Wednesday Wives Tales~Luck of the Irish

Happy Saint Patrick's day to all of you!! Are you wearing green? I thought you might like to see a few Irish 'old wives tales' in honor of the holiday.

Most mountain people in my area (including myself) are are descended from Irish and Scottish immigrants. Some so far back that it is hard to pinpoint when they came here. I have an ancestor that arrived in America from Ireland in the early 1600s.


Here are a few fun (and sometimes creepy) Irish superstitions:

If you meet a funeral you must turn around and walk at least four steps with the mourners or bad luck will befall you.

A dead hand is believed to be a cure for all diseases. Many times sick people were brought to a house where a corpse was laid out, so that the hand of the dead might be laid on them. (I have found this 'cure' listed in many mountain superstitions. People used to be sure and bring their sick children to wakes in order for them to touch the dead person's hand.)

If you kill a Robin, you will never have good luck.

If a magpie comes to your house and looks at you, it is a sign of death and no charm or spell can avert this.

If you make a purse from a weasel, it will never be empty.

It is unlucky to knit at night unless you are quite sure that all the sheep are asleep. (I guess they don't mind during the day?)

If you Google Irish superstitions, you will find that there are endless amounts of them to enjoy.

Have a wonderful day~and may the Luck of the Irish be with you!

Wednesday Wives Tales

When someone sneezes, do you say, "God Bless You!"? Or maybe "Gesundheit!"? I have heard both, though most commonly, "God Bless You", which I still say today.

In earlier times, since it was known that God breathed breath into man, a sneeze--a 'rapid departure' of breath, was thought to be the instance of life leaving one's body. And the blessing of saying 'God Bless You', kept evil from being able to enter the empty space left by the sneeze.

Most sneezing beliefs seem to center on whether the soul is leaving the body, or evil spirits are getting in. That is thought to be the original reason for covering your mouth when you sneeze--to keep your soul in or evil out, not to prevent spreading germs.

On a funny note, I read one post on the Internet that said there are probably some people still living, even today, that remember the old "God Bless You" custom after someone sneezes. LOL! I wonder how old the person was that wrote that article, and better yet, where they are from??

And so to end this post, sneezing or not~God Bless You!!

Monday

For the first time ever, we had a WHITE Valentine's Day!! It was still white today, as you can see from the picture I took on our back roads trip this morning.

Not much exciting is happening around here. I'm working on some crafts, and I've also been doing some painting around the cabin, so when those projects are finished, I'll post a couple of pics. We are sort of in between projects right now and nothing is really finished.

Hope all of you are staying warm!

Special Weekend!

Wishing all of you a beautiful Valentine's Day weekend!