MrRING
Android Futureman
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2002
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- 6,053
I ran across this curious quote in my Forgotten English desk calendar, and thought it was worth writing down on the board!
BRUNETTES AND FIRST FOOTING
It is still considered important in North Chesshire that the first person to cross the threshold on New Year's Day shall be a dark-haired man. A fair man is very unlucky and a red-haired one even more so. A woman is worse, whatever the color if her hair. To avoid the risk of such disastrous visits the master of the house, if he is dark, goes out just before midnight. As soon as the clock strikes, he is admitted as the "First Foot". If he happens to be fair, a suitably-coloured friend does it for him, and in some districts a dark man will go round the village, being warmly welcomed at every house as a luck-bringer. He generally carries with him a piece of bread, a piece of coal, and some money so that the family shall want neither food, firing, nor wealth during the year. It was formerly thought unlucky to let anything be taken from the house until something had been brought in. Hence the importance of First Foot gifts.
- from Christina Hole's TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF CHESHIRE, 1937
BRUNETTES AND FIRST FOOTING
It is still considered important in North Chesshire that the first person to cross the threshold on New Year's Day shall be a dark-haired man. A fair man is very unlucky and a red-haired one even more so. A woman is worse, whatever the color if her hair. To avoid the risk of such disastrous visits the master of the house, if he is dark, goes out just before midnight. As soon as the clock strikes, he is admitted as the "First Foot". If he happens to be fair, a suitably-coloured friend does it for him, and in some districts a dark man will go round the village, being warmly welcomed at every house as a luck-bringer. He generally carries with him a piece of bread, a piece of coal, and some money so that the family shall want neither food, firing, nor wealth during the year. It was formerly thought unlucky to let anything be taken from the house until something had been brought in. Hence the importance of First Foot gifts.
- from Christina Hole's TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF CHESHIRE, 1937
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