26th August: Horseshoe Day

It's Horseshoe day.

Since Horses became domesticated, working animals, humans have found it necessary to protect their horses' hooves from damage and wear. Horseshoes have become symbolic of luck and frequently appear as logos and on greeting cards for occasions when people are particularly keen to wish others luck, such as weddings. Traditional boxes of confetti will contain a proportion of horseshoe shaped pieces. 10 horseshoe superstitions:

1. Nailing one to the wall or door of a house is supposed to protect the home from evil. This practice originates from the legend of St Dunstan, an abbot of Glastonbury Abbey and Archbishop of Canterbury in the tenth century. He was also a smith, and the legend relates that the Devil once went to St Dunstan to ask for shoes for his own hooves because he had seen a galloping horse emitting sparks from its shoes and he wanted some of that power. When St Dunstan nailed a shoe to the Devil's hoof, it caused the Devil so much pain that he pleaded for the shoe to be taken off. St Dunstan agreed on condition that the Devil never entered any place with a horseshoe hung over the door. The orientation of the shoe on the door is significant. If hung with the open end uppermost, it holds on to the luck, but if hung with the open end down, the luck spills out, although some believe that upside down is best, because then the luck is released to work its influence on its surroundings rather than being held in the shoe; others believe that the luck simply drains away, rendering the lucky charm useless.
2. Nailing one to the mast of a ship is supposed to protect it from storms.
3. Some say that the horseshoe is only lucky if it has been found on the road and has actually been worn by a horse, especially a grey mare, and that the more miles it has travelled on the horse's foot, the luckier it is. In some versions of the legend, the shoe must, in addition, have been made by a bachelor of good character on St John's Eve in order to be lucky.
4. Yet another variation states that the horseshoe is only lucky for the person who actually owns it, that is, presumably, the owner of the horse it came from, who would have bought it from the smith. It confers no good fortune on someone who finds or steals it.
5. The Bohemians believed that picking up a horseshoe was unlucky, but that hanging up a horseshoe was a cure for madness.
6. If a found horseshoe has nails in it, it is luckier – the more nails the better, and the number of holes without nails symbolises, for a single person, the number of years that will pass before they marry.
7. As a means of warding off impending sickness from cattle, and in order that they may thrive during the summer, Transylvanian peasants place broken horseshoes in the animals' drinking-troughs on St. John's Day, June 24.
8. In Lincolnshire, not many years ago, there was a custom of "charming" Ash trees by burying horseshoes under them. Twigs from such a tree were believed to cure cattle which had been exposed to the glance of an evil eye. To effect a cure in such cases, it was only necessary to gently stroke the affected animal with one of these twigs.
9. In Tuscany a horse-shoe when found is placed in a small red bag with some hay, which the Tuscans consider also a luck-bringing article, and the twofold charm is kept in its owner's bed.
10. Other possible explanations for horseshoes symbolising luck include: Iron was a highly prized metal – in the time of the Crusades, it was so valuable that iron horseshoes were acceptable as payment of taxes in lieu of cash – so having one to spare to hang over the door would have been a sign of prosperity; iron was once seen as effective in repelling witches and supernatural beings, but is only effective if placed above the main entrance to the building as it has no power to expel the evil entities once they have got in; blood contains iron, so the metal was associated with life force and seen as the blood, or life force of the earth, or may have been connected with the protective blood sprinkled over the doors of Jewish houses at passover; at one time, each shoe was attached to the horse with  7 nails, and seven is a sacred number; people saw sparks generated by shod horses walking on cobbled streets and thought they were objects of power; it is all to do with the shape – it is shaped like a new moon, a horned crescent, an open hand, a female sexual symbol, a serpent or a boat the right way up; the shape even dates back to ancient Egypt, where it forms the hieroglyph for the mystical door of life; horses were sacred in many ancient cultures; smiths were seen as magic wielders because they worked with iron and fire, and would have been the ones to forge armour for the gods from volcanic fires. They were also credited with the ability to recognise the Devil, even when he was in disguise. So a house with a horseshoe outside could belong to a blacksmith and so the Devil knows he can't get up to any of his tricks there!