Holy jumping china cabinets, Batman!
there's an Irish superstition that things fall of walls when someone dies - pictures plummet to the ground and shatter on the floor, clocks crash to the floor and stop, that kind of thing. Then again, there's Irish superstitions for just about everything. A bird getting into the house is also a sign, as sure as red and white flowers together in a vase signify Something Bad, in the same way that a dropped knife means a potato famine (oh wait - that might be the sign of an unexpected visitor). But I digress...

Anyway, the day of my grandmother's death, my dad says the china cabinet jumped off the wall (italics are my emphasis, denoting over-exaggerated shock).

I think he had a screw loose. Literally.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 17:33, 10 replies)

same here...
...in Wales. Red and White flowers (Blood and bandages) knife to the floor, man to the door and so on until I want to stab the person saying it.
(Wallilay has been bored of this shit since, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 17:41, closed)

ahhh,
gotta love the Celtic fringe! A bit like the cultural equivalent of a mullet.

(I pretend to mock the superstitions but I secretly respect them and have never mixed red and white flowers...)
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 17:43, closed)

Here in Somerset, you should never "cast a clout before May is out"
I am yet to find out what any of that means.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 17:56, closed)

ditto

My Granny was Irish and my Grandad was a Scot so between them they had umpteen superstitions.

Never have 13 people seated round a table or 1 of the 13 will die that year. Don't pass the cemetery on Sunday because apparentley it is bad luck to see an open grave on a Sunday plus countless others that I have forgotten over the years.

Madder than a box of frogs, the pair of them.
( Stu71 ....bad money dies, I love the scene, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 18:01, closed)

Col Drac
There is a similar Scot's phrase "Ne'er cast a clout till May be oot"

I think it's along the lines of not taking off your winter clothes until May is over.
( Stu71 ....bad money dies, I love the scene, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 18:06, closed)

Up here in Scotland-shire
we have the "death drop". The sound of water dripping said to signify a coming death. More likely to signify a tap needing a new washer or a leaky roof.

My Highland grannie was particularly superstitious and had one for every occasion. Or so it seemed, until she tripped over a black cat, slid under a ladder and finished up with her shoes on the table*

*may not be strictly true
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 18:07, closed)

Hooray! I get to show off my knowledge!
"Cast ne'er a clout 'til May is out" doesn't mean you have to wait until the end of May before abandoning your winter clothes, but actually refers to May blossom - the small white flowers that fill hedgerows, usually in early May - known to its friends simply as May. So "May is out" means stay wrapped up until you see those flowers.

As their appearance is correlated with Spring's arrival, it's not bad advice.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 18:08, closed)

Olembe
You're probably right, I just asked a guy who I worked with what it means.
( Stu71 ....bad money dies, I love the scene, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 18:11, closed)

If you read my story ...
..on this question, you'll see that my dad got taken to hospital very ill.
What I didn't mention because it was getting long was that as I got changed to go with him I was thinking that if he died I'd commit suicide.
At which point a load of CD's propped up very securely on a shelf all fell onto my bed.
I assumed it was my mum letting me know she thought I was bloody stupid, so I apologised to her. (She didn't put the damned things back though.)
Then I read your post about it foretelling a death...
(paof2 Nude might not be rude, but rude could be nude..., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 19:38, closed)

Never bring a peacock feather into the house
And if there are candles lit in my house I can guarantee some elderly friend or relative (the friends are nearly all Irish and the relatives Scots - that's the Catholic ghetto for ya!) will always ask, "Who's ailing?"
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 10:49, closed)