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A New Moon? Turn Your Money Over!

Cherrybomb

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Aug 26, 2009
Messages
1,321
Location
Sitting on the roof, at dusk.
Hi all,

I was talking to an older lady the other day at work about folklore & she said her mother always said the following - "If there's a New moon turn your money over!" Has anyone else heard this? Any ideas as to what it means/where it comes from?
 
Yes -I thought everyone knew that you had to "turn the money in your pocket over" at the New Moon! It's also a good time for planting potatoes. :)
 
You also need to look at the new moon with the naked eye, not through glass.
Not sure if this applies to specs though! :lol:
 
I've heard of this. The variation I've heard though was that it had to be money that was found. Had to be picked up and turned over in your pocket.

Which I've done.

For the life of me I can't remember if it worked.
 
Hmmm...thanks for the feedback everyone! It's a strange one that is really intriguing to me. Next time we have a new moon I'll try it!

Any other moon/folklore related tales?
 
Yes -I thought everyone knew that you had to "turn the money in your pocket over" at the New Moon! It's also a good time for planting potatoes. :)

But what is the supposed effect?

Does turning the money over protect your money from loss? Or attract more money to it?
 
Money being "turned over", idiomatically (in older Scotland/Northumberland/Yorkshire, and for all I know, as far south as Hatfield) just used to mean being spent, or perhaps one might say, shrewdly-invested with an expectation of a return.

There's no implicit hidden value, as I see it.

Unlike with cards (whether game:gamble playing-cards, cartomancy tarot or even credit/debit cards...cf the idiom "playing one's cards close to your chest"), the ordinal value of money is explicitly-evident whatever side is showing.
 
My mum (born London, brought up in Windsor) used to do this - only it was 'silver' that needed to be turned in your purse if you looked at a new moon. Maybe a regional variation? I remember her doing this half-jokily in the early sixties through to the seventies.

It was meant to attract more money, apparently.
 
Just watched a weird old documentary on talking pictures. It is to do with witchcraft apparently! The programme was called legend of the witches, 1970. Very odd.
 
A lot of money changes hands at Chinese lunar festivals like Chinese New year, by being given as gifts or being spent on new clothes and things. I think the concept of prosperity here is quite related to the flow of money rather than the hoarding of it, hence why fish or water are used as symbols of prosperity here.
 
A lot of money changes hands at Chinese lunar festivals like Chinese New year, by being given as gifts or being spent on new clothes and things. I think the concept of prosperity here is quite related to the flow of money rather than the hoarding of it, hence why fish or water are used as symbols of prosperity here.
If Vietnam is anything to go by, it's also an excuse to demonstrate how well one is doing by the largesse one can add to the flow via the odd ang pao ... Word to the wise, if you're visiting here around lunar New Year, bring some 2 dollar bills - the number 2 is good luck, and the recipients will be duly grateful (not least because the bills can be sold on for considerably more than their face value...)
 
If Vietnam is anything to go by, it's also an excuse to demonstrate how well one is doing by the largesse one can add to the flow via the odd ang pao ... Word to the wise, if you're visiting here around lunar New Year, bring some 2 dollar bills - the number 2 is good luck, and the recipients will be duly grateful (not least because the bills can be sold on for considerably more than their face value...)
Interesting! I assume the word 'ang pao' is a loanword from the Chinese word for the same thing, 'hong bao'. However here '8' is lucky and as far as I know two isn't.
 
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