Fun Folklore for the New Year

There are many more traditions surrounding the New Year than just singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight. And countless methods for allegedly influencing the events and fortunes of the incoming year.

Superstitions often involve getting rid of the old year before welcoming the new. All the doors in the house are opened just before midnight to allow the old year – and any residual bad luck – to escape. In China, the house is cleaned from top to bottom to sweep away the dust of the old year.

There are modern takes on this too. In New York, giant paper shredders are available for the public to be able to get rid of the old year’s poor fortunes. I spotted some footage on TV of New Yorkers shredding everything from worthless stocks to photos of ex-lovers. As humans, we instinctively realize that we have to make room in our hearts and lives for good things to happen to us.

First visitors

After midnight, it’s bad luck for anyone to leave the house before someone enters it. That’s because the “first footer” – whomever enters your home in the New Year – is said to influence your luck for the next twelve months. Ideally, the “first footer” will make their way through the house and leave by a different door.

In the British Isles, it’s bad luck for your first visitor to be a woman, and a blonde or red-haired woman is even worse luck. For optimum good luck, a dark-haired man should be first through the door. If he’s handsome and single, so much the better. And it’s really lucky if he brings symbolic gifts – some coins, a loaf of bread, a branch of evergreen and salt.

In the southern United States, the sex of the first visitor through the door influences the balance of power in a marriage. If a man enters, then the husband will have more power that year. If a woman, the wife will be the more powerful partner.

WYSIWYG?

The principle of “What you see is what you get” is practiced all over the world in connection with the advent of New Year. Here are just a few examples:

1. If the house is clean by midnight on Dec. 31st, it’ll be clean for the entire next year. (Do I have to sort the closets too?)

2. If all your pockets and purses and wallets have coins and dollars in them by midnight, you’ll have plenty of money in the new year. Some people place coins on windowsills and the tops of doors too.

3. If you wear new clothes on New Year’s Day, More new clothes will come your way. (My daughters like this one!)

4. No crying, fighting, arguing, name-calling or general negativity on New Year’s Day or you’ll have strife and tears all year long.

5. Don’t let valuable things leave your house on New Year’s Day or luck and fortune will go with them. The general belief refers to things like money and jewelry, but some people believe that nothing – not even garbage! – should leave the house on New Year’s Day. Take the empties to the recycling bin some other time!

6. Make sure the cupboards and pantries are full on New Year’s Day, in order to ensure abundance the rest of the year.

7. In many cultures, what you do for the first hour of the New Year signifies what you’ll do the most of for the next twelve months. (Yikes – does this mean sleeping is a bad idea?)

8. In China, and in many other countries, all debts should be settled before the New Year. Don’t pay back loans or lend money on New Year’s Day however, or you’ll be paying out all year long!

9. Be careful with the dishes. If anything breaks on New Year’s Day, ruin will follow.

10. Working hard on New Year’s Day will ensure a year of grueling labor. But if you do a small token task – something related to your employment – successfully, it’ll set the tone for achievement.

11. Kissing at least one person at midnight ensures that love, friendship and affection will continue. To not give out a kiss indicates a long, cold and lonely year... (That’s dire – I’d kiss a photo or even the goldfish to avoid a fate like that!)

12. Kids in the Philippines jump up and down at midnight so they’ll grow tall.

Food, glorious food

So many of our traditions revolve around food. In Italy, eating sweets at midnight ensures a sweet year. In many Latin countries, it’s lucky to eat twelve grapes, one for each month of the year. In the Southern United States, black-eyed peas and greens are important foods on New Year’s Day, and so is cornbread. Eating these will bring both luck and money. The Pennsylvania Dutch eat sauerkraut for the same reason.

Pork is a lucky New Year’s food in many cultures. Foods that form a circle, such as pretzels or doughnuts, are also lucky. Watch out for chicken though. Serving chicken on New Year’s Day is said to guarantee financial problems for the year. The presence of fresh bread in the house is supposed to entice good spirits to take up residence.

