Canton Historical Society

 

 

All about Eggs

Eggs were a big topic of conversation in a town where most homes had at least a few chickens in their yard.

Here are some superstitions about eggs:

* witches lived in eggshells and made boats out of them, casting spells

upon the household---so when you ate an egg, push your spoon through the bottom in the form of a cross.

* an egg laid by a white hen in a new nest on Easter day would cure pains in the head or stomach; if it was broken in a vineyard, it would protect the vineyard from hail; if it was broken in a field, it would protect the field from frost; whoever owned the egg would be able to see witches.

* an egg laid on Good Friday, thrown on the fire, would extinguish the fire.

* don't eat bluebirds' eggs: they will make you love to wander.

* don't eat mockingbirds’ eggs: they will make you tell everything you know.

* don't rob a killdee's nest and eat its eggs: you will break your arm

* if you eat a dove's egg, you will get bad luck.

* don't eat an egg of any bird with yellow feathers: you will get a fever.

* if you eat an owl's egg, you will always be shrieking.

* if you eat a crow's egg, you will laughing foolishly "ha-ha-ha".

* if you eat a partridge's egg, you will thrive and grow.

 

If a young girl wanted to "try her fortune": (advice in 1880)

Put an egg to the fire and sit for an hour. The wind will howl and the dogs bark, and the man you are to marry will come in and turn the egg around. If the eggs bursts, you will never marry.

Here are some rules about eggs:

* a good egg will sink in water

* a well-done boiled egg will dry quickly when taken from the kettle.

* a fresh egg, when boiled, will be difficult to shell.

* stale eggs are glassy and smooth of shell.

* with the aid of the hands, a piece of paper rolled in funnel shape and held toward the light the human eye can look through an egg, shell and all.

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