Some Acadian Charms and Sayings
The new print of the famous book Bluenose Magic by Helen Creighton recently came out, and I finally got my hands on it! In it, there's a ton of local lore, superstitions, formulas, and sayings from all the communities in the maritimes; Mi'kmaq, Irish, Scottish, German, English, Acadian, French, Portuguese, African Nova Scotian (with unfortunate 1960s wording still present fyi). Even with that, this book is a gem for general info on how to localize your practice.
For some Acadian gems, I got the following:
"Jack-o-Lanterns are hung on the masts of ships on certain stormy nights, but only when it is damp and foggy." (West Pubnico) p. 136. We know from Irish folklore that Jack-o-Lanterns are the souls of those that have not left this earth, and perhaps on those damp, foggy, stormy nights, the boats needed that light to guide them, but also lit with the same Jack-o-Lantern fire to avoid being perceived by other meandering spirits? Perhaps we can do the same on the poles of our front porches.
"Baking a bun on Good Friday will never get moldy, but rather hard and dry. Keep this bun in your kitchen or boat to preserve your house and your boat from fire and loss." (Spry Bay, French and Portuguese) p.140. This is easily a great and fantastic charm to protect your house! I'm down to try it next year.
"If a Bumblebee enters your house, a stranger will call." (Terence Bay) p. 146. Bumblebees are the heavy workers from God, and can spread messages with their pollen. Beeswax is the preferred material of choice for Church candles as well, and I use beeswax to cover my threads as I sew (a typical tailoring trick, but honestly, quite a holy act of work if you ask me.)
A Crow Charm for Divination or Spellcasting
"One crow sorrow, Two crows joy, Three crows a letter, Four crows a beau, Five crows silver, Six crows gold, Seven crows a secret never to be told." (West Pubnico) p.147. This kind of rhyme is found in many Acadian communities and sometimes with their English neighbours, but really, it had to do with the amount of crows you'd see on your way to somewhere or near your house. Nowadays, we got no shortage of these birds around us to keep using this rhyme (compared to a lot of those featuring horses and cows, good luck getting those near your house window anytime soon). You can also perhaps substitute the crows for a playing card or tarot card number for spell work and what you wish for. Be careful though, in Acadian folklore, crows are known to be dilly-dally messengers, being very distracted in getting the spell to work quickly or efficiently. This stems from a Bible flood story where the crow took forever to reach land and come back with news, compared to the dove. On the Magdalen Islands, someone who was known to meander and not get anything done would be described as "C'est vraiment le corbeau de Notre-Seigneur." (They're really the crow of Our Lord.)
"Three lit lamps at the same time on the table means something terrible will happen, or a death." (West Pubnico) p. 157. Now, this could be willfully calling back luck to you for doing this, but like.. wouldn't this also be a great way to cast misfortune on someone else if you need it to?
