SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

bit belated reply to Johnny. You don't open an umbreela in the house because it is associted with outdoors and the household gods might be offended by you bringing in something associated with outside gods and decide to punish you.

Here's one from my wife who is Canadian.She did her nursing degree in Calgary,red and white flowers together were a bit no no in hospital.It seems that red was blood and white for bandages.So the flowers had to be split up,other wise big time bad luck.Anyone come across this one before.

yorkiesknob wrote: Here's one from my wife who is Canadian.She did her nursing degree in Calgary,red and white flowers together were a bit no no in hospital.It seems that red was blood and white for bandages.So the flowers had to be split up,other wise big time bad luck.Anyone come across this one before. I've heard the red and white mixture taboonot recently and only in hospitals.Hospitals don't seem to encourage flowres these day,probablyto much of aq risk to the elecrtrics and no one to change the water.

dogduke wrote: yorkiesknob wrote: Here's one from my wife who is Canadian.She did her nursing degree in Calgary,red and white flowers together were a bit no no in hospital.It seems that red was blood and white for bandages.So the flowers had to be split up,other wise big time bad luck.Anyone come across this one before. I've heard the red and white mixture taboonot recently and only in hospitals.Hospitals don't seem to encourage flowres these day,probablyto much of aq risk to the elecrtrics and no one to change the water. Dogduke, In Aussie no more flowers allowed in my local hospital,due to the risk of cross infection form soil and plant material

yorkiesknob wrote: dogduke wrote: yorkiesknob wrote: Here's one from my wife who is Canadian.She did her nursing degree in Calgary,red and white flowers together were a bit no no in hospital.It seems that red was blood and white for bandages.So the flowers had to be split up,other wise big time bad luck.Anyone come across this one before. I've heard the red and white mixture taboonot recently and only in hospitals.Hospitals don't seem to encourage flowres these day,probablyto much of aq risk to the elecrtrics and no one to change the water. Dogduke, In Aussie no more flowers allowed in my local hospital,due to the risk of cross infection form soil and plant material I knew there are a lot of dangerous things in Oz (spiders, snakes, crocodiles, box jellyfish) but I didn't realise the very soil is lethal too!

Si wrote: yorkiesknob wrote: dogduke wrote: yorkiesknob wrote: Here's one from my wife who is Canadian.She did her nursing degree in Calgary,red and white flowers together were a bit no no in hospital.It seems that red was blood and white for bandages.So the flowers had to be split up,other wise big time bad luck.Anyone come across this one before. I've heard the red and white mixture taboonot recently and only in hospitals.Hospitals don't seem to encourage flowres these day,probablyto much of aq risk to the elecrtrics and no one to change the water. Dogduke, In Aussie no more flowers allowed in my local hospital,due to the risk of cross infection form soil and plant material I knew there are a lot of dangerous things in Oz (spiders, snakes, crocodiles, box jellyfish) but I didn't realise the very soil is lethal too! SiPotting mix can be a real problem here.Not an expert but has something to do with airborne spores and other contaminants

yorkiesknob wrote: Here's one from my wife who is Canadian.She did her nursing degree in Calgary,red and white flowers together were a bit no no in hospital.It seems that red was blood and white for bandages.So the flowers had to be split up,other wise big time bad luck.Anyone come across this one before. So this wouldn't be welcome in a Canadian hospital?

the red and white flowers bad luck is well known in folklore,also flowers removed at night because they were supposed to suck the oxygen out of the air.you also find certain flowers deemed unlucky,lilies have been mentioned already.Bringing may blossom into the house was supposed to be very unlucky,this actually goes back to the fact that it was a Pagan custom so the church tried to stop it by declaring it unlucky.In fact reading about the siege of Sandal Castle during the English Civil War here in Wakefield by the Parlimentarians,I was amazed to find a reference to the Royalist garrison sallying forth on Mayday to pick blossom and being attacked by the besieging forces!It shows the persistence of the older pagan belief that it was lucky (as a symbol of the Goddess) to pick it as why else go out in the middle of a siege?

Steve Jones wrote: Bringing may blossom into the house was supposed to be very unlucky,this actually goes back to the fact that it was a Pagan custom so the church tried to stop it by declaring it unlucky. When I was a kid we used to say if you picked cow parsley and brought it into the house your mother would die. In fact we used to call it "mother die"

Trojan wrote: Steve Jones wrote: Bringing may blossom into the house was supposed to be very unlucky,this actually goes back to the fact that it was a Pagan custom so the church tried to stop it by declaring it unlucky. When I was a kid we used to say if you picked cow parsley and brought it into the house your mother would die. In fact we used to call it "mother die" I remember that one too - my mum must have had more lives than the cat!Yes, plants absorb carbon dioxide during the day to release oxygen which is a major argument against mass deforestisation in climate change terms and conversly utilise atmospheric oxygen during darhness though it is hard to see how this would be on a detremental scale in the wards!