SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

chameleon wrote: 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! Was that the same plant we called pee the bed? we were told if you picked it you would pee the bed.

FLOJO wrote: chameleon wrote: 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! Was that the same plant we called pee the bed? we were told if you picked it you would pee the bed. Lilac blossom is also supposed to be unlucky to have in the house(or so my gran always said) Picking dandelions was supposed to make you wee the bed

Lilysmum wrote: FLOJO wrote: chameleon wrote: 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! Was that the same plant we called pee the bed? we were told if you picked it you would pee the bed. Lilac blossom is also supposed to be unlucky to have in the house(or so my gran always said) Picking dandelions was supposed to make you wee the bed I think one of the old names for dandelion was p!ss bed. It is certainly a diuretichttp://www.safesupplements.co.uk/why-dandelion ... retic.html    

We were always told at Christmas time when cakes were being made not to slam doors or the cakes would sink.

FLOJO wrote: We were always told at Christmas time when cakes were being made not to slam doors or the cakes would sink. The theory being that the shock transferred to the oven would cause the co2 reeased from the raiising agent to be lost - leaving the cakes flat.Not made it for many years but Gran's old recipe called for the use of fresh yeast - sometime before selfraising flour I think

I remember the dandelions pee the bed one, and about lilacs too but has anyone heard of a rowan (mountain ash) tree being unlucky? We had one in our garden; and someone told her it was unlucky so she had it choppped down and the stump removed. And she still to this day won't tell us why (she has a lot of secrets!!)

MrsG wrote: I remember the dandelions pee the bed one, and about lilacs too but has anyone heard of a rowan (mountain ash) tree being unlucky? We had one in our garden; and someone told her it was unlucky so she had it choppped down and the stump removed. And she still to this day won't tell us why (she has a lot of secrets!!) The rowan is usually regarded as bringing good luck. Its only a harbinger of bad luck if you mistreat it or cut it down.We had new neighbors a few years back and the first thing he did was dig out the rowan in the front garden. He died of heart attack that night - probably from the unaccustomed exertion.I'm not superstitious but we had two in the front garden. One of them died this summer and I had to cut it down. I am hoping that the other one is still as effective in warding off evil. In 1997 our MP and his wife were canvassing and was engaged in a doorstep chat with us when he stepped back and cracked his head quite nastily on a branch of the Rowan. It certainly wasn't unlucky for him - he went on to become Australian high commissioner and a Lord.

Thanks for that Black Prince - that's really interesting to know and it makes me wonder if that's why she won't tell us why it was meant to be unlucky; because someone probably told her it was actually lucky ( within 3 years of having it removed both my brothers passed away and we moved out of the house). Hmmmm

Rowan trees are lucky to have in the garden as they are supposed to keep away witches(never kept me away though<G>). Carters used to carry whips made from rowan wood so that people couldn't cast spells on their horses.i suspect the association with witchcraft got confused and that is why some people thought they were unlucky.

here is a good link regarding Rowan and it's traditional use:http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness ... -tree.html