I was sitting at the dining room table at home a little while ago, looking at the accumulating leaves that have fallen to date. There are lots more to come. A leaf caught my eye as it dropped from one of the trees and floated gently to the ground. I mused that Fall is a much more descriptive name for the season than Autumn even if Autumn is more poetic for this loveliest of seasons in this part of the world.
That falling leaf brought back to mind
a story which had been read to me in school when I was in grade five or six
which is now many, many years ago. It was a story of a boy who had been
told that it was good luck to catch a falling leaf on your birthday, before it
hit the ground. Actually, I didn’t remember initially that this had to
occur on the person’s birthday. However, this came to mind after some
cogitation on the story. I couldn’t remember much more about it but
turned to my good friend Google to see if I could get a hit on what I
remembered of the plot. Unfortunately, this is one of the infrequent
times when Google didn’t come through. I did, however, find out that
catching a leaf before it hit the ground is a common theme in folklore.
One source https://hypnogoria.blogspot.com/2015/10/folklore-on-friday-autumn-leaves.html,
noted that, “author WJC Murray recalled that as a small boy I had whimsically
been taught that there was a magic in a falling leaf if you caught it before it
touched the ground.” The same source had the following reference:
In 1878, the Folklore Society was
founded to study such matters, and indeed to preserve these kinds of
traditions, songs and rhymes. And in their first year of operations their
official journal records the common folk belief that If you catch a falling leaf,
you will have twelve months of happiness. (Folk-Lore Record)
The same source notes that,
“Children’s author Alison Uttley, in her memoir A Year in the
Country (1957), recalls a more exacting version, ‘We try to catch a
dancing leaf, for every leaf caught is a 'happy day', but how elusive they are,
these fluttering alive things, which slip through the fingers and evade
pursuit!’”
I would appear that the premise of the
short story (which at this point must remain without a title or author), was
grounded in a well-founded tradition that the act of catching a falling leaf
before it reaches the ground is good luck.
This reminiscence is nice to
explore. However, what it has actually shown me is how much stories, that
I was fortunate enough to have read to me in school and at home when I was
growing up, were so very important to me and how much stories were part of my
formation in my becoming the person I am today. In my memory, there were
many times in school that stories were read to me, many of which are recalled
as this one was. Of course, the three Rs were essential for my education,
but more than anything academic I was taught, the stories were the most
important part of my education. I wonder if the curriculum in the school
system allows for students to be read stories. I suspect not given all
the responsibilities that have been placed on that system these days.
In case you are wondering, in my
memory, the young hero of the story manages to catch a leaf just as daylight
was dying in the West and his birthday celebration came to a close.
May you be blessed to catch a falling
leaf and put it in your pocket or some other special place.
