Did you know?
If a pregnant woman should spy a hare, she was to make a hole in her vest (everyone wore a vest then!). This was to ensure that the child she was carrying wouldn’t be born with a hare-lip.
On New Year’s Day, nothing – not even the dust sweepings, not the contents of the chamber pot, not the ashes from the fire – would be thrown out of the house.
You daren’t meet a red-haired woman or man on that day. Rita Flynn of Forkhill tells me of a time in her youth that a red-haired man called to their home at that time of year. She remembers that he was a military deserter, on-the-run. That was no bother. The colour of his hair was.
A few days later an oul’ cow died. Of course he was to blame!
Now REMEMBER…
NOT TO turn a garment if accidentally put on back to front
to whistle on a boat,
a woman shouldn’t whistle or a hen crow
put red and white flowers together in a vase
fill in a spring well
put a sock and shoe on until the other foot’s socked
strike a cow with an elder stick
strike a person with a ragweed
turn back having started a journey
meet, or sit down in a group of thirteen
share washing water
set an even number of eggs under a clocking hen
‘flit’ on a Saturday
allow the fire to burn on one side only
AND
To break a mirror brings seven years’ bad luck
It is unlucky for a picture to fall off a wall
for your right hand to itch (left hand, money is on its way!)
to turn up the number thirteen
for a break to come in a funeral cortege
for an infant NOT to cry at a Christening.