on first hearing the note of the cuckoo, to insure there being always plenty there—practices still common among us.[1]
The Cleveland New Year’s greeting is very definite on this matter:—
I wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year,
A pantry full of roast beef,
And a barrel full of beer.
You may constantly hear the lads of that district calling it through their neighbour’s keyholes early on New Year’s morning. It is also recited by the children of the West Riding when they make their rounds soliciting New Year’s gifts. There is much visiting at this season throughout the North of England, and much hospitality in the matter of rich cake and wine, but the name applied to this practice in Northumberland is singular. They call it “fadging,” or “eating fadge.”
Old people are careful to note how the wind blows on New Year’s Eve, as they think it significant of the weather during the following season, according to the old rhymes:—
If New Year’s eve night wind blow south,
It betokeneth warmth and growth;
If west, much milk, and fish in the sea;
If north, much cold and storms there will be;
If east, the trees will bear much fruit;
If north-east, flee it, man and brute.
Perhaps I may mention here two other weather prophecies. It is well known that “a green yule makes a fat kirk-yard,” but the following couplet is of narrower circulation. It was communicated to me by a friend, who assures me that it is current in Buckinghamshire:
If the calends of January be smiling and gay,
You’ll have wintry weather till the calends of May.
It is curious to find that the word “calends” still lives on the
- ↑ In Sweden, if a grain of corn be found under the table when sweeping on a New Year’s morn, there will be an abundant crop that year.