And speaking of spirits...

The real reason we have all those noisemakers and fireworks to ring in the New Year? To scare away evil spirits. Yup, really. Apparently evil really hates loud parties and noisy celebrations. In many countries, church bells are rung at midnight for this reason. In Iran they bang pots and pans together. In China, they set off firecrackers. In parts of Wales, singing door to door does the job. In some parts of Ireland, you bang loudly on the door and walls with Christmas bread to chase out bad spirits. (I’ll bet fruitcake would work even better!)

A happy, noisy and successful New Year to everyone!

Dani Harper

http://www.daniharper.com/

CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS II ----------------------- THE SEQUEL!

Last week I brought you Christmas Superstitions I ---- The Good, the Bad and the Scary. This week’s installment brings you The Innocent, the Odd and the Downright Creepy! (As before, here's the official disclaimer -- Remember, these are folktales and traditions, and not intended to be taken as truth!)
The Innocent...

Taking three sips of salty water before Christmas dinner brings good luck. (Three sips of Alka-Seltzer afterwards helps even more, LOL). Many cultures throughout Europe and the British Isles believe that all water turns into wine at midnight on Christmas Eve.

It’s lucky to eat an apple on Christmas Eve. If you’re single, eating a roasted apple that night will allow you to hear the voice of your future spouse in your dreams. It’s bad luck to refuse a slice of mince pie, and good luck to eat a slice of pie in every house you visit – the more houses, the more luck!

People used to mix in silver charms when making the Christmas pudding, and objects also went into the mince pie. The items predicted the future of whoever found them in their piece of pie or pudding. A coin meant good luck, a thimble meant prosperity, a ring meant a wedding.

An old Irish belief says that the gates of Heaven are wide open on Christmas Eve and that anyone who dies then will go straight to Heaven.

The Odd...

The first person downstairs on Christmas morning was to take a broom, open the front door and sweep all “trouble” from the doorstep. A variation on this is to sweep all the bad luck out of the house.

English folklore tells girls to knock on the henhouse door on Christmas Eve. If a rooster crows, she’ll marry within the year. If there is silence, she’ll never marry!

It’s unlucky to receive a gift of new shoes or tanned leather on Christmas. However, some people in Greece ward off bad luck in the upcoming year by burning their old shoes during the Christmas season (Hmmmm... I know a pair of my husband’s shoes I’d like to burn!) Another footwear superstition says that all the family’s shoes should be placed neatly side by side on Christmas Eve to prevent quarreling in the new year.

In Wales, the plough should be brought into the house and kept under the dining table during the entire Christmas season. This assured a good harvest in the coming year.

If you eat a raw egg before eating anything else on Christmas morning, you’ll become exceptionally strong.

And the Downright Creepy!

Dogs that howl on Christmas Eve will go mad before the end of the year. A candle or a lamp should be kept burning all night on Christmas Eve to avoid a death in the house in the following year.

Instead of water turning into wine at midnight on Christmas Eve, some hold the belief that the water in streams and wells turns into blood! Not only that, if you witness this change, you’ll die within the year!

A Scandinavian belief states that it’s dangerous to go out on Christmas Eve because of the many supernatural beings that come out of their hiding places that night. Trolls, witches, goblins and ghosts roam freely, some of which are the spirits of the dead revisiting their previous homes. Gifts must be left outside – bowls of pudding and cream, clothes, tobacco and even ale – in order to appease some of these creatures. The most perilous time occurred between cock’s crow and dawn, when supernatural beings were at the peak of their power. To go outside meant risking death or being carried off by them, never to be seen again.

Swedish folklore puts a chilling twist on this story. On Christmas Eve, they prepare their dining room with food and ale and blazing fire – and leave it overnight to enable the spirits of the dead to celebrate. The family checks the chairs in the morning for traces of earth, proof that the dead have come calling!

