On this chilly morning, as I watch the sun come up- and
watch the temperature finally move up a notch instead of down, I am grateful as
we move above freezing. But before I get too excited, I also notice that in
spite of yesterday’s temps rising to 50, we still have snow on the ground, 4 days after it snowed. No,
not from shoveling into great piles like the store parking lots, just plain old
snow from our last mini-storm of 3 inches (compared to the previous one that
brought 14 inches!) and I was reminded of my ancient neighbors (probably in
their 70s- I was in my 20s) who always said snow hanging around a couple days
after the storm was just waiting for more. Now, having lived in the Poconos, Maine,
and one year near Buffalo, NY, snow ALWAYS hung around. OK, so there was
usually more on the way… but living here on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, snow could
be absent for years at a time. I mean, back in the day when one put snow tires
on before Thanksgiving, some folks down here never bothered! And chains???? Are
you kidding? My father taught me how to put chains on my tires when I got my
first car (in PA.) I also had to rotate all my tires and back out of the quarry road at
night (and not go over a cliff or hit a tree) before he handed me the keys. But
I digress…
It is
supposed to get to the mid-50s today. An opportunity to clean up after the last
snow, fill my 12 birdfeeders, etc. Will the snow finally all melt?????
But this morning, I also read a former neighbor’s blog that
had a picture of a horseshoe collection they saw at Shelburne Farms in Vermont.
All the horse shoes were pointing down! I instantly remembered my other ancient
neighbor (he was 80, I was in my 40s, LOL! Funny how time changes one’s
perspective, doesn’t it?????) arriving at my house as I was about to hang a
horseshoe on my barn. “NO! NO!” he shouted! "The points go UP! UP!"
Well, having
them down nearly made me fall off the ladder when he yelled at me, so I quickly
turned it the other way. “How come?” I asked.
“You gotta
keep the good luck in,” he answered. “Put it the other way and your luck will
spill out. Ya need t’keep your luck in place, Dontcha?”
He also
explained that I was extra lucky since I had found the horseshoes while digging
to plant a camellia. “Don’t ever kill a camellia. Trim it back if you must. Dig
it out if it dies, but killing a camellia will bring you at least 7 years bad
luck. Put a curse on your property. You don’t want that, now, do ya?” He went
on to say I needed to plant some camellias around the house to protect it. I figure
by now, I am seriously protected. I honestly do not know how many camellias I have here. there were absolutely none - zero - no azaleas, nothing but a couple bunches of daffodils out in the woods when I moved here. A friend called my yard "bleak." I vowed to change that!
Years ago
when I had to have my pine trees cut down (pine bark beetle) a huge camellia
was in the way of the tree cutting equipment. I made the men carefully dig and transplant
the camellia being sure to not kill it. It survived and is huge today.
It is believed that the good luck powers of the horseshoe
originate with the story of a blacksmith named Dunstan. The Devil came to
Dunstan and requested that he fit him with new horseshoes. Dunstan recognized
the devil and nailed a horseshoe onto his hoof. This caused the Devil great
pain. While he was in agony, Dunstan chained him and only released him after
the devil promised never to enter a place that had a horseshoe hung over the
door. Dunstan became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 959 AD and is known as St.
Dunstan.
Some believe that if guests come to a house where a
horseshoe is above the door, they must leave by the same door through which
they entered or they will take the luck from the horseshoe with them from the
house. Folks around here believe that is true even if there is no horseshoe above
the door. “Never enter thru one door and exit from another!” OK, OK. Geez.
Some believe that hanging the horseshoe with the opening
pointing upward like a “U” holds in all the good luck and the powers it brings.
Hanging it upside down would allow the powers to spill out. Others think that
hanging it with the opening pointing down allows all of the good luck,
protective powers and good fortune to shower upon you and surround the home.
There are, of course, tons of other superstitions, some indigenous
to your area and perhaps not mine. I’d love to hear them!
2 comments:
I remembered hearing some superstition about when a cedar tree grows tall enough to cast a shadow over a grave, someone in the family will die. I heard this superstition as a child and was never sure how large the cedar had to be to cast a shadow over the grave, was it the entire length of the grave, or across a grave. So, anyway, years and years later, a little cedar tree came up in our yard close to the house. It was the one plant that my husband never accidentally weed whacked.
It grew very slowly for several years, but I kept a close eye on it, finally as it got big enough to cast a shadow over a little bit of a grave, I started getting nervous, I gave it a snip with the pruning shears, then it had a growth spurt and was getting nearer to what I considered the danger point. I told my husband that it needed to be cut down before it got too big. He liked this particular tree and wanted to keep it. I finally convinced him that it was too close to the foundation of the house, and then I finally told him about the old superstition. The foundation issue finally closed the deal on the little cedar tree and my husband took it out, roots and all. He thought the superstition was goofy.
Has anyone else heard any similar type of superstition about cedar trees? This was a "down in the country" Southeastern Missouri superstition that may have come by way of Tennessee, Kentucky, or Illinois.
The snow from our recent snowfalls is also nearly all gone here in Nashua, NH, thanks to warming temps and a day-long rainfall. Thanks for posting this info about horseshoe luck, Possum. After your blog comment, I went back and re-checked that I had displayed the horseshoe photo the right way. And it was correct the way I saw it so hopefully no bad luck will befall Shelburne. And from our years of living on the VA E.S. it was true that folks always came and left the same way - by the back door. Unfortunately, we had to remove a large camellia and had it cut down. it was too large to relocate and although it provided nice porch shade it also caused the wood supports to rot.
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