For those who don't like to eat cabbage for Halloween (see recipe below) or at any other time for that matter, here's a bit of lore for you instead.
Did you know that cabbage stalks were once used by early Christians to divine whether or not they were going to go to heaven or hell when they died? A person would be blindfolded, sent into a cabbage patch and would then pull up a stalk at random. The stalk was then carefully examined. If it was clean and light-colored, it was said the person was sure to go to heaven. But if it was darkened by frost and rot, that person was going to burn in hell for all eternity.
In England, it was believed that if an unmarried woman went into a cabbage garden at midnight on Halloween and cut a stalk of cabbage, she would see an apparition of her future husband. If she saw nothing, she was destined to die a spinster. It was likewise for single men as well.
Personally, I prefer to eat my cabbage indoors on a cold Halloween night rather than stumbling blindfolded through a dark and chilly garden hoping for a bright future!
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3 comments:
In russian lore, fairies lived in cabbages, not the good fairies, but the bad, so we were always taught to boil our cabbages to kill the fairies! And if you've ever seen a cabbage worm, you kinda know what I mean!
Yup, I've seen them: really GROSS! lol I could see how only the bad fairies could live in there...that's a new one to me though so I need to remember it- thanks!
This was really interesting. I never knew cabbage had any folk lore behind it. They say you learn something new everyday, so this was a cool thing to learn. Thanks.
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