Salon post: January 4

[jenett]

Welcome to a new calendar year!

I know I said I wasn't likely to manage a salon post today, because moving apartments, but then I woke up extra early, so here! Have a post. I'll be packing up my computer mid-morning, and then, y'know, busily pointing movers in the right directions. So I won't be around much today, but I'm sure we can all manage.

Topic of the week
Do you have traditions or superstitions about moving into a new place, or starting a new project, or basically anything new that happens sometimes?

(As always, whatever other topics people want to talk about very welcome. Start a thread, see who joins in.)

What I've been up to
Packing things. Also moving things and cleaning things. And training a new assistant at work. I am very much looking forward to being in my new place, as unpacking is much more satisfying for me.


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Comments

Moving traditions

[jenett]

Obviously the moving is on my mind!

I have the tradition of bringing a new broom into the new place (this time I splurged and got a really really lovely broom from broomhilde which I already adore using.

I also believe the first things into the house should be honey, bread, and salt. Honey for sweetness and productivity, bread for sustenance and transformation, and salt for flavour and cleansing. Roughly speaking.

(These are a fairly common folk tradition in different places, though with somewhat different associations.)

Re: Moving traditions

[fandomonymous]

And today I learned Dreamwidth has a user name domain tag for Etsy!

And wow, those brooms are *lovely*.

Re: Moving traditions

[witchchild]

Yes I like those brooms!

Re: Moving traditions

[havocthecat]

I don't...associate moving with anything good. I wish I had good moving traditions, but I don't associate it with good things enough to have ever wanted to build traditions into moving.

It hasn't always been a bad experience for me, but it has usually been associated with enough bad things in my life that I haven't ever thought to build a tradition to make it a positive thing.

Re: Moving traditions

[ofmonstrouswords]

Helllooooo broom lust.

I like the thing about honey, bread, and salt being the first things in a new home. I might try to wrangle that for whenever we move out of hell this year. (Goal: by end of May.)

[jazzyjj]

I specifically remember some things about my and my family's move from Pennsylvania out here to Illinois. For one thing, I remember meeting with the then principal of the elementary school which I attended. I think it was me, my mom and brother who attended the meeting. Anyway, the principal immediately invited us in and gave us a tour. He was very friendly, and talked to us about the school and the district's services for special education students. He was a great principal. Unfortunately he died in a car crash. At least that's what I heard. He fell asleep at the wheel or something. But anyway, that was only the beginning of what became a great educational experience for me. I won't speak for my brother or anyone else in my family. I also had a great educational experience in Pennsylvania. I was there through 4th grade. I only wish I could say the same about state services here in Illinois. To cut a long story short, they are pretty much a joke and everyone knows it but little if anything has been done to remedy this situation.





I had a great Christmas once again with my family. My sister and her husband came down from Wisconsin with the kids and his mom, and my brother was in town from Virginia. Since we are a big family, we just do the Secret Santa thing. I got some nice presents, including stuff for my iPhone and Mac.

[willidan]

Always leave your broom at the old place. I don't know why, but it's something I was taught by both grandmothers and I'm not one to scoff at traditions/superstitions coming from both sides.

Another superstition from my maternal grandmother: never start a new project between Christmas and New Year or you'll never complete it. I'm not overly superstitious, but I've never been able to start a new project until New Year's Day. Which is not so easy when I find it difficult to sit and not keep my hands busy. So last week was tough. I usually try and keep a project going long enough to get me through, but this year I miscalculated how long it would take me to finish my cross stitch pattern.

[finch]

You know what's funny is I learned that superstition but instead of brooms it was the toilet brush.

[cadenzamuse]

Yes! Although I don't think the toilet brush is superstition so much as new house, new germs.

[sanacrow]

That's an old one that we still follow. The old broom stays at the old place, and we get a new broom that goes into the new place before the stuff gets moved in. (Along with bread and salt.) I also have a 'wash' that I use on the windowsills and doorposts, back to front, top to bottom, all through the home before we move our stuff in. Once we have everything in and we're never going back to the old place again, we sit and have tea with a proper pot and the nice cups. It's kind of like establishing the new hearth. Plus, tea is just one of our things.

[silveradept]

I haven't done a lot of moving or other things that require a lot of new things traditions, but I realize in the various moves that I have done, there are two things that make the house home - the computers are set up and connected, and there is art in the walls that's mine. If those two things are present, wherever I consider my sphere of influence is home.

[iorasi]

When I moved last I started a tradition around white tea. The first things I brought into my house was a tea pot, white tea, some ritual cakes, basic ritual tools and cleansing incense. we did a bit of a ritual, cleansed the house with incense at some cakes and drank some tea. we offered the remaining cakes and some of the tea to the spirits of the new place. I then poured the remainder of the white tea onto the front steps.

It was a new tradition to me. I'm working to incorporate small ritual into my life more. I chose this because I do a lot of work with tea and herbs and this just struck me as making sense. I found it online or in a book somewhere. I don't remember exactly.

[witchchild]

Aside from dorm living I haven't really moved into a new place in about 20 years, which was before I started really practicing. So I have only read about such things, but plan to use them if/when I move.

[julian]

Moving --

Bread and salt, yes. (Which I actually got from Russian folks when I went over to visit when it was still the Soviet Union, which may be why I never integrated the honey.)

When I'm doing the Last Cleaning, I leave the change I find for the next people who move in/the landlord/whomever. (I mean, it's not a lot, but this last time it was 33 cents in 3 dimes and 3 pennies and it was just kind of appropriate.)

[cadenzamuse]

I don't have much by way of moving superstitions (a prayer to St. Christopher before beginning the journey, maybe?), although I do like to get at least a little artwork up on the walls the first day to make it "home." And pack toilet paper, cleaning stuff, some basic foodstuffs, and sheets separately in an "unpack first" box so that they're all accessible right away.

[corvidology]

The old moving tradition in the part of England I grew up in was that when you visit a person for the first time in their new home you bring them bread, salt, matches and a silver coin.

[grayduck]

I've moved many times in my adult life, and I'm kind of surprised that I don't have any sort of traditions about moving in. I have a couple of heirloomy type things that I make sure find their places on the wall/shelves as soon as the wall/shelf is ready, but it's not really a tradition.

As for starting new projects: I suppose my tradition is having anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. :^)