Love Legends

There are numerous practices ladies could perform before retiring to bed–all said to indicate a future love or husband. Girls could arrange their shoes with the heel of one against the instep of another, then dream of the man they’d soon marry.

Through the years, it has been said that a girl could dream of her future husband on St. Valentine’s Eve by sleeping with four bay or laurel leaves pinned to the corners of her pillow. Some believed that lovers stayed faithful as long as each carried half of the same laurel twig. Today, the laurel leaf still represents thoughts of loved ones.

Sleeping with any of the following things under a pillow would bring dreams of one’s true love:

*A silver spoon
*A love knot fashioned from wood shavings
*A small ladder made of sticks
*A bit of wedding cake which has been passed through a gold ring three times
*Three pebbles gathered from a place newly visited

A woman might also count the first nine stars she saw on each of nine consecutive nights. The first eligible man she saw the next day would supposedly become her husband–if she desired it.

The moon has always held special meaning for lovers, enchanting those who walk in the midst of it’s romantic glow. Legend holds that a young girl could see the face of her future husband by peering at the moon on St. Valentine’s Eve. For a time many truly believed this face was “the man in the moon.”

It was also said that good fortune and a happy marriage could be ensured if lovers kissed for the first time under a new moon, but gazing upon the moon together through a looking glass attracted bad luck.

In seventeenth century England, it was customary for a girl to hold a “dumb supper” or “silent supper” on Midsummer’s Eve. The late meal was to be prepared in total darkness, without one word spoken between the participants. Everything was placed backwards, including the silverware, china–even chairs at the table. Servers walked back-wards from the kitchen, and courses were eaten in reverse order. Then, still in complete silence and darkness, the girls would wait until the clock struck midnight. At that time, each would see before her the ghostly form of her future husband.

“We thought we would have a silent supper… We did everything backwards in the dark and did not say a word… a big storm came up just as the clock was about to strike twelve… We never did see our future husbands that night. We were too scared.”

An English country custom led young girls to rely on the sounds of nature to indicate their fates. Two girls would go out into the woods after dark, where they would hold the tip of a leaf and recite:

If I am to marry near,
Let me hear a bird cry.
If I am to marry far.
Let me hear a cow low.
If I am to single die,
Let me hear a knocking by.