Peacock feathers in the house
Peacock feathers in the house are unlucky in an old superstition recorded in 1903, but the same source says the Chinese thought them fortunate. One old theory said feathers pass on the bird's character, and the peacock was thought vain.
What it may mean
An old reference book of superstitions offered a tidy reason for the peacock feather's bad name. Several peoples, it said, believed that a feather carried the qualities of the bird it came from, and since the peacock was thought vain, arrogant and greedy, its feathers were expected to pass those traits to whoever wore them. Whatever you make of the idea, it holds a familiar truth. Things on display pick up a reputation, and they say something about the people who chose them: the trophy shelf, the designer bag on the hook, the framed diplomas by the front door. None of it is wrong. Still, a vase of peacock feathers might prompt a look at your own displays, and at the qualities a stranger walking in might read from them.
Depending on how you saw it
A vase of feathers by the door
Peacock feathers are cheap, beautiful and easy to find in markets, and many homes keep a few in a tall vase. Others keep them out because a grandmother would not allow them. Which item in your home stays or goes because of an older relative's opinion?
Feathers on a stage or in a dressing room
Old theater folk counted peacock feathers among the worst things to have on stage, and some actresses would not keep them in a dressing room. Performers have always guarded their nights closely. Which ritual do you keep before something that makes you nervous?
A feather from China or India
In China peacock feathers were thought fortunate, and Qing officials wore them in their hats as marks of honor. In India the peacock is the national bird. How much of what you call fortunate or unlucky did you simply inherit from where you grew up?
A feather found at a zoo or park
Male peafowl shed their long trains every year after the breeding season and grow new ones by spring, so long feathers turn up in the grass at the end of summer, free for the taking. What do you shed each year without any real loss?
Why it happens in nature
Male peafowl grow a train of long feathers marked with eyespots for the breeding season and shed it each year in late summer, regrowing it by the next spring. Most feathers sold for decoration are collected after this natural molt. The eyespots get their shimmer from the microscopic structure of the feather, not from pigment.
What folk beliefs say
China
The Chinese, a 1903 collection says, believed that peacock feathers in a house are fortunate, unlike people elsewhere who thought them unlucky.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 675. View the page
India and North America
Some East Indian and North American Indigenous peoples, the same collection says, believed that feathers give the wearer the qualities of the bird they came from, so the vain and greedy peacock's feathers were thought unlucky.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 676. View the page
To reflect on
What would a stranger guess about you from the things you have on display at home?