Family rituals and superstitions

As a family we would sit down after the bells on hogmany to steak pie dinner, this meant we wouldn't go hungry throughout the year. Give somebody a purse always put a coin in it, it would never be empty. Pick a glove up and return it was always luck between us. If your left palm itches you'd come into money, if your right palm itches you'd meet someone new.

At the new moon we would go outside and turn our purses over, from one hand to the other. It was supposed to double your money! Ha Ha! It never did.

I'm trying to remember a new moon tradition.
Turning your purse over, or something similar. Coins, maybe?

My mum did it, but I didn't take much notice.

I remember as a teenager lads would say that if they stroked your palm they were in with a chance. ? I managed to resist ?

I remember my nan saying not to wash my hair on a Sunday. The trouble was - as a teen, I competed nationally in swimming. She was horrified at me swimming on a Sunday because of hair washing, even more so if I was on my period. No nail cutting on Sundays either.

New year's day and after Sunday always wear something new and eat well. It's meaning was that you'd never be hungry and be fairly affluent throughout the year. Any chores done on new year's day you’d do everyday for the whole of the forthcoming year.

Again, if clothes were put on inside out you couldn't change them until midday it midnight.

Collar holding with ambulance sightings. Never swallow, hold your collar until you see a four-legged animal.

No new shoes on a table. Even boxed was a no.

Funny thing is- when I asked why about all if these I was just told ”because you shouldn't”. Well, that cleared thing up nicely. ??

My family was never superstitious, but we had traditions. We always had to hang the Christmas wreath on the front door on December 1st.

My Dad was very superstitious just afew I can remember growing up in the Midlands
No new shoes on the table.
Don't cross on the stairs.
Had to leave a house by the same door entered through.
No washing on Good Friday
Don't put an umbrella up in doors.
No may blossom allowed in the house.
All bring bad luck according to him, I still carry out most of them although I do go out the back door if I've entered through the front.

If your palm itched someone was talking about you

Lupin my Mum used to say if right palm itched you were going to come in to money. If left palm itch you were about to lose money!

Just wondering BBbevan if the 4 men in Sainsburys were lost?
???
You didn't say if one was your husband

BBbevan

We have a family whistle also. I once lost DH in Sainsbury's so I whistled. Four men appeared beside me

That’s funny! Which one did you choose? ?

Passing someone on the stairs is bad luck.
If your palm itched someone was talking about you.
Saluting a magpie and I also tell him what a very handsome bird he is.
No lilacs in the house.
Pearls bring sorrow.

Mapleleaf

Casdon the saying about it being black over by Bill's mother's is said in my part of the world too (South Yorkshire). Not sure where it originated, and like you wonder who Bill and his mother were! ?

Yes we were in South Yorkshire too, my Gran had awful weather!

Casdon

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?

Ha ha he was my Dad! Always thought that it was raining at my Grans house and they had really bad weather all the time!

I was told the opals are unlucky thing too. Plus the fact that mu grandmothers opal ring had been stolen was handed down as "proof"!

Don’t cross on the stairs....makes life interesting on occasions. I think it’s a Cornish superstition.

When I had my children in East London, it was quite common for even strangers would look into the pram to admire them and then give them a coin, -had to be 'silver' in colour. Evidently superstition stated that giving a baby such a coin would help to ensure they always had money in their future lives.,

Casdon the saying about it being black over by Bill's mother's is said in my part of the world too (South Yorkshire). Not sure where it originated, and like you wonder who Bill and his mother were! ?

My mother said 'wash blankets in May, wash the head of the household away.'

No new shoes on the table. If you spill salt, throw a pinch over your left shoulder. Red and white decorations mean hospitals. Above all -

"Wash your clothes on New Year's Day, Wash the head of the house away."

Can't bring myself to break any of these prohibitions, particularly the washing one.

My mother’s engagement ring had an opal, and so did my grandmother’s. Nothing unlucky about them. I didn’t have an engagement ring, but I do have a gorgeous opal ring.

I am aware of some of these superstitions, but I don’t believe in them. My mother taught me to think rationally and not be superstitious.

My mother is colossally superstitious and most of my siblings have gone down the same path, but without the passion my mother brings to her beliefs.

My sister once gave a presentation to a packed audience, wearing her jacket inside out (may have been a cardigan, I forget which), because she was too superstitious to change it when it was pointed out to her.

I don’t recall the glove thing but if my Mum dropped a teaspoon she would ask someone else to pick it up and hand it to her. Then she’d say “ that’s luck between us!

Knives and forks didn’t count, it was just for spoons.

Ellanvannin, my mother did the glove thing, and you couldn’t say ‘thank you’ to the person who did pick up your glove.

Every Friday, we visited my maternal grandmother and my mothers many sisters would sit around the fire smoking and reading cards. The reading of cards came from my grandfather, who was a bit of a mystery man. He foretold his own death and told my grandmother she would be left with 11 children. On Sundays, we visited my paternal grandmother and there was no nonsense there!
My grandmother used to say “If you look in that mirror long enough, you’ll see the Devil”.

NanKate

The family whistle is a sedate 6 notes through the lips, never with fingers in the mouth ?, far too common my mum would have said.

My DGSs have a £1 put under their pillow when they lose a tooth, it used to be 6d for me in the 1950s.

‘Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, carrots, carrots, carrots’, on the first of the month.

Do any of you say ‘Gordon Bennett’ as an expletive?

Yes I say Gordon Bennet along with my Giddy aunt. No Idea why.
My Nan always said no shoes on the table or you'll never get married. No green in the house although for some strange reason this did not include houseplants !!!
Clothing put on the wrong way had to stay that way unless you could change it without taking it off.
If we saw an ambulance we were meant to hold our collar until we saw a policeman - walking or in a car. Be holding it all day now around here!!
First of the month you are meant to say White rabbits three times before you spoke to anyone else to bring you luck.
Spill any salt and you throw a pinch over your left shoulder to get rid of the devil. The salt was meant to go in his eyes.
We say it dark over Bills mothers' but we used to live in Buckinghamshire where it was said a lot. People now look at me as if I am mad when I say it.
Never do washing on New Years day or you'll end up doing washing for others all year! ( I believe my Nan meant to earn money)