Things my mother told me
My mother as a schoolgirl. She was born in 1904.
My mother was not a superstitious woman, nor was she well-educated, in the modern sense; that is to say, she did not have the opportunity to go on to further education. She was intelligent, creative and self-effacing. Schooled in classes of 40, she nonetheless learnt to appreciate fiction and poetry and to write clearly and succinctly, more so than many graduates today.
Whenever I saw a spider and drew back in horror and fear, she would say, ‘If you wish to live and thrive, let a spider run alive.’ I don’t remember her explaining why, but somehow grew up with the understanding that spiders were a necessity of life, there to rid the house of flies and thereby bring luck and good health. I was never worried about the tiny money spiders, which were rumoured to engender wealth as well as luck.
This is cited as being in use in Kent since 1867. I was born and brought up in Kent, but my parents were Hampshire Hogs.
One legend from the Christian tradition claims that the Holy Family was hiding from Herod’s soldiers in a cave. A spider spun a web across the entrance and when the soldiers saw it they reasoned that no-one could have entered the cave recently and so departed without further ado. Thus, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus were saved from discovery and persecution.
My mother told me that a purse given as a gift should never be empty. Just a small coin would suffice to ensure the recipient would never be without funds. An empty purse signified future financial ruin, poor health or bad luck.
She also told me the superstition about breaking mirrors. This was reinforced by my father, so I think their concern was more about the dangers of broken glass.
Fragments of volcanic glass (obsidian) found in Turkey and dated to 6000 BC are thought to be some of the first mirrors made by man. Man thought that seeing his reflection was seeing his soul looking back at him, so damaging the mirror was tantamount to damaging his soul.
The ancient Romans also thought the mirror reflected the soul so breaking the mirror was bad luck. They believed the soul regenerated every seven years, so the damaged soul of the smashed mirror would not be renewed for seven years.
The association of souls and mirrors still holds today in some religious traditions. In observant Jewish households all the mirrors in the house are covered when a death occurs, so that the mourners may concentrate on their personal loss.
