Bringing lilac indoors
Bringing lilac indoors was considered unlucky in many English households, white lilac above all, as families told the plant-lore collector Roy Vickery; some feared a death would follow.
What it may mean
Many of the lilac rules came with a curious exception. A woman in Chester wrote that her mother, who died in 1938, would never have white lilac in the house, though colored lilac was fine, and the family still kept to it decades later. In Cambridgeshire a mother allowed mauve but believed white indoors invited disaster. A contributor in Buckinghamshire, whose mother kept out all lilac, white above all, could see no reason for the rule. Each of these accounts reached Vickery's archive because someone, years later, took the trouble to pass on what a mother had said at the door. Household rules this small seldom make it into a book, and they last only as long as someone keeps repeating them.
Depending on how you saw it
White lilac on the table
White was the color most often kept out: in Chester and Cambridgeshire, mothers allowed colored or mauve lilac but drew the line at white. Which of your rules applies to one shade of a thing and not to another?
A five-petal flower
A lilac floret has four lobes, and finding one with five counted as a small piece of good fortune; students in Moscow looked for one right before an exam. What tiny oddity do you go hunting for when you need courage?
Lilac as a gift
An acquaintance from Budapest told the archive that lilac should not be given to anyone, because it is used only for funerals. Which gift have you hesitated to give because of what it might say?
Why it happens in nature
Common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, comes from the Balkans and has been planted in European gardens for centuries. Each small flower in a cluster is a narrow tube that opens into four lobes, and florets with five lobes turn up now and then on the same plant. White and purple forms are both widely grown, often side by side.
What folk beliefs say
England (Cheshire)
In Chester, a contributor said in 1984 that white lilac should never be brought into the house as it is unlucky, though colored lilac was exempt; the rule came from her mother, who died in 1938, and the family still followed it.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Lilac (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
England (Cambridgeshire)
A contributor from Little Eversden, Cambridgeshire, said in 1983 that her mother believed bringing white lilac indoors was a sure way of bringing about some dreadful disaster, while mauve lilac was acceptable.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Lilac (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
England (Suffolk)
A contributor who grew up in Ipswich around 1957 wrote that her mother would not let the children pick lilac, as it was unlucky and a relative would die.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Lilac (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
Hungary (Budapest)
An acquaintance from Budapest said lilac should not be given to anyone, because it is used only for funerals.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Lilac (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
Russia (Moscow)
Among students in Moscow, a man who grew up in the Soviet Union recalled, finding a lilac flower with five petals instead of four right before an exam was a sign you would do well.
Source: eliseeva (collector), Five Petal Lilac (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2020), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
To reflect on
Which small rule from your family would be lost if you never passed it on?