Ladybird, Ladybird

I spent this morning making the most of the very short burst of warm sunshine to plant out some seedlings I'd received in the post earlier this week. I also took the opportunity to tidy up a few more mature plants that looked at bit forlorn after the last few weeks incessant downpour. It's this interminable horrendous weather that's seen me hibernate photographically these past few weeks!

As I was enjoying my garden, I happened across a very common sight - a ladybird - but made a little more unusual because it was a bright yellow variety that stood out starkly against the bright purple blue of the stems it was exploring. And it got me thinking about the famous nursery rhyme and what it all means ...

"Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are gone
All except one, and that's Little Anne
For she has crept under the warming pan"

The English word "ladybird" is a derivative of the Catholic term " Our Lady". The tradition of calling this rhyme was believed to have been used as a seemingly innocent warning cry to Catholic (recusants) who refused to attend Protestant services as required by the Act of Uniformity (1559 & 1662). This law forbade priests to say Mass and forbade communicants to attend it. Consequently Mass was held secretly in the open fields. Laymen were subject to jail and heavy fines and priests to execution. Many priests were executed by the terrible death of being burnt alive at the stake or, even worse, being hung, drawn and quartered. The most famous English recusants were Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators.

Other less intense stories suggest a more rural stance as farmers knew of the Ladybird's value in reducing the level of pests in their crops and it was traditional for them to recite the rhyme before they burnt their fields following harvests in deference to the helpful ladybird. Indeed, in Spring, if numerous Ladybirds are seen flying around, farmers say it forecasts many bountiful crops.

Whatever the truth behind the rhyme, Ladybirds are commonly seen as symbols of good luck and killing one is said to bring sadness and misfortune.

In France, if a Ladybird landed on you, whatever ailment you had would fly away with the bug. If a Ladybird is held in the hand while making a wish, the direction that it flies away to shows where your luck will come from.

In Belgium, people believed that if a Ladybird crawled across a young girl's hand, she would be married within a year while people in Switzerland told their young children that they were brought to them, as babies, by Ladybirds (...and we thought Storks did that)! In Brussels, the black spots on the back of a Ladybird indicate to the person holding it how many children he/she will have.

The Victorians in Britain believed that if a Ladybird alighted on your hand, you would receive new gloves and if it landed on your head, a new hat would be coming your way. In the 1800's, some doctors used Ladybirds to treat measles and they also believed that if you mashed up ladybirds and put them into a cavity, the insects would stop a toothache!

Pretty nifty little creatures then!!