Curious Beliefs: A Calendar for 2019

Mansions of the Moon

Every year I design a calendar. In 2018 I was very late getting the 2019 calendar finished so I didn't get a chance to put it on my website and sold it mainly through Christmas markets. I did more markets than usual and I'm currently finishing up at a pop-up shop in Dun Laoghaire.

So, to anyone wondering where my calendar was - sorry I've been so disorganised! The fact that some of you choose to get my calendar every year really does mean a lot to me. Here it is. I won't be listing it on my site because it's a bit too late for calendar sales, but if you'd like to order one just send me an email - sheena at baglady-designs.com. Small (A5) calendars are now €9.50 and large (A4) are now €16, plus postage at cost. You can also buy them from Serendipity, a pop-up shop in Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre, which is open until Sunday 13th January.

Small Cover (left) & Large Cover (right)

January: The Moon, her Face in Shadow

A Wise Woman consulting her Book & Mirror

The Mansions of the Moon, being the different clusters of Stars in which the Moon spends successive Nights

A Toad, said to carry a Stone in its Head, which protects against Poison

The Cuckoo, believed to carry the Spring with it

A folk Belief from Eastern India holds that Bats' Babies can only bear the soft Light of Glow-Worms, so grown-up Bats carry these home as Lanterns

To avert the Wrath of a Stoat, it is advised in Ireland to address her as 'a Bheainín bheag uasal', or 'little noble Woman'

The 10th century Saltair na Rann describes the colours of the twelve Winds: black, speckled, dark, purple, yellow, red, white, greyish green, green, pale, dark brown & grey

Tyrolean folklore says that fairy Rings are caused by Dragons scorching the Ground,
so that only Toadstools can grow there

A Man beset by Bogles after going astray on the Fens

Witches riding out on great Cats in the Lincolnshire Fens

Irish Poets are said to hold a strange Power over Mice & Rats, and can bid them leave a Place or take up their Abode somewhere, so long as these instructions are issued in Verse