St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-17
Origin of the Custom of Wishing
on star.

Origin Of the Custom of Wishing
on Star.
Philadelphia Press.
Here and there in the highways and
by-ways of the world many legends and
superstitions still linger and continue
to retain their ancient prestige. In
Galieia, the province northeast of Hun
gary, the peasants believe that when
star falls to earth it is at once trans
formed into a rarely beautiful woman
with long hair, blonde and glittering.
This splendid creature. miraculously
engendered, exercises Oil all who come
in contact with her a magical influence.
Every handsome youth unfortunate
enough to attract her attention, becomes
her victim.
Thus having allured them to her. she
encircleS them with her arms in an en-
brace that becomes gradually tighter
and tighter until the poor dupes are
strangled to death. If certain words are
murmured the moment the star starts
to fall they cause her allurements to
lose their power.
From this superstition springs the
custom Of wishing while a star is seen
hurrying through the air, wish said
surely to come true if completely formu-
lated before the light is eXtinguiShed.
The Spaniards saw in the falling stars
the souls of their dead friends, the
thread of whose existence was cut short
by destiny.
The Arabs thought these stars to be
burning stones thrown by the angels OH
to the heads OF devils who attempted to
enter paradise.
The Koran reproduces and conse
crates this idea, and it is found i'll all
the regions under the influence OF
Islam 1t is to this particular idea that
Moore refers in the following lines
from Paradise and PERIL"
Fleeter than the starry brands
Flung at night from angels hands.
AT those dark and daring sprites
Who would climb the empyreal heights.
Another ancient superstition belong
ing originally to the paganS, but one TO
which the Christians chung, is that the
world will come to an end when it rains
stars.
1t is related that during the third year
of the reign of Constantine the Red sea
entirely froze, and in the following
March SO many stars fell from the sky
that people thought that the consamma-
ton of the centuries was at hand.
The Chinese were the first TO make
UUSGEVdliOu IGRdIGliS LlC
of falling stars. Notes concerning the
phenomena are to DE found in the writ
ings, of the celestial astronomers as
early as 6S7 A. D.
These notes are preserved in the OBJ
seryatory of the court at Pekin, that
famous mathematical tribunal watching
constantly over the empire, and guiding
and directing its course by means of
knowledge acquired from continual
study of the heavens.
All the observations recorded during
the years forming the epoch between
657 and 1647 have been made public, but
everything learned posteror to the lat
ter date are still a secret and will remain
one until the powers now III authority
are extinguiShed and cease to occupy
the throne.
The reason for this is the existence
Of an ancient custom forbidding the
publishing of such data during the
reign of dynasty. The family at pres
ent ruling in tie land of the queue
reaches in an unbroken line back to the
middle of the seventeenth century.
Very few are the notices made by old
Greek writers of falling stars; however,
Virgil and Livy do give some account Of
them.
On the contrary, the chronicles of the
middle ages are full of descriptions of
both falling stars and meteoric appari-
tons which were generally regarded
with fear and trembling as warnings of
evils to come.