The Globe-republican., 1905-04-20
Good Friday Superstitions

1t is pretty safe to assert that hui
man conduct is controlled more ny
unwritten laws and ancient custom
than by the statutes, of the existence
of which many are made aware FOR
the first time when, having unwilling
~ transgressed them, they are called
upon to suffer the consequence pun
ishment
How otherwise is to be explained
the conscientious keeping up OF quaint
observances which are required
neither by written law nor apparent
reason?
These customs are, as rule, as
ISOLATED with red letter days of the
ecclesiastical calendar, and Good Fri
day has its share of this old-fashion-
ed devotion. With some women in
the English midlands there is po-
tent belief that on the great fast-day
of the year it is wholly impious to
do the family washing or scrubbing,
though to bake or sew is perfectly
permissible employment. And though
to enter upon an understanding on
ordinary Friday is, as a rule, looked
upon as a step of ill-omen, yet the
beginning of the years work in the
garden is with many among the
working classes religiously reserved
for Good Friday, and in propitious
spring weather it is very agreeable
sight to see the men at their health
full spade work"-to borrow phrase
from current POLITICAL rhetoric-in
their limited urban garden plots or
more open suburban allotments. The
day could hardly be better spent by
men confined to factories or ware
houses in tlieir quest of livelihood,
and, as it is the first week day in the
year that they get free from their
ordinary avocations, its conservation
to garden work is in some measure
explained. But 1t is just possible that
the custom is a survival of the belief
that prevailed in old monastic times
when Calvary clover, the blood-spot-
ted little plant with seed pot case
which, when pulled out, resembles
miniature crown of thorns, was sup
posed not to grow unless sown on
Good Friday. Or is 1t due to be-
lief that the beneficent influence Of
the holy day extends no less to ma.
terial than to spiritual matters, as Is
confessed in some parts of the coun
try, where the good folk say that
cross buns made on that day never
become mouldy, and that a Good Fri
day baked loaf hung in the kitchen
averts illluck, and crumbs grated
from it as required are an excellent
remedy for numerous ailments?
A Cornish custom indissolubly con-
meets the gathering Of lirnpets, cookies
and wrinkles with Good Friday, and
the practice of flocking to the water
to gather the shellfish on that day,
once general throughout the country,
is still observed in some of Its out
of-the-way corners. But the origin Of
this quaint custom is far to seek, as
is that of playing marbles, with which
innocent pastime both boys and men
in certain Sussex villages feel in duty
bound to acknowledge the advent Of
Good Friday. while at the seaboard of
the same county-at Brighton, be It
known-~the day was for long hailed
as Long Rope-Day" from the strange
custom kept up until within quite re-
cent years Of the fishing fraternity
amusing themselves throughout the
day by numbers OF them grown-up
people skipping together at one long
rope.
What ancient aspects Of Good Fri
days great lesson such customs we're
Intended to perpetuate 1t is difficult
to discover. and the most patient and
prolonged antiquarian and ecclesolo
gical Investigation to this end would
probably prove futile. AT first blush