Birth
- stories from ancient folklore
Birth II
In some parts of North Lancashire, it is customary to have a tea-drinking on the birth of a child. All the neighbours and friends are invited, and both tea and rum are plentifully distributed. After tea, each visitor pays a shilling towards the expense of the 'birth feast,' and the remainder of the evening is spent in social gossip and amusements. In many country parishes a child is invariably called by the name of the saint on whose day it may happen to have been born; and any omission of this custom is believed to bring it ill luck. It not unfrequently is the case, therefore, that children are found with very strange names, which can only be explained by a reference to this practice. Charms for Babies| “ | Bring the holy crust of bread, Lay it underneath the head - Tis a certain charm to keep Hags away while children sleep. | ” |
| “ | Let the superstitious wife Near the childs heart lay a knife ; Point be up, and haft be down (While the gossips in the towne). This, 'mongst other mystick charms, Keeps the sleeping child from harmes. | ” |
| “ | Coral is good to be hanged about children's necks, as well to rub their gums as to preserve them from the falling sickness: it hath also some special sympathy with nature, for the best coral being worn about the neck will turn pale and wan if the party that wears it be sick, and comes to its former colour again as they recover health | ” |
| “ | You may say jet will take up a straw, Amber will make one fat, Coral will look pale when you be sick, and Chrystal will staunch blood. | ” |
It is a Norfolk superstition that when there are boys and girls to be baptized, the boy must come first, or else the girl will have a beard. There is a notion prevalent in many parts of England that a child who does not scream when sprinkled with water at baptism, will not live long. In St Kilda historically the inhabitants always baptized their children on a Saturday, from a superstitious notion that if this ceremony were observed on another day they would die.
|