Folk lore : $b or, Superstitious beliefs in the west of Scotland within this centuryNapier, James
History
Folk lore : $b or, Superstitious beliefs in the west of Scotland within this century
Napier, James
Folklore -- Scotland; Scotland -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
I know several persons who refuse to have their likeness taken lest it
prove unlucky; and give as instances the cases of several of their
friends who never had a day's health after being photographed.
In addition to the many forms of superstition which we have been
recalling, there were, and still are a great many superstitions
connected with the phenomenon of dreaming, but as the notions in this
series were very varied, differing very much in different localities,
and everywhere subject less or more to the fancy of the interpreter, and
as I believe that the notions and practices now in vogue in this
connection are of comparatively recent origin, I will not enter upon the
subject.
APPENDIX.
YULE, BELTANE, & HALLOWE'EN FESTIVALS:
_Survivals of Ancient Sun and Fire Worship._
History and prehistoric investigations have shown quite clearly that
prehistoric man worshipped the Sun, the giver and vivifier of all life,
as the supreme God. To the sun they offered sacrifices, and at stated
periods celebrated festivals in his honour; and at these festivals bread
and wine and meat were partaken of, with observances very similar in
many respects to the practices of the Jews during their religious
feasts. But although the sun was the supreme deity, other objects were
also worshipped as subordinate deities. These objects, however, were
generally in some manner representative of sun attributes; for example,
the Moon was worshipped as the spouse of the Sun, Venus as his page. The
pleiades and other constellations, and single stars were also deified;
the rainbow and the lightning were sun servants, the elements, the sun's
offspring. Many animals and trees were reverenced as representatives of
sun attributes. Above all, fire was worshipped as the truest symbol of
the sun upon earth, and all offerings and sacrifices in honour of the
sun were presented through fire; thus sun and fire worship became
identified.
In Britain sun-worship appears to have been purer in prehistoric than it
afterwards was in historic times, purer also than the sun-cult of
historic Egypt, Greece, or Rome; that is, there appears to have been in
British sun-worship less of polytheism than prevailed in Egypt, Greece,
or Rome. But during the historic period, the numerous invasions and the
colonizations of different portions of this country by the Romans and
other nations, who brought with them their special religious beliefs and
formulae of worship, caused the increase of polytheism by the commingling
of the foreign and native elements of belief, and later on, these were
mixed with Christianity, and in these mixings all the elements became
modified, so that now it is very difficult to separate with certainty
the aboriginal, invasional, and Christian elements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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