Family rituals and superstitions

My husband's father had a whistle of two notes for his other and I use it now. (Husband can't whistle!). My mother was full of superstitions - all the ones above. Shoes on table, peacock feathers and lilac in the house, no washing your hair when you had a period, pearls mean tears. But she was a countrywoman.

My Mum always used to put a piece of silver (money) outside on New Years eve and bring it back inside New Years Day, she said it brought luck into the home. I still do this, usually put a 50p piece on the windowsill .

Grandmasue and Bluebelle the red and white flowers together is the only one of my mother’s superstitions I follow. She also followed many of her own mother’s, like no shoes on the table, no hanging out washing, cleaning windows, or cutting nails on a Sunday. She made me throw out a lock of hair from my firstborn’s first haircut ( ‘ Keep hair, keep care’), and would never wear pearl jewellery ( Pearls are for tears).
I do follow the village death customs like closing curtains at the time of a funeral, but that’s more respect than superstition.

To this day I don't do washing, let alone hang it out on New Years Day - you are supposed to be washing the bad luck from the previous year into the new, if you do.
I'm another who was always told it was bad luck to put new shoes on the table .
Does anyone else remember holding their collar if you see a hearse passing by ?

Ashcombe

My mother used to drape towels over mirrors during thunderstorms. I never understood why.

My mother also used to do this. She would always open all doors so that “if a thunder ball came down the chimney it would follow the draught”. But my family do have a strange generational thing of being struck by lightning, and surviving, so maybe her actions weren’t so odd.
My old family ritual is not to do washing on New Year’s Day as “it washes someone away “. The one year I ignored it my mum died the next day. Coincidence??‍♀️

I was just thinking we had no rituals until I read your comment about the bells on Christmas Eve. I did the same and I still have the bells and they bring back memories of our children’s happy Christmas times.
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Nice to have a heartwarming post. We had a family whistle too - three notes. We were three sisters so my poor Dad had to herd us up on family outings. I presume my Mum couldn't whistle. I will definitely tell my GD when I WhatsApp them next. Brought up lots of fond memories too, thank you.

If we give a gift of a purse or gloves we put silver coins inside. Also we salute a solitary Magpie and turn money over on s full moon.

The wet apron when washing up explains everything ??
No new shoes on the table.
No diamonds and rubies together as they represent blood and tears.
You can't pick up a sharp knife if you drop it, its unlucky apparently ??‍♀️
No peacock feathers in the house.
I really love the sound of the family whistle.
The idea that you had 4 men show up when you whistled is hilarious ?

I attended a Zoom talk by U3A the other day on superstitions and their origins. Really interesting, but some beliefs are really cranky.
Don’s have any myself, but still respect my mother’s superstitions (shoes on the table, etc) even though she died over 20 years ago - don’t want to tempt fate!!!

My sisters and I have started a new family tradition: one of us when we were young was given a musical birthday card, which had a small handle you would turn and it would play Happy Birthday. One of my sisters rediscovered it (in a distressed state), refurbished it, and now we pass it on to the next of us on each of our birthdays in turn with the date written inside.

There’s a saying in my family that everybody uses, I’d be really interested to know if it’s used by anybody else, particularly in Derbyshire - when there’s a dark cloud on the horizon, my nana, then my mum and her siblings, and now all the grandchildren say:
‘It’s a bit black over Bill’s mothers’
However none of us know who Bill ever was?

These foibles from my very much a 'country bumpkin'!!
No lilacs or bluebells in the house.
Don't know any reasons why but have always followed her superstitions!

When my children were little, on Christmas Eve I would gently rattle a lovely sounding bell and say that it was Santa and his reindeer on the roof waiting for them to go to bed so that he could check his sacks of presents and deliver the right ones.

I love the whistle.
My dad still does one long continuous whistle. When we were little the three of us and the dog would turn up to that whistle. Me and my dad worked together for years and he would whistle if he wanted me.
The first time I did it to find my husband he was furious and it ended in an argument, so if I want him I shout MARMALADE.

4 note family whistle here. My son told me that he when he whistled it at his grandpa's funeral (outside after the service, I hasten to add) lots of heads turned to see who it was.
I still use it to locate members of the family in supermarkets ?

Oh yes, remember the thing about putting on an apron inside out

You couldn't turn it yourself, but had to get another woman to undo the strings, turn your apron and tie the strings again.

I remember being told by an elderly aunt that a girl who got her apron wet while doing the washing would marry a drunken husband!

Sorry to make you cry LoLo ?

Do any of you avoid the cracks on pavements or have any little rituals that you have to perform to feel safe ?

My mother put a white tablecloth on the table for Christmas with a coloured one on top.

The top one was changed as needed between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night, but the lower one was not. She firmly believed someone in the family would die, if that cloth was removed.

Mirrors were supposed to attract lightening.

When I was a child, we switched off the television and wireless during thunderstorms and unplugged them.

We had to answer the phone as Daddy was a doctor on duty, but my mother did not like doing so.

In Scotland no-one hung washing out on a Sunday, never mind Ne'er day!

Ixion......malt and cod liver oil.....lovely!!!!

My mother in law was anti the royal family so as a joke her daughter bought a very battered old tray from a charity shop which commemorated the wedding of Charles and Diana,wrapped it up one Christmas and gave it to her as a present under the tree. The next year MIL ‘regifted’ it to another family member. This tradition has since gone on for many years and my niece served us champagne on it at her wedding!

All those mentioned by harrigran

No crossed knives on the table

No shoes on a table. No open umbrella indoors. Spill salt and you must throw some over your left shoulder.
Washing never done on a Sunday.

No new shoes in the table when I was growing up. Always something new to wear at Easter, Christmas too. I still stick with the Christmas thing, usually a new sweater these days, this years is ready and waiting.

ashcombe my Nan did that too the mirror and towel thing it was because she believed the lightening if reflected in the mirror could set fire to the room

I m afraid we don’t have any whistles or superstitions I can think of passed down (I do have my grandads police whistle from the Great War) none of my children or grandkids are at all interested in passed down things all the bits of history will die with me I have two boxes of family history and out of ten children and grandchildren none seem interested in the past my eldest has promised she won’t throw it out but I expect it will just go in the loft

My Nan wouldn’t have the red and white flowers either grandmasue for the same reason neither would she use a phone nor have a tv arial on the roof all connected with her dreadful fear of thunderstorms which thankfully I haven’t passed down ??