Folklore of the day: Feast Day of St. Piran, a sixth-century patron of Cornish miners. Christina Hole’s “English Folklore” (1940) mentioned several miners’ superstitions that survived well into the 20th century. “The older men in South Wales have a great dislike for washing their backs; they say that to do so will cause the mine roof to fall on top of them. In the East Midlands they say that accidents are most frequent when the broad beans are in bloom.” Sir Charles Igglesden’s “Those Superstitions” (1931) added: “The miner refrains from washing his back in the belief that it reduces his strength. A miner has a great fear of being ‘weak-backed,’ and it is told of the Lancashire miners of forty years ago that for this reason they never washed their bodies, but merely their hands, forearms, face, and neck. With the advent of new houses and the consequent installation of baths they have dropped this superstition to a large extent. Many miners have to go to work during the very early hours of the morning. If a man happens to meet a woman on his way to work at such a time he considers it very unlucky.”
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 12:52:20 +0000
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