THE "FIRST FOOT."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1324, 30 December 1911, Page 11

THE "FIRST FOOT."

NEW YEAR SUFERSTITIONS. It is odd that women should bo tbo chief upholders of a superstition so uncomplimentary to their sex as that of "lotting the new year in," or "first footiug" (says an English writer). Por though in somo districts it is a fair man who must let the year in, and not, as in most, a dark one, it must always boa l man. i'or a woman to let tho new year in is counted unlucky everywhere. Probably the orthodox version is the moro common one which prefers a dark man. Tho popular argument against a fair man is that Judas had red hair, but a more interesting theory is held by somo folklorists. In Northern Europo dark people are preferred in working all kinds of magic. Now the "black art" may be the' remnant of an older religion or of n suppressed religion, like the Voodoo magic of -tho West Indian negroes, of which many white people are very much afraid.- It is suggested ' that when in Northern Europo tho fair races pushed DUt a darker race, in time of troublo tho dominant race would apply to tho remnant of the- conquered to work their unfamiliar and thereforo potont spells. Most people aro well up in ; this much of tho first-footing superstition, but there are elaborations which we believe arc not so widely known, at any rate in towns. Whoever lcts.'tthe new year in should not come in empty-handed. Nothing, however worthless,'- should bo taken out of the' house in tho new year until something has been brought in. • As an old vhyruo put itTake out,'.then tako in, Bad luck will begin; Tako in, then take out, Good luck comes about. The .tiling brought in should be one of tho primitive utilities—a lump of fuel, wood or coal, or somo food. Money is often considered best of all, because it will buy everything else. Somo country people will hide a coin outside on New Year's Eve, so as to bring it in when the 'new year is let in. But the original idea seems to have been that the Hist thing brought in should be., something green, a plant or part of ono with ; tho life yet in it, preferably an evergreen— presumably a symbol ofiifo ami its' renewal.