EGG SUPERSTITIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1938, Page 3

EGG SUPERSTITIONS

SOME QUAINT BELIEFS. Here and there about the countryside one comes across many quaint superstitions about eggs. It is unlucky, they say in North Lincolnshire, to bring them into the house after sunset. There are many cottagers in Nottinghamshire who are most averse from letting eggs go out of the house after sunset.

Quite widespread is the idea that in “setting a hen” the nest should be composed of an odd number of eggs. It is held that if there were an even number the young chickens, even should they hatch out, would not prosper. Another curious idea still found in certain parts of the country is that eggs marked with a small black cross as a talisman will not be attacked by rats and stoats.

Eggs laid on Good Friday are extremely lucky to a household if kept on a shelf, and these should on no account be thrown away or eaten. The first egg laid by a pullet should be taken by a young man and given to his sweetheart. This, it is considered, will bring a happy and prosperous married life.

In the eastern counties there is quite a common superstition that it is very unlucky to burn egg shells. If you do, your hens will stop laying. A West Country idea is always to poke a hole in your egg shells. If this was not done it was said that the fairies would put to sea in the shells and wreck the ships.