Is May an unlucky month?

According to folklore the month of May seems to be incredibly 

unlucky, for example Kittens born at this time grow into 

unlucky melancholy cats!

And to marry in May is notoriously unlucky, and to do it dressed 

in green is sheer madness!

"Married in May and kirked in green

Both bride and bridegroom won't long be seen.

O' marriages in May

Bairns die in decay"

And the May weather is considered to unreliable for shorn 

sheep, which may take cold and die.

"Shear your sheep in May

You'll shear them all away"

Thunder during this month presages a poor summer and a bad harvest.

"Thunder in May

Frightens the summer away"

According to a Devon legend the sharp frosts that occur at this time of year

 are the revenge of a beer brewer called Frankin who was put out of business by 

the rising popularity for drinking cider.

He pledged his soul to the Devil in return for frosts on each of the 'Frankin's days' 

around the May 21st hoping that these would kill the apple blossom and 

ultimately ruining the cider crop.

Changelings and May

The month of May is supposed to be the ideal time for substituting 

mortal babies with changelings; why this month I wonder?

Faeries will not hesitate to steal un-baptized children, 
especially popular are fair haired babies, replacing them with changelings.
These may be either an old wrinkled elf who wants an easy life  or a replica made of wood which under a Faerie spell will appear to be alive.
The  replica will sometimes appear to sicken and die,it would then be buried.
It may continue to live, but it will not grow however much it eats,and changelings do have an inexhaustible appetite, it will also have a wizened deformed appearance.

In earlier years many babies that were born ugly or 
malformed were believed to be these changelings, as this was an easier explanation for parents of a socially unacceptable child; life would have been hard for these children.
Placing the changeling on a red hot poker or putting it on the fire, or whipping it was believed to make it reveal its true nature. It would then fly cackling up the chimney and disappear, the real baby would be found at the door having just been returned by the Faeries (see page 12).

Offerings of milk were left at the Well of the Spotted Rock, Inverness, by Mothers who believed that their child had been taken by the Faeries and replaced by a changeling. The changeling would then be left overnight near the well and when the Mother returned in the morning, she hoped the real child would be there, having been returned by the Faeries.

Men and Women were also taken to be husbands and wives of Faeries in the otherworld.
In 1894 in Clanmel, County Tipperary, Bridget Cleary fell under suspicion of being a changeling by her husband Michael.
She apparently appeared more refined than usual and had grown an extra two inches.
Although she protested her innocence he tortured and burned her to death  “to make the witch confess“. Michael Cleary buried the remains of his wife but they were later discovered and he was charged with manslaughter.

He was sentenced to 20 years hard labour.

Faerie births are becoming
rarer and the Faerie 
children are not as healthy as they once were.
So mortal babies are taken
to replenish their stock


The stealing of children has
a more sinister motive in
the Lowlands of Scotland.
Mortal babies are used by
the Faeries to pay the
Devil’s Tithe which is due
every seven years.

To protect a baby from
 being taken by the Faeries hang an open pair of 
scissors over the cot or stick an iron pin into the baby’s clothes.

Lay the Father’s trousers across the cot.

Draw a circle of fire around the cot.

Make the sign of the cross above the baby and 

sprinkle it and the cot with Holy Water.


Excerpt from Faeries and Folklore of the British Isles

May Day, Beltane.

I know, I can hear you all shouting you're late but I was busy!

1st May is the Celtic festival of Beltane, the beginning of summer.

May Day which harks back to pagan festivals was celebrated as the beginning of 

summer and on May Day Eve communities would go out and bring in the ‘May.’ 

Spending the night outdoors they would greet the first light with drums and 

blasts on cow horns to welcome  in the summer and then return home laden with 

branches of May blossom (Hawthorn) to decorate their homes.

And we were up as soon as any day O

And to fetch the summer home,

The summer and the May O

For the summer is a come O

And the winter is a go O

We all know the tradition of the Maypole which once upon a time would have been

practised in every community but in pagan times it would have been a living tree 

that our ancestors would have danced around, clapping their hands on the bark to 

wake the spirit within.

Overseeing the celebrations would be the May Queen, decked in hedgerow flowers, and 

keeping her company would be the King (the Green Man) also decked in Oak and 

Hawthorn leaves. Children would fashion wild flowers and blossom into garlands

 and carry them around the village calling at every house, receiving a May Day cake 

from the householder as a reward.

‘Good Morning, missus and master

I wish you a happy day

Please to smell my garland

Because it’s the first of May’

To leave a branch of hawthorn at a friends door is a luck bringing compliment, but 

gifts from another kind of tree could be insulting.

Nut for a slut; plum for the glum,

Bramble if she ramble; gorse for the whores.

A fair maid who the first of May,

Goes to the field at then break of the day

And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree

will ever be after handsome be

It was believed that on May Eve witches were at their most powerful and that 

the month would be ‘witch ridden’ so crosses were fashioned from Hazel and Rowan 

to hang over doorways and fireplace to prevent witches from entering. Even flowers from the children’s posies were a witch deterrent such as the Primrose, bunches were hung 

over doorways to the house and cowshed as it was considered to be very magical. 

Striking a rock with Primroses will open the way to faerieland but on a more practical

 note the leaves were used as a remedy for arthritis, rheumatism, gout, paralysis and a 

salve could be made for soothing wounds, burns.