Years ago, while living on an orchard farm in a beautiful green valley, I would wake up in the early morning and head out to pick whatever was in season. Oftentimes, I would wash my face with the morning dew having heard of the old May Day superstitions. While I can’t say the ritual helped with my looks, it was an enjoyable pastime.
In this article, we are going to take a look at several old superstitions about morning (and even nighttime) dew.
1. May Day, May Day
The most popular superstition involving morning dew tells us that if we wash our face with dew gathered on May Day (May 1st), we will have a youthful complexion for the rest of the year.
In the Morning Post, 2nd May, 1791, we read:
Yesterday being the first of May, according to annual and superstitious custom, a number of persons went into the fields and bathed their faces with the dew on the grass under the idea that it would render them beautiful.
2. Saint Bride’s Day
May Day wasn’t the only ancient Pagan holiday where Christians would take to the morning fields to gather dew. St. Bride’s Day (originally the Goddess Bride, Bridget, etc.), celebrated on February 1st, was the day to gather morning dew for one’s face.
The dew was said to rejuvenate and improve one’s looks.
3. Weather Lore
According to old weather lore, dew on the grass tells us there will be no rain that day:
When the dew is on the grass,
Rains will never come to pass.
4. Bright Day
Along similar lines, we are told:
Dew before midnight,
The next day will be bright.
5. Freckle Remover
Morning dew was, at one time, considered to be an excellent freckle remover.
According to folk medicine, wash your face with morning dew found on clover to make your freckles fade.
6. Barefoot in the Dew
It’s said that calluses on the bottom of feet will go away if you walk barefoot in the dew for three mornings or nights in a row.
This is also said to help with sweaty feet and to cure sore feet.
7. Cabbage Worm
And finally, in the realm of garden lore we find that sprinkling flour over cabbage plants while they are covered in morning dew will drive away the worms.
