# folklore nationaltreeweek superstitionsaturday baturday summersolstice scaryfairies ireland eire

It was once said in Brittany that if a girl cooked an oak apple in the waters of a fountain whose source watered a cemetery, she would be imbued with the ancient wisdom of the fairies of old.

5 24
2020-11-28

recounts that if the holly used for the decoration of a house at Yuletide is smooth, then the wife of the household will head it for the coming year, but if prickly, the husband will rule the roost!

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2020-11-28

At Hallowtide in Scotland, the Samhnag bonfire was made of ferns and peat; a circle of stones placed around its edges. Each stone "named" for a family member. Next day, if any stone had gone that person would not last the year...

🖼Krøyer

8 43
2020-11-07

One of the most long-held food superstitions is that garlic wards off vampires and evil. This originated because of its medicinal and healing properties. It was used during the Black Death, and it protected people from catching the disease
https://t.co/XWrLAGe3VG

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2020-10-17

Mice were once believed to be the incarnate souls of those who had been murdered...

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2020-10-10

If you drop your keys it is a bad omen. If you lose your keys, you will hear of a death. Carry an old iron key in your right pocket for good luck.The image of crossed keys, one gold, one silver are said to represent the Keys of Heaven of Saint Peter.

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2020-08-30

Blackberries were considered protective against earthbound spirits and vampires. If planted near a home, a vampire couldn’t enter because he would obsessively count the berries and forget what he was about.
https://t.co/N8oDvyOMGV

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2020-08-30

Taking the Mari Lwyds to shout at the sea. Only traditional on Hopeless Maine.

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2020-08-29

In Cornwall if you see a bat it's traditional to chant for luck:
“Airymouse, airymouse, fly over my head

and you shall have a crust of bread,

and when I brew and when I bake

you shall have a piece of my wedding cake.”

🎨Dudley Hardy (1891)

90 272
2020-08-01

According to folklore, evil spirits would appear on the summer solstice. To ward off evil spirits, people would wear protective garlands of herbs and flowers. One of the most powerful of these plants was known as ‘chase devil’ or St. John’s Wort

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2020-06-20

Some fairies are murderous, such as the Redcaps who are said to haunt the Border peel towers. They try to redye their caps in human blood...#SuperstitionSat

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2020-05-30

Your weekly Wunderkammer safety advice, special

The sluagh are the host of restless dead turned fae. They return from the West to haunt you. When you smell decay, close your western windows!

Thank you. Spit thrice, touch cold iron and be safe.

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2020-05-30

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever.The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century golden age of the Dutch East India Company. The sight of this ship is a portent of doom.

24 73
2020-05-16

Well, it's Saturday... again!

And this week's optional theme as chosen by YOU is
⛵ THE SEA 🌊

Thus sharing all your superstitions with the hashtag from now until late!

Good luck, mateys!

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2020-05-16

The albatross as a superstitious relic is referenced in Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. It is considered unlucky to kill an albatross; in the poem the narrator kills the bird and his fellow sailors force him to wear the dead bird around his neck.

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2020-05-09

'Last night the sun went pale to bed,
The moon in halos hid her head.'
This is from Superstitions of the Irish Country People, by Padraic O'Farrell. It is said to be a portent of a change in the weather.

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2020-04-25