May the New Year bring you peace, prosperity and joy.
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May the New Year bring you peace, prosperity and joy.
Thanks CH same to you, and everyone!
Yea! that means longer days!!! Springs coming...
Amen and amen!! 2017 LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!
yes please. I would love some peace and joy plus who would turn down prosperity.
And the same to everyone else here.
Happy Solstice everyone!!
Happy Solstice! The rest of the family vetoed all the traditional celebrations, like drinking too much mode made beer while slaughtering a goat and smearing the blood on all the doors, and later frying it over a gigantic bonfire. So instead we will have cocoa and christmas cookies in front of the fireplace, and tell some of the old stories about the Grýla, the Christmas lads, Åsgårdsreia, and all the other scary monsters that the old tales say were out and about this night. Oh, that reminds me, we have to get the kids some new clothes for christmas, so they don't have to be afraid of the Christmas Cat.
My grandmother grew up in a small rural village, where all the old myths were still regarded as truth. The way she tells it, it was exhausting to follow all the rules superstition forced on them. This stone could not be touched, that stone you should only pass on the left side, never pour hot water next to the kitchen entrance, always place the shoes turning outwards by the bed, wear your clothes inside out if you go to the toilet during the night, etc.
The water near the entrance is based on fact - when you go out to the outhouse a few hours later, you don't want to hit a patch of ice on the path (in the dark).Quote:
never pour hot water next to the kitchen entrance, always place the shoes turning outwards by the bed
And the shoes point outward so that you find them and put them on in the dark (also in preparation for a trip to the outhouse in the snow). Remember, we couldn't always get flashlight batteries, especially during WW2.)
Most superstitions and religiously based rules have a logical background. One example is the ban on eating swine that many muslims and jews, and some christians adhere to. When the rules were written, you could get really bad parasites from eating swine meat. The same with the examples you mentioned. The problem is that my grandmother (and the other people in her village) grew up being ruled by scare tactics. If you poured hot water by the kitchen door, the fair folk would get hurt and try to hurt you back. If you turned your shoes outwards, the nightmares wouldn't find your bed to kill you in your sleep.Quote:
Originally Posted by old guy