UNLUCKY DAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 5 (Supplement)

UNLUCKY DAYS

CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS. (Specially written for the News.) The superstitious will regard, Christmas Day of 1926 with foreboding, for it ; falls on the unluckiest of all the seven ' days of the week. For, according to a centuries-old rhyme preserved among ; some manuscripts at the British I Museum: If Christmas on the Sa terday fa He, That wynter is to be dredden alle, Hyt shall be so fulle of great tempeste ’That hyt shall slay bothe man and beaste. j And among other unpleasant happeni ing heralded by a Saturday Christmas j Day—the fruit and corn shall fail: old people die in great numbers: and children born on the day shall not survive ■ six months. But a truce to such gloomy predictions’ Let us turn our backs on them I while we stiil believe in the virtues of the mistletoe when worn as an amulet, and that the maid who is not properly ' saluted under its white berries will look : in vain for a bridal wreath within the ; year that follows. j Married men must be careful in j choosing the holly for the home-decora- ! tion, for, if smooth leaves predominate. ■ the wife will be mistress for the next ’twelve months; if prickly, she must play second fiddle to her spouse. But ■ whatever you do, allow no new leather in anv form to enter your house during • Christmas week, for it is sure to bring ill-hick with it. Of course, till* first thing brought indoors on Christmas Day must be somei thing green, and the first person to 1 enter must be a male. Even a tomcat, it is said, can he relied on to bring luck . with him. Anyone who draws water I from a well on Christmas morning I draws good fortune lor his family. If a cricket chirrups on your hearth I on the fateful day, you may look forward to the coming year wit limit a fear, for of all luck-brtiigers at Yuletide, the cricket is king.