Friday, 30 March 2018

30 March: Good Friday

Today is Good Friday 2018, so here are 10 celebrations and superstitions people around the world observe on Good Friday.

  1. Good Friday is traditionally the time to sow Parsley. If it grows thick and strong, it brings prosperity to the mother of the household.
  2. According to old superstition, those born on Good Friday have the power of seeing and commanding spirits.
  3. In the church of Glentham, Lincolnshire, there is a tomb with a figure, popularly called Molly Grime. The figure used to be washed every Good Friday by seven old maids of the town, with water brought from Newell Well. Each old maid was paid receiving a shilling (5p) for her trouble. This was done because of of an old bequest connected with a local property. In about 1832, the property was sold and the custom was discontinued.
  4. On Good Friday it was once customary in Dorset and Devon, for a clerk to carry to each house a few white, bitter-sweet cakes, bout one eighth of an inch thick, and about five or seven inches in diameter, as an Easter offering in exchange for a gratuity.
  5. Before the Reformation in England, a dressed figure of Christ on a crucifix would be carried around the altar by two priests. They'd lay it on the ground and kiss its hands and feet with tears and sighs. The congregation would bring it gifts, such as corn and Eggs. The image was then buried, while incense burned. Flowers were placed on the grave.
  6. Bread baked on Good Friday was kept by the family for the whole year. People believed crumbs from it dropped into water would help cure any ailment, but particularly diarrhoea.
  7. Creeping to the cross is a Catholic Good Friday tradition in which people approach the altar rails to pay homage to the cross. In Europe, as late as the 16th Century, people ‘‘creeping to the cross’’ brought offerings of eggs, bacon and other foods. The custom derives from the veneration of the True Cross at Jerusalem.
  8. Eggs feature in several Good Friday traditions from around the world. In Serbia, Easter eggs are traditionally put in vineyards to ensure a bountiful crop. The Tyrolese believe a Good Friday egg is fresh for a year, and cannot be broken even if thrown over a house. In parts of France, an egg laid on Good Friday, cooked, and inserted into an acorn, could be hung around a child's neck to cure stomach-ache.
  9. If it rain on Good Friday or Easter Day, T’will be a good year of grass but a sorrowful year of hay. English traditional proverb.
  10. A game of competitive marbles is played at Tinsley Green in a tradition dating back to at least 1600.





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