Old customs

Bukkie

My Mum always crosses a new baby's palm with silver for luck. Not sure the wokey lefties who frequent Mumsnet and breastfeed their children until they are 23 and don't let visitors see them until they are 8 would approve though

LOL. I just feel sorry for mothers today. discharged with a neborn just hours after giving birth, still exhausted from labour. No wonder they need some space and peace,

When I gave birth, NHS maternity hospitals made sure every woman got that space and time to rest, reciuperate and bond with her baby. following the birth every mother did "lying in". You stayed in the hospital for 10 days. Visiting hour was very brief and strictly limited numbers of closest relatives; the only men at visiting were the Dads. No child visitors at all.

Most of the time "lying in" was literally lying in your bed, resting, recuperating, waiting for your milk to come in (or getting it dried off) . By day the babies were in a crib beside Mums bed. looked after by Mum. At night they were all taken to a night nursery where nurses fed the bottlefed babies. The breast fed babies were brought to their mum in the night for feeding, the nurse then took them away again to change them and put them back in crib. Mums could get a good sleep. In the morning we had a cup of tea before the babies were brought back.

By the time you went home again, you'd practised feeding, changing, bathing and tending your baby with expert help on hand. You'd slept and rested and been surrounded by other women who'd just given birth; a natural support group for the first crucial days. A few days after birth many had an emotional /hormonal day of tears called "baby blues", comforted by the nurses and fellow mums. Just a natural rite of passage. All over by the time you went home, with a baby already settled into a routine.

How lucky we were.

Whoops - quoted the wrong post.

If I ever buy a purse for a present, I usually put in some silver- quid usually.

Bukkie

My Mum always crosses a new baby's palm with silver for luck. Not sure the wokey lefties who frequent Mumsnet and breastfeed their children until they are 23 and don't let visitors see them until they are 8 would approve though

@#£%

Thank you. I just translated it from the German, which is Maria Himmelfahrt.

Christi Himmelfahrt is also in May. It's a public holiday all over Germany and is their "Father's Day".

Allira

petra

BlueBelle
And, Erica362 has never posted before. 😉

It's a bit quiet on GN today

Should we all find an old thread and revive it?

You thought the same as me 😉

petra

BlueBelle
And, Erica362 has never posted before. 😉

It's a bit quiet on GN today

Should we all find an old thread and revive it?

I touch wood,cross fingers, don’t walk under ladders and give silver spoons to new babies if related, coins if not. There is one custom in the north east that I saw several times when I first came here in 1977 and draws blanks now when I ask people is a young woman leaving work to get married the next day would have her dress and big hat pinned over with strips of newspaper. It was meant to represent money and a prosperous future.

I remember giving babies a silver coin..we put it under the pillow in the pram. also the week befor getting married, the work colleagues, would buy a chanty, fill it with salt nappy pins baby talc...and the bride to be would get dressed up in a sack with ribbons pinned to it, walked to her home all the while stopping in the middle of the road to jump over the chanty
while all the traffic stopped and waved...and 2 or 3 days before the wedding, the bride's mother had a show of presents, everyone who came to it got tea and cakes....I never see anything like that now...not even the wedding couple 's car with ribbons on...

My Mum always crosses a new baby's palm with silver for luck. Not sure the wokey lefties who frequent Mumsnet and breastfeed their children until they are 23 and don't let visitors see them until they are 8 would approve though

On the Ascension of our Lady (15 August) you get a bunch of herbs, all of which have various healing properties.

JackyB: I think you mean The Assumption of our Lady. Ascension Day is in May.

Almost all of this is news to me! I married in 1968 and had my children in 71 and 74. Nobody left coins in their prams, sadly. I’m in NW England.

My mother used to talk about the churching of women. She thought it was shocking.

