The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)

Folklore, superstiti­on and tradition are all connected

- Carol Weimer

Approachin­g Halloween reminds us that while we start to plan on tricks and treats to lay in for the kiddies, it’s also a time when tradition and superstiti­on sometimes guide our practices. All Hallow’s Eve had much to do with it.

Some of the folklore of old beliefs includes:

When a farmer sold a good cow, he kept a bunch of her hair so that good luck wouldn’t leave the farm with the cow. Rain would be prevented at harvest time by saying the Lord’s Prayer backward. (Try that sometime!)

Lunar farming was quite prevalent and the moon controlled just about everything a farmer did. Apples gathered on days of the full moon. Grain was sown in the waxing of the moon; wheat planted in the waning would certainly develop smut. Pole beans must be planted in the “up” sign or they would refuse to climb the pole. If a cock crowed at 10 p.m. it would rain before morning. Seed corn was passed through a bottomless earthen crock to protect the crop from crows and cutworm.

At midnight on Christmas Eve all cattle in barns are given the power of speech for a brief period, but no man dare to be present to witness the event. If a house or barn was shingled when the horns of the moon pointed upward, the shingle butts would soon turn upward. Newly purchased pigs were first backed into their pens. And then there was the best way to make good vinegar. During its preparatio­n the names of the three most sour- tempered women of the neighborho­od were spoken into the bung-hole of the cider barrel.

Enough of superstiti­on, but would you believe some of these old beliefs are still practiced? The ghosts and goblins will be out in numbers this weekend. There have been quite a few “haunted houses” in and around our neighborho­od in past years and we hope there will be some this year as last year we commend all of them and sponsored them. It is our hope that with this type of entertainm­ent for the kids there will be less vandalism in our community. It seemed to help as it wasn’t so bad in 2015.

The days of silly pranks are in the past, it seems to be, unless we don’t hear about many. Days when you took a spool and twine and played rat-atat on people’s windows. Outhouses were tipped or dragged down the road, back when they were in real use.

Toilets or small buggies were hoisted on roofs and left to be taken down by the owner. These were pranks used by grown-ups who planned for days to do such things on one of their neighbors, distant relatives or close friends and waiting until morning to see the reaction when the person came out the next morning. It most always was discovered who the pranksters were or if so and proven, their comment would be “wait until next year.”

Have a Happy Halloween! The folklore I’ve written is repeated from many years ago and it’s always fun to remind my readers at this time.

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