Snowdrops in the house
Snowdrops in the house were considered unlucky in many British families, and some said they brought a death indoors. Yet the same flower decorated churches at Candlemas, hence its name, Candlemas bells.
What it may mean
Snowdrops push up in January, when the garden has nothing else to offer, and people have read that early arrival in two opposite ways. In many British families the flower was not allowed indoors. A landlady in Hereford warned that snowdrops indoors would lead to a death, and a grandmother in Leicestershire said they brought illness, so her grandchild still grows them only outside. Yet churches were decorated with the same flowers at Candlemas, and a woodland charity now calls the snowdrop a symbol of hope for better times. A first arrival in a hard season often splits opinion: some see a promise, others an intruder. The reading you reach for in a cold month may say more about the month than about the plant.
Depending on how you saw it
A jar outside on the sill
In Tooting, London, a contributor's mother kept her snowdrops in a jar outside on the windowsill rather than have them inside. Which compromise in your home lets two people's rules live side by side?
A single flower
In Rhymney, Gwent, a solitary snowdrop warned of a death, and a woodland charity records the same old idea about seeing one alone. Do you read one of something differently from a crowd of them?
Picked from a grave
A story heard in Orkney told of a woman who picked a snowdrop from a grave and passed it on, and its new owner had no good fortune ever after. Which thing passed to you came with a history you would rather not carry?
Why it happens in nature
Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, flower from January to March, and increasingly in December, from bulbs that spread by dividing. They are not native to Britain: their natural range is mainland Europe, and they were probably grown in gardens from the 1500s before being recorded in the wild in the late 1700s. Each plant typically has two or three narrow gray-green leaves.
What folk beliefs say
England (Herefordshire)
A landlady in Hereford warned a lodger in 2012 that snowdrops would bring death into the house.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Snowdrop (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
Wales (Gwent)
In Rhymney, Gwent, a contributor said in 1991 that a solitary snowdrop was a sign of death.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Snowdrop (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
England (Leicestershire)
A contributor from Wigston Magna said in 1983 that her grandmother believed snowdrops brought illness into the house, so she grows them only outdoors.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Snowdrop (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
Britain
The snowdrop has a long association with Candlemas and was often used to decorate churches, hence the name Candlemas bells; it was also considered bad fortune to take one into a house, the Woodland Trust notes.
Source: Woodland Trust, Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) (n.d.), www.woodlandtrust.org.uk. View the page
Scotland (Orkney)
A story heard in Orkney tells of a woman who picked a snowdrop from a grave and gave it to someone, who had no good fortune ever after.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), Snowdrop (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
To reflect on
When something hopeful turns up in a bleak month, do you welcome it at once or wait to see whether it lasts?