Chambers's Book of Days

Robert Chambers, The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar (2 vols, 1862-1864).

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Two volumes, 1862 to 1864. Facsimile reprints are easy to find, and original sets turn up second-hand.

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151 to 175 of 439 entries

Easter Monday

Folklore from the old calendars

Money in your pocket for the cuckoo Lore and belief EnglandAmong country people in some parts of the kingdom it was thought very unlucky to have no money in your pocket when you heard the cuckoo for the first time in the season.
The cuckoo ale No longer kept ShropshireIn Shropshire, until shortly before Chambers wrote, labourers who heard the first cuckoo of the year left their work, made holiday of the rest of the day and drank what they called the cuckoo ale.
The first cuckoo Lore and belief NorfolkIn Norfolk it was believed that whatever you were doing when you first heard the cuckoo in spring, you would be doing most often for the rest of the year.
The hair in the left shoe Lore and belief EnglandIt was a common belief that a girl who ran into the fields early in the morning to hear the first cuckoo, and took off her left shoe when she heard it, would find inside a man's hair.