A once popular parlor game gave everyone an apple after dinner, which was then cut in half across the middle to reveal the pattern of the core. If the core is star-shaped (most apples have this), the owner of the apple will see another Christmas. If the core is a different shape, the owner’s death will occur in the next twelve months! The appearance of a four-pointed cross was worst of all – although what was worse than death is never mentioned.

Parlor games including keeping tabs on everyone’s shadow throughout the evening. If anyone’s shadow were to appear headless, that person would die within the coming year.

An old Breton tale tells the story of a blacksmith who refused to stop working after the church bell had rung for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Suddenly a tall man entered his shop with a scythe that needed mending. The blacksmith did the work, and instead of paying him, the mysterious man told him to send for a priest because this work would be his last. By the time the roosters crowed on Christmas morning, the blacksmith was dead. He had mended the Scythe of The Reaper himself.

To avoid bad luck, all Christmas decorations should be taken down by Candlemas (Feb. 2). However, make sure you clean up after them --- every needle left behind in the house from the Christmas tree will cause the sighting of a spirit or a demon in the coming year. (A good case for having an artificial tree!)

Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/

The Good, the Bad and the Scary ------------------- CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS I

As you know, I just can’t resist anything related to the paranormal. But Christmas? Who would have suspected that there was anything supernatural about such a warm fuzzy holiday? I mean, a big jolly fellow travels all over the world with his flying reindeer in a single night, squeezes down tiny chimneys with a neverending bag of presents, knows if you’re naughty or nice but is never seen himself… Come to think of it, that IS pretty paranormal!

I had a lot of fun researching Christmas superstitions and I was amazed by how MANY there were! In fact, there’s so much material I’ve decided to blog twice about this topic. Here then is the first installment. (By the way, here's the official disclaimer -- Remember, these are folktales and traditions, and not intended to be taken as truth!)

The Good….

Unmarried girls can cut a twig from a cherry tree on St. Barbora’s Day (Dec. 4th) and put it in water. If it blooms by Christmas Eve, marriage will follow within the year. Counting the stars on Christmas Eve will foretell the number of sheaves in your harvest. And if you see the sun shining through the limbs of the apple trees on Christmas Day, there’ll be an abundance of fruit the following year.

If you dream on any of the 12 nights between Christmas and Epiphany (Jan. 6), your dreams will come true in the next year. The first person in the household to hear a rooster crow or anyone who hears a cricket chirp on Christmas Day is going to have a very lucky year. Good luck follows those who give money to the poor on Christmas Day, to those who eat their breakfast by candlelight, and to those who stir the Christmas pudding.

The Bad….

Bad, bad fortune follows those who leave the dishes unwashed on Christmas Eve (and that’s on top of what Mom will do to you!). On Christmas Day, it’s unlucky to leave the dinner table before everyone has finished. A full moon on Christmas predicts a scanty harvest in the year to come. If Christmas Day falls on a Thursday, a year of windy weather is forecast.

On Christmas Eve it’s said that you can hear the bells of lost churches that have been covered by floods or buried by landslides and earthquakes. Picking up nuts or fruit from the ground will bring bad luck. So will sending carolers away without treats or money. And you really don’t want to be the first one home from church!

And the Scary….

A piece of winter greenery (holly, mistletoe, evergreen, etc.) must be brought into your home during the Christmas season, to keep away evil spirits. However, every winter leaf left in the house after Candlemas (Feb. 2) will result in the sighting of a ghost, or perhaps even a death in the house during the coming year! Mistletoe must be burned, or those who kissed beneath it will become enemies.

Those born on Christmas Day are rumored to be able to see ghosts and spirits. And those who are born on Christmas Eve are said to turn into ghosts themselves on that day every year! (Wow, this sounds more like Halloween, doesn’t it?) The only way to avoid this odd fate is to remain awake the entire night until Christmas Day dawns.

I’ll be back next week with another installment of Christmas superstitions!
Dani Harper
http://www.daniharper.com/
Your turn! What Christmas superstitions or folklore have you heard of over the years?