Yesterday’s post made me think of the guest post, written by Celia Miles, that I published last Christmas (if you missed the beautiful Christmas story-go here to read it).
Once Celia’s heartwarming story came to mind I couldn’t quit thinking about the Christmas folklore at the center of the story. I checked out Frank C. Brown’s Collection of NC Folklore to see if there were any other interesting tidbits of Christmas Folklore from NC. Here’s what I found:
- If a rooster crows repeatedly at 12 o’clock he is crowing for Christmas
- Nothing made of leather during Christmas time will be durable
- At midnight on Christmas Eve all the cattle in the fields kneel and low
- It is unlucky to carry anything away from the house on Christmas morning unless something is brought in first
- At midnight on Christmas Eve all the farm animals kneel down in their stalls or in the field to honor Christ.
- If it snows on Christmas day-the grass will be green on Easter
- A warm Christmas means a cold Easter
I can’t really think of any Christmas folklore I heard growing up-other than the one about farm animals kneeling at midnight on Christmas Eve. How about you?
Tipper
Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.
I can’t think of anything, Tipper. But I’m gonna try to watch and see if my horses kneal at midnight. As dard as it gets here I’m not too sure I’ll see them if they do.
We also believed that all the farm animals could talk at midnight on Christmas Eve. A bit of folklore that I really loved was that all ghosts, goblins, and witches lost all their powers on Christmas Eve and could not harm you. I was safe from the monster in my closet.
Tipper
The folks would say if you had been bad you would get a bundle of peach switches. No time out in those days HO HO HO Merry Christmas.
My granny and momma always made snow cream (snow mixed with sugar and vanilla if you had any on hand)for me and my brother. However, eating the first snow of the year was not allowed because it would make you sick. Especially if it happened to be Christmas snow. 🙂
Tipper,
I remember lining up our shoes on Christmas..many years ago…
I had long since forgotten about doing it and why…until..
I was reading on the “Irish Folklore and Customs” (Christmas) website that placing the shoes side by side prevented a quarrel on Christmas…I know at our house it did ’cause shoes tossed everywhere made my Mom aggravated! LOL
Another one I read on their website was…”As for Christmas Day itself, according to an old verse,
“If Christmas Day on a Sunday fall
A troublesome Winter we shall have all.”
Uh-oh….I believe we may be in store for a bad winter!…
I’ve heard most all of those you posted or some version of them!
Thanks Tipper,
I love the thought of the animals speaking at midnight. I always mean to go and listen, but I always seem to fall asleep. Kinda like when I was a kid and tried to stay awake to hear Santa. That never happened either!
tipper
merry christmas to you and your family
you sure do put a lot of time and effort in all you do to make us happy
i look forward to the blind pig as i know others do too and all the good old songs bring back memories to when we had all our family around now that made made christmas
blessings going your way
Tipper,
If I had known about all this
Folklore when I was a kid, I’d
have checked out the cattle thing
kneeling. We had a black and white
milk cow (a Gernsey I think) and
I’d have been at the barn for the
stroke of midnite…Interesting
stuff…Ken
Being a city girl, I don’t remember my parents ever sharing any type of folklore. The ones I read above are very interesting. I plan to share them with friends.
Merry Christmas! May you and your family be blessed!
I always heard that, at midnight on Christmas Eve, all the animals could talk. It was supposed to be a gift to the animals in honor of the donkey who carried Him and His mother, Mary, into Bethlehem. Sweet, isn’t it?
I’ve heard about the animals and the one about a white Christmas and a green Easter. And, my family always said and followed the tradition of keeping the Christmas tree up until New Years Day. It was bad luck to take it down before then.
Only that if I didn’t straight up and fly right I’d end up with coal in my stocking and then that coal-filled stocking would be used to beat me over the head til I behaved . . . well, maybe not exactly, but almost *laugh*
Going to link to you today when I do my linky love post 🙂
I can’t remember any other ones either Tipper, except the cattle and the one about Easter being cold.. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas..Susie
can’t think of a single thing other than a few of what you mentioned are familiar to me. Merry Christmas to you and your family.