be able to see spirits and have immunity from witchcraft. If the bell chimed while a hymn was being sung it was said to be a sign of an imminent death (see If a Broken Clock Suddenly Chimes, There Will Be a Death in the Family).
Speaking as the bell chimed was seen as bad luck because of these connections to death; it was thought to attract the attention of evil spirits and mean that whoever had interrupted the chimes would be the next to die. In the twentieth century this idea blended with the
many mystical conventions about weddings to produce a belief that if wedding vows are made during the chiming of a clock the groom will soon die. These days the severity of the superstition has thankfully lessened and chatting through the chimes will just bring run-of-the-mill bad luck.
YULE LOGS PREVENT LIGHTNING FROM STRIKING
Yule was the midwinter solstice celebrated by the Germanic pagans; it comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘geol’ and in the Northern Hemisphere falls on 21 or 22 December. For our early Scandinavian ancestors, the harsh winter conditions and months of darkness made the shortest days of the year hard to bear: food was scarce, the cold was deadly and life seemed to be ebbing from their world. For them there was no sense of certainty that the sun would return and many of the rites they practised were performed in the hope that they would appease the elements and bring a return of warmth and sunshine.
The burning of the yule log brought comfort during the depths of midwinter and provided the only source of light or heating. Usually made from a block of oak or beech, the yule log was burned all across Europe, including Russia and Siberia and even in the warmer Mediterranean. The fire was kept burning for several weeks until the days began to lengthen and during this period family and friends would gather together to tell stories, dance and sing in celebration of the return of the sun.
Christmas began to be celebrated on 25 December in the fourth century AD, and over time many of the pagan solstice traditions were absorbed by the Christian Church. From the eighteenth century onwards the yule log was traditionally lit on Christmas Eve, when it was left undisturbed in the grate all night, after which it was kept burning until Twelfth Night. The charred remains of the log were thought to possess special powers and they were used in a range of rituals designed to bring good fortune in the coming year. In France and Germany ashes from the yule were stirred into cows’ feed to help them calve. In the Baltic states, the ashes are dug into the soil around fruit trees to make them more productive, and in the UK a drink made from mixing the burned wood with water was used as a cure for consumption. The belief that the blackened log should be kept in the house to prevent lightning strikes came from the old belief in sympathetic magic, a form of large-scale homeopathy where keeping a thoroughly burnt-out log meant the rest of the house was safe from burning.
