Below are omen believed by many Newfoundlanders over the years!! Omens of death, good luck or bad luck!! Also some quaint beliefs and practices!
GOOD LUCK
Seeing the new moon first over the left shoulder. Picking up a horseshoe on the road. Picking a four leaf clover. Seeing two black crows flying overhead. Putting on a garment inside out by mistake. Picking up a coin. Picking up a pin or a white button. A rooster crowing on the doorstep. To see a baby smiling in its sleep. To dream of one's father. A bee coming into the room.
BAD LUCK
Breaking a mirror. Having thirteen persons at the table. Coiling a rope against the sun. Purchasing a broom in May. Meeting a red haired woman. Looking over another's shoulder into the mirror. Coming in by one door and going out by another. Meeting a cross-eyed person. To spill salt. To cross knives on a table. To leave a knife turned blade upwards. To have a lone black crow fly over your head. To be called back just as you have begun a journey. To whistle on the water. To drop the ring at a marriage ceremony.
DEATH TOKENS
A dog moaning near a house. A dog burying some object near one's home. A bird coming into a room. A clock which had been stopped for years suddenly striking the hours. A window blind falling without any apparent cause. A wall picture suddenly falling. When "rigor mortis" does not appear in a corpse it means that another member of the family will soon die. To dream of a wedding is a sign of a funeral. The banshee crying at night, is said to precede the death of certain persons of Irish descent in Newfoundland. The first member of the assembled company at which the cat glared would be the first to die.
TOKENS OF A VISIT FROM A STRANGER
A cat washing her face. Sparks from a wood stove flying to the floor. A knife or fork falling.
TOKENS OF GOOD AND ILL
Ringing in the ears betokened news, the right ear for good and the left ear for ill. To say things backwards betokened the sight of a long absent friend. It is considered taboo to step over a child, as it will stop the growth of the youngster. If a person had a cold spasm, it is said that someone was walking over the grave of the individual. It was considered very unlucky to incur the wrath of a widow, as her curse was sure to bring evil. To bring ill fortune to an enemy, throw the dust of one's hoes over the left shoulder in that person's direction. If things went badly on Monday, it was a sure sign of a bad week.
QUAINT BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
Maidens sought the name of their future husbands on the eve of Midsummer. They broke an egg and kept it in a glass, and spilled it on the road next morning. The first man to walk over the egg had the same Christian name as the husband-to-be.
Belief in faries was general; old folk still persist in vouching that they had seen the little fellows dancing on the grass on moonlit nights. Children lost in the woods were said to have been led astray by fairies; as a safeguard against this , every person caried a cake of hard biscuit in a pocket.
Fisherman's superstitions in boatbuilding are interesting. It was deemed necessary to have witch hazel in some part of the new craft, the first turn had to be with the sun, and it was lucky to have an old sail on her at the launching.
FESTAL CUSTOMS
The feast of Christmas is celebrated in the Tenth Province in a good old fashioned way. Many Yuletide practices that were brought from Europe over three centuries ago still found in Newfoundland. The custom of hauling the Yule Log through the village on Christmas Eve has disappeared but the time honoured practice of dressing as mummers is still in vogue even in the city of St. John's.
On the night of November 5th huge bonfires are lit in every village to perpetuate the Guy Fawkes attempt to blow up the Parliament buildings in the time of James I. Green boughs and tar barrels are used to create a thick smoke screen and through this dense pall of smoke young people dance and collide with shouts of laughter. Should a novice come in good clothes, he or she is marked for a lavish smearing of burnt embers.
