St John’s worts on the rafters

24 June · Wales

Lore and belief

As late as the middle of the nineteenth century Welsh households foretold who would die first by hanging St John’s worts from the rafters, one named for each person in the house. The person whose plant withered first would be the first to die. St John’s wort gathered at noon on St John’s Day was also thought good for several complaints, and spinsters threw a garland of nine kinds of flowers backwards onto a tree, counting a year unmarried for each time it fell.

Each wort was named after an individual. Those whose plants wither first will die first.

From Trevelyan's Folk-Lore of Wales, p. 252. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Elder flowers from Midsummer Day Lore and belief EnglandElder flowers gathered on Midsummer Day, dried and powdered, were a receipt for keeping young.
The cuckoo silent after Midsummer Day Lore and belief Flintshire, MontgomeryshireIn Montgomeryshire, on the Shropshire border, it was held that the cuckoo never sang after Midsummer Day, and a rhyme said she sang in April, May and Midsummer, but never on that day.
A quarter-pound of pepper for Waterton Farm No longer kept GlamorganWaterton Farm near Coity, Bridgend, was held by an odd tenure: suit of court and a quarter of a pound of pepper paid to the lord of the manor.
Colm’s Day fair at Largs No longer kept AyrshireEvery Midsummer Largs held a fair called St Colm's Day, where Highlanders and Lowlanders met to trade for the whole year.
The Dutton minstrels’ court at Chester Midsummer Fair No longer kept CheshireEvery Midsummer all the minstrels and musicians of Cheshire had to attend their lord at Chester, play before him in procession to St John's church, and then answer at his court for their lives and conduct.
John Baptist brings grass beef and peas No longer kept EnglandMidsummer, the feast of St John the Baptist, brought the first grass-fed beef and green peas to the farmer's table.
A coal under the plantain root Lore and belief LondonAt noon on Midsummer Day 1694 Aubrey came upon twenty-two or twenty-three young women, most of them well dressed, on their knees in the pasture behind Montague House as if they were weeding.
A red rose for Highhead at Midsummer No longer kept CumberlandIn the reign of Edward III Highhead Castle, near Dalston, was held by the service of bringing a red rose to the king's exchequer in Carlisle every year on the feast of St John the Baptist.
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A chaplet of roses at Tong No longer kept ShropshireEvery year a garland of flowers was placed on the effigy of a Vernon in Tong church.
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White cake and kidgelled cream at Whitby No longer kept YorkshireAt Whitby people ate white cake and "kidgelled" cream on Midsummer Day, and the milkmen sent their customers presents of cream for the feast.
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Sir Thomas Parkyns’s wrestling No longer kept NottinghamshireSir Thomas Parkyns, a Nottinghamshire squire, was a keen wrestler who trained his servants and neighbours, showed them off in public and wrote a book called The Cornish Hug Wrestler.
Thomas Oken’s bonfires No longer kept WarwickshireThomas Oken of Warwick, in a deed of 1571, charged his feoffees to pay a few shillings every year to the neighbours of his bonfire and of three other bonfires in the High Pavement ward.
The sermon in green boughs Still kept OxfordshireOn St John the Baptist's Day a sermon was preached at Magdalen College from a stone pulpit in the corner of the first court, and the court was hung with green boughs so that the preaching would look like the Baptist's in the wilderness.
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Crowning the tin-mine poles No longer kept CornwallIn Cornwall the boundary of each tin mine was marked by a long pole with a bush at the top.
Midsummer cushions No longer kept NorthumberlandIn Northumberland on Midsummer Day stools were dressed with a cushion of flowers.

St John’s worts on the rafters

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