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Fall in Thorns
Blackberries on Michaelmas Day
[ 3 minute read ]
I came across a superstition about blackberries yesterday, in 'Encyclopaedia of Superstitions' by E. & M.A. Radford [1961], edited and revised by Christina Hole, 1974 , London, Book Club Associates.
It is unlucky to pick blackberries on or after the 11th October, which is Old Michaelmas Day. 'According to tradition, Satan cursed the fruit because, when he was cast out of Heaven on the first Michaelmas Day, he fell into a blackberry bush.' I can't help thinking of the 'The Terminator' film when Arnold Swarzenegger falls out of the sky, and the more recent Jumanji films, with Dwayne Johnson, when they have 'lost a life' and are respawned, and fall from the sky. Falling into a blackberry bush would suit the humour of 'Jumanji' nicely, I think.
Before 1961 and 1974 (see Encyclopaedia of Superstitions) some people believed that Satan scorched blackberries by breathing on them, or that Satan stamped and spat on them, or threw his cloak over them and wiped his tail on them. Whoever afterward gathered the berries would have bad luck. Some people even believed that death might occur. Modern medicine and hygiene has, it seems, thwarted much of Satan's power. People don't die from late blackberries these days. But if you eat any from a hedge on the way to a job interview you might not get the job because you are scraping your teeth with your tongue trying to dislodge the seeds.
My mum used to make blackberry jam; a lot of blackberry jam. After about the age of eight or nine my brother, sister and I stopped eating it. We had grown sick of it. Blackberries are high in nutrients and may well have assisted in keeping us healthy and helping our brains grow but we had quite a good diet anyway. My mum seemed to be always eating blackberry jam. It wasn't until I was well into my adulthood that I finally pieced together some outward manifestations of my mum and her childhood that explained her quirkiness. While my siblings and I would wander in the apple orchard of six eating, and six cooking apple trees, picking an apple at random and discarding it if it was even slightly sour; our mum would eat a whole apple, core and all. She fervently harvested blackberries and made jam but never made apple pie, crumbles or jam. As far as I remember she did not even use apples for their pectin to help set the blackberry jam.
My mum grew up in a tough environment during which an apple was a treat. Even if you didn't want to eat the core you had to because, your parents would be ravaged with rage if you wasted the effort they went to, to get that apple. I think my mum sort of passed by the apples on our trees, because she had grown to have no favour towards them. She did use to make me take some to school for my teachers, who would try to avoid embarrassing me or showing favour by leaving a bag of crisps on my desk (well, once anyway).
Despite being considered to be holy, apple trees and apples also have superstitions attached to them. If, after the fruit has been picked from a tree and an apple is left behind and hangs there until Spring comes around, a death is foretold. However, in Yorkshire, they believed that at least one apple should be left on the tree for the birds. There is some supposition that originally the apple was left for the fairies, or even some older spirits. (Encyclopaedia of Superstitions [1961] 1974).
I like this one: A hallow-tide game was to fix a piece of apple to a string and twirl it round before a hot fire. The girl whose piece of apple fell off first would be the first to marry. I imagine excited girls with hot cheeks, knees and hands, from the fire, laughing in the company of their friends and sisters, while they fascinate over their crushes. I can almost see their faces lit by the bright flames.