A most enjoyable thread. Yes we had the 'coin to the baby' custom here as well. Think it was called 'hanselling'. Not sure of the spelling, as the word was said but not written down.
We still do 'touch wood' when anyone makes a statement, that could be twisted by fate.
They say that is from druidic times, when the oak tree was sacred.

BlueBelle
And, Erica362 has never posted before. 😉

I know it’s an old thread!

My children, now nearly 51 and 49, certainly had their palms crossed with silver by relatives and friends.

Even as tiny babies, their little fingers clutched the coins which then went in their money box.

It was the first time people saw them, at a few days old, no danger of the coins being swallowed.

Of course, nowadays so many new mums want ‘bonding’ time with the baby, even GP’s often seem to be forbidden to meet the new infant.

By the time it happens, I wouldn’t be inclined to give them an unhygienic (no doubt) coin 😂

Sorry to carry on with this ancient thread but it has been interesting reading and I must have missed it at the time.

Chimney sweeps are huge in the world of superstitions and traditions here in Germany. They are a symbol seen in cards and in flower decorations especially at New Year. Not so sure about weddings though.

Our village carries on many Catholic traditions. On Trinity Sunday, salt is blessed and everyone takes a little bag home. I'm never sure if you're supposed to actually use it or just put it somewhere in the house for good luck.

On the Ascension of our Lady (15 August) you get a bunch of herbs, all of which have various healing properties. Again, these are ceremoniously blessed and sold for charity. The ladies of the church wander about the fields and pick armsful and everyone donates things from their garden. I usually have plenty of rosemary to spare, which I take along on the morning when we make up the bouquets.

I hope all these coins were washed and the babies too young to stuff them into their mouths and swallow them!

I gave half a crown to next door newborn in 60s.Put it in his Hand and said oh look at him holding it. takes after his Dad said mum! 😆

In relation to the Churching of Women, I was encouraged to have a Thanksgiving Service for my DS, born in 1981 a few months before his Christening.

My father, from Northern Ireland, always said a coin should accompany the present of a knife or knives to avoid cutting the friendship.

Erica please tell me how you opened this very old thread

A 7 year old thread How do people manage to open them ?
They always say they have Moooved with a picture of a cow and I can’t open them !
I d love to know how you do it ???

Here in East Anglia and never ever heard of the silver coin business perhaps we were nt well off enough to have any spare coins but not even heard about it
Certainly heard of the good luck chimney sweep at weddings
We did the closed curtains tradition if a body was in the house or travelling past in a hearse We always use to stand still if in the street and catholics would cross themselves but these were all signs of respect not superstitions
Not a tradition but I was never allowed to wash my hair when on a period

My grandmother called it "buying the baby". When my daughter was born, she bought my baby for a silver dime. It was buying all the bad and leaving the mom and baby with only good. Apparently, it has to be with a silver coin.

I still give a baby a coin for luck, and put it into the baby’s hand, and if the baby grips the coin it means he/she will be wealthy!
And Paddyann, we did the ‘christening piece’ and the ‘scrammle’. Mind you, in those days babies in prams were a more common sight ( and, yes, certainly not before they were baptised!), and there was probably a wedding every week.
I also remember being given a chantie ( chamber pot) full of salt at my ‘ show of presents’. It had a wee baby doll, a wee toy house, and a car in it, and I seem to remember having to jump over it!

We also kept the curtains closed if the body of a deceased relative was in the house, and on the day of the funeral every house in the street closed their curtains.

Always give money too .if you give a knife as a gift. Do not want to cut the friendship.

I was always told not to do any laundry on New Years Day. As this meant you would be washing all year. What you did that day would set the tone for the year. I take no chances and don't even dust that day!

Brought up with the superstition of "wash a blanket in May, wash a life away" ie a death to follow soon.

I used to find half crowns in DD's pram after I had been shopping or when she was having a nap outside the front door, this was 1969.
Chimney sweeps were a frequent sight at weddings here in the NE and not a problem finding one when I married as we all had coal fires.