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[ 4 minute read ]
Lucky
You thought you were lucky when you found a four-leaf clover, didn't you? You thought that you had to be young, care-free, and in love in a field of buttercups to be able to find a leaf that tells you that you are lucky. Just think about that for a second; I would say you are pretty lucky to be carefree and in love in a field.
Well, old people don't need to bend down or lie on buttercups to be able to find a lucky leaf. They can find an ash tree leaf instead. Well, actually it has to be a leaf with an even number of divisions on each side if it to be most valued. They are the rare ones.
Ash leaves and the tree they grow on, according to the 'Encyclopaedia of Superstitions' by E. & M.A. Radford, 'were formerly thought to be lucky, and were used in charms and divination'.
In the West Country, if you found an ash leaf with even divisions on each side it was usual to say:
'Even ash, I do thee pluck,
Hoping thus to meet good luck.
If no good luck I get from thee,
I shall wish thee on the tree.'
(Encyclopaediea of Superstitions, 1974)
Quite what the plucker is wishing back on the tree is a bit unclear. To wish the leaf onto the tree is surely to unpluck it, yet it may be a sulky curse, as in, 'You gave me no good luck so I wish no good luck on the tree.' A bit entitled isn't it? What right does a tree-vandal have to expect good luck? None today, I would say, but fifty something years ago and more, maybe quite a bit. After all, the only way you might get rich, for example, was by betting on which pig wins a race at the annual fair, or by winning 'the pools' in the 1950s - 1980s, which was predicting which football teams would draw with which other football team in a Saturday match. That was a time of silence across the UK when the TV announcers would read out the scores in the early evenings.
I can't help thinking that all superstitions belong in the medieval years, which is why I thought of pig-racing.
If the finder of a special even divided leaf 'wore it in his hat or buttonhole, or carried it in his pocket he could expect success and happiness, or at least, safety from mishaps and the effects of ill-wishing, for some time to come.' (Encyclopaediea of Superstitions, 1974)
I wonder what we might make of someone wearing an ash leaf at work. I can see in my mind some leaves in a hat band, but pinned to a dress or jacket? I am not sure I would want to stand near to someone wearing an ash leaf; I mean you wouldn't get any work done, would you. If the ceiling fell down it wouldn't land on the people wearing leaves, it would land on you. One glance around the office or building site and you might be running to the woods because you are the only one without an even-sided ash leaf. Worse, if your nemesis was standing at the office entrance handing out even-sided ash leaves to everyone except you, you might need to invent a dentist appointment 'toute de suite'. Run for your life! Hopefully, you would hear something similar to this in the background as you run away:
'Morgana! To my office now!'
'Yes, what is it?'
'Morgana, Your strange hats are one thing, but when you turn up for work with bags under your eyes I know you are not going to be much use to us today. Take the day off. And take those silly leaves from around your neck; you look ridiculous.'
Next day:
'Has anyone seen Morgana?'
'She fell down the stairs as she left early, yesterday morning.'
'I think I saw her slip in the street and bang her elbow.'
'I saw her crying at the bus-stop because she had lost her bus-money at the bookies.'
Nobody wants that, do they?
I think back in the 1960s and 1970s losing your evenly divided ash leaf would be like losing your phone today; you would be constantly checking to make sure you have it, because you don't know if everyone else has one in their pocket, or even a four-leaf cover leaf.
By the watercooler:
'Got any leaves, Jim?'
'No, but I've got guns, drugs and fighting bears.'
'Nah, I need a leaf, man'
'I have a dead cert at Sandown in the 3:30, will that do?'
'No good without a leaf, is it?'
Back in medieval times, there were no dating apps and sites and speed dating meant walking ten miles through mud to the market and arriving wet and bedraggled. No matter, a girl in Northumberland back then could find a husband if she put an even-divided ash leaf in her left shoe after casting this spell:
'Even, even, ash,
I pluck thee off the tree,
The first young man that I do meet,
My lover he shall be.'
The first man she then met would be certain to marry her, no matter how improbable this might be. That is putting a lot of faith in love isn't it? No matter how the man looked or how poor he was, he was the right one for her. Of course, ever other man had to be temporarily in the pub drunk at these times to make sure they were out of the way and magic could place the right man in the right place. So, is he sober because he doesn't drink or because he is poor?
Leaves, they can be really tricky to deal with. Don't take your shoes off near an ash tree and check the inside of your shoes if you do.