{"content":[{"text":"Vale and Downland Museum – Local History Series \n Births, Death and Marriage","bbox":{"left":0.372059,"top":0.075084,"width":0.44688200000000006,"height":0.067392}},{"text":"by Christine Bloxham","bbox":{"left":0.482745,"top":0.167685,"width":0.22127300000000005,"height":0.022868}},{"text":"People have always tried to explain the mysteries of life, and the future holds great \n fascination. It is hardly surprising that a wealth of folklore has developed around birth, \n marriage and death. Birth Some superstitions may have arisen from observation; for \n example in Oxfordshire it was said that if a woman's apron fell off it foretold the birth of a \n child within the year - perhaps only a sign of the woman's thickening waist? Others are \n less straight-forward; men were commonly thought to suffer pains in sympathy with their \n pregnant wives - in the 17th century Dr. Plot wrote of a man who suffered stomach pains \n which only ceased when his wife started labour. As recently as 1936 an Oxfordshire \n woman expected a good husband to have toothache while his wife was pregnant.","bbox":{"left":0.16451,"top":0.22302,"width":0.6712929999999999,"height":0.15022599999999997}},{"text":"Some babies are born with a caul or membrane over their head. This, now discarded, in \n the past was considered a sign of great good luck, since it was valued as protection against \n drowning. They were consequently much in demand among sailors, and in Banbury in \n 1954 a woman was offered £10.00 for her child's caul by the midwife, who wanted it for a \n sailor friend. However, the mother preferred to keep it to protect her own child. It was \n once thought very unlucky to weigh a baby before it was 12 months old. A woman in \n Oxfordshire in the 1930's refused to have one of her babies weighed as the older one had \n gone funny and she blamed weighing for this.","bbox":{"left":0.16451,"top":0.387108,"width":0.671233,"height":0.13386300000000007}},{"text":"In Spelsbury there was a superstition that one should not put a piece of silver into a baby's \n hand, yet elsewhere in the county it was lucky to give a new-born baby a sixpence, even if \n one did not know the parents. Another Spelsbury superstition said that a baby's nails \n should not be cut until it could bite them, although elsewhere it was considered safe if \n done over a Bible. This may reflect the belief that possession of hair and nail clippings \n could be used by witches to gain power over a person.","bbox":{"left":0.16451,"top":0.534909,"width":0.6711770000000001,"height":0.10098300000000004}},{"text":"A child born with teeth was considered very unlucky. In 1951 an Oxfordshire midwife \n expressed the belief that such a child would grow up to be a murderer, but said that she \n would never tell the mother her views.","bbox":{"left":0.16451,"top":0.649906,"width":0.671203,"height":0.051893999999999996}},{"text":"Babies were not considered safe until they had been christened - until then some people \n preferred not to call them by their name, as knowledge of a name gave power over the \n baby which could endanger them. Many believed that fairies could spirit away babies and \n leave changelings in their places, but once the child has been christened it had the \n protection of God. It was commonly considered that the baby who cried at his christening \n was merely letting the devil out.","bbox":{"left":0.16451,"top":0.715663,"width":0.6712180000000001,"height":0.10105799999999998}},{"text":"Groaning cakes or cheeses were baked in preparation for the birth. As soon as the baby \n was born the cake or cheese was cut to bring good luck to the baby and those who shared \n the cake at the christening feast to bring good luck. The father, or whoever was cutting the \n cake had to do it with the utmost care, because if he cut his finger it foretold the death of \n the child within the year.","bbox":{"left":0.16451,"top":0.830659,"width":0.671062,"height":0.08469700000000002}}],"images_bbox":[{"left":0.16451,"top":0.076894,"width":0.138333,"height":0.103333}],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[{"left":0.16451,"top":0.076894,"width":0.138333,"height":0.103333}]}