Catalogiie of Brand Material.
Unluck)^ to wash clothes : there will be a death in the family - - - -
Unlucky to wash clothes : the washer will be cursed -
(6) Things Lucky or Desirable.
To bake bread or cakes ^ (see above) _ _ - -
To break crockery. (Cf.
Shrovetide) - - - It is a lucky day on which :
To till and sow gardens -
Especially to sow parsley,
peas and beans To set potatoes
(It is unlucky to do so earlier) - - - To transplant shrubs To remove bees
(Any other day will be fatal to them) - To wean babies To short-coat babies To cast babies' caps
(c) Special Viands.^
Hot-cross-buns - - -
LOCALITY.
Devon.
Glos. (St. Briavel's), Nor- folk, i
Universal, except by some in Norfolk.
Devon.
Universal, except in York- shire.
(See I. above.) Wore. (Armscote).
West Wore.
Devon.
Devon.
Cornwall. Devon, Lanes. Hants. (Hursley). North of England.
General.
iNote that all these are true taboos, automatically and supernaturally punished.
2 Traditional Legends of the Crucifixion are told to account for this, and for the taboo on washing.
3 Miss C. M. Yonge notes that " the old custom" (at Hursley, Hants.) " now gone out, was that farmers should send their men to church on Good Friday. They used all to appear in their rough dirty smock frocks and go back to work again. . . Some, of whom it never would have been e.\pected, would fast all day." {John Keble's Parishes, p. 175.)
Other cases of the practice of total fasting may be discoverable. If so, endeavour should be made to ascertain if any definite benefit — immunity from accident, good health in harvest, or the like — was expected to result from it.
In the west Midlands, in my early days, and possibly still, it was usual in country places to allow the labourers a holiday on Good Friday on condition that they attended morning service. (The church-bells were not chimed, and the services were conducted with a minimum of music.) The elder men generally spent the afternoon in their gardens, and the younger played informal games of football. The chapels utilised the holiday for teas and prayer-meetings in the evening.— C. S. B.
