_________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 13:00:37 -0000 From: "sorcha432" Subject: Symbolism of Green As an alternative to some of the Wiccan-based materials that have been posted recently, I offer the following excerpts from an article on the folk significance of the color, "green." The article covers English (or as the author puts it, "British") sources as well as Celtic ones, but I've quoted only non-English customs/beliefs since "Celtic" is the topic of the list. If the subject interests you, I encourage you to read the entire article at a library to get all the information and background the author has gathered. There is a long discussion on the role of color in folklore, both positive aad negative connotations of the color green, and a good deal on possible healing associations with "green." Also, please remember: it's illegal to copy this material and post it on a web site! That said, enjoy! And if you know sources that contradict what this author says, please post them! I, for one, would love to hear about it. Folklore, Annual 1997 v108 p55(10). Title: Folklore and symbolism of green.(Research Paper) Author: John Hutchings COPYRIGHT 1997 Folklore Society * In nineteenth-century Ireland green and black stones gathered in a moving stream were used in a charm for hip-joint disease (UCD Longford 1m1 a96 1a359). * In St Molio's Cave, County of Bute, Scotland there was a smooth green stone called the Baul Muluy, the stone globe of St Molingus. This was the size of a goose egg and it was believed to have the virtue of causing diseases and procuring victories for the MacDonalds (Black 1884, 173). Unlucky Green In Britain, as in Ireland, green is an unlucky colour and many people will not wear it, as the following selected survey results indicate. * Traditional song, Mormond Braes I'll pit on ma goon o' green It's a forsaken token Jist tae let the laddies ken That the bonds o' love are broken (Tom McKean, pers. comm.). * "Green is regarded by the Scotch as an unlucky colour at weddings, in consequence of which no kale, cabbage, or other green vegetable may be served up on the occasion" (Friend 1884, 318). * "Married in May, and kirked in green/Baith bride and bridegroom winna lang be seen" (anon. 1892, 367). * "My grandfather was a poor barefoot country boy in the 1800s in Kincardineshire. My mother was born in 1910. In Perthshire, in her early teens, she came home in a new green dress. Her father became upset and warned 'Don't wear that! Wear green and soon you'll wear black'" (Margaret Cathcart, pers. comm.). * "Welsh people today still will not wear green. In Cardiff all the green clothes are to be found in the end-of-season sales" (Alison Bielski, pers. comm.). * "My brothers in-law (from Forres in Moray) were most keen to prevent me wearing green to his wedding - they knew it was a favourite colour but insisted it was most unlucky to wear at a wedding" (Tig Lang 1985). * "Green is not worn at weddings" (flautist from Arran in Sandy's Bar, Edinburgh). * Daoine sidhe were reported wearing dresses of shaded green (Campbell 1889, 56). * In the Outer Hebrides, green objects were called "blue"; "green must not be mentioned, lest it should call up the fairies" (Goodrich-Freer 1899, 265). * The fairies of Ross-shire, the Sithichon (peaceful folks), were associated with green clothes (MacDonald 1903, 369). * "It is the fairies colour and its wearing by mortals arouses their jealousy" (Rose 1953, 427). * "As a child on an Argyllshire farm, more than 70 years ago, I remember going into a hayfield wearing a green dress, and being greeted by one of the hayworkers with: 'Oh that's the fairies colour you're wearing, they'll be after you!'" (C. McIntyre, pers. comm.). * On very rare occasions, and only in the Highlands, wearing a green dress can protect from the malevolent attentions of the fairies (Briggs 1956-7, 276). Although in Britain fairies are usually reported to wear green, this is not the case in Ireland. Preliminary searches at University College Dublin and Ulster Folk and Transport Museum revealed that the fairies wore red (16 instances), or white (7), green (4, all in the north), black (3), blue (1), or brown (1). These findings confirm Andrews's statement that, "in most parts of Ulster, and indeed of Ireland, the fairies are said to wear red not green. In Antrim, like their Scotch kinfolk, [they] dress in green, but even they are often said to have red or sandy hair" (Andrews 1913, 27). This author ascribes the regionalism in dress to different tribes among the aboriginal inhabitants. Those dressing in green, chiefly heard of in northeast Antrim, may be the tradition of people "who stained themselves with woad or some other plant." In some parts of that county they are said to wear tartan, "but in other parts of Ulster the fairies are usually, although not universally, described as dressing in red. Do these represent a people who dyed themselves with red ochre, or who simply went naked?" In Tory Island fairies dress in black; the islanders were said to be of African stock (ibid., 88). * Also, "I was once told off by a Cornish 'Grandmother in law' for wearing green, the piskies colour" (Hilary Belcher, pets. comm.). * God's control over nature is cited as a reason for unlucky green: "My father was a Highland Scot, when we were young he would not allow us to wear green. I don't think he was superstitious, he was a devout Presbyterian and he felt as the Almighty had clothed His world in green, it was presumptuous of us to wear it - a kind of irreverence" (Margaret Davies, pers. comm.). Alec Gill says the reason why one should never burn anything green, "the things of life," is that the green of nature is God's colour. Green- leafed trees are followed by black bark in winter and black is for mourning. Hence to avoid death, avoid wearing green (Gill 1993, 102). There are a number of instances where green is unlucky for fishermen. * "In this area (Argyll), and perhaps in most of the west coast, the fishermen used to dislike the range of orange-brown-yellow shades obtained from lichens and used for dyeing wool. This was explained as being a danger to the boats - the colour came from rocks and would 'attract' them. My grandfather, as a young man, once had to walk 20 miles round a sea- loch because a man who had undertaken to ferry him across refused to let him into the boat in his crotal-dyed stockings" (Marion Campbell, pers. comm.). * "Staying in the west of Ireland (Bantry Bay) with my cousins who live there I was told that fishermen there never wear green on a fishing trip" (Tig Lang, pers. comm.). Glasgow Celtic Football Club was formed by Brother Walfrid (Andrew Kerins), an Irish Catholic priest working among the Irish community of Glasgow, in 1887. As green is the colour of Irish nationhood (Hayes-McCoy 1979, 42) green is the natural colour for their shirts also (Lunney 1992, 16). * The fairy explanation of unlucky green is not suitable for Ireland for Irish fairies do not wear green. Most are "trooping fairies who live and look like normal mortals. Other fairies are the banshee women who wear white and the smaller leprechaun, the shoemaker, who is more likely to wear red than green. The explanation for the bad luck in Ireland seems to revolve around the ease and cheapness of dyeing cloth green and brown. Only the rich could afford scarlet, blue and purple clothes. Green and brown are therefore the dress of the poorest of the population, and it must be unlucky to be poor" (Miceal Ross, pers. comm). * The descendants of the Ogilvies, Grahams and Sinclairs of Caithness, all of whom wore green in their tartans at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, thereafter held the colour in disrepute after the terrible defeat when most were killed (anon. 1892, 368). The author James Grahame believed that green was fatal to the name of Grahame, he would not "so much as to allow a green cover to be placed on the table" (Lean 1903, 276). References Cited Allesch, G. J van. Die aesthetische Erscheinungsweise der Farben. Berlin, 1925. Andrews, Elizabeth. Ulster Folklore. London: Elliot Stock, 1913. Anon. "Green: Its Symbolism." Chamber's Journal (4 June 1892):367-8. Anon. Note. 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