death of the head of the house. Bread baking on this day, however, will be blessed, and the many who look forward to a Good Friday in the garden may be glad to know that things planted in the earth at this time are supposed to grow 'goodly' and yield abundant increase."
Good Friday Customs and Superstitions.
If seeds are sown at twelve o'clock on Good Friday the flowers will come up double.
It is believed that bread made on Good Friday will keep good all the year.
It is said that the best way to ensure parsley growing is to sow the seed on Good Friday out of a steel thimble.
Until quite recently Good Friday was the almost universal day for workmen in Somerset to plant potatoes.
To prevent quarter-oil in a weanling calf, slit the ear of the calf on the milking side on Good Friday. In some places it is considered necessary that the farmer, or whoever is going to slit the ears, should first attend church on Good Friday, and perform the operation immediately after, and before eating his dinner. The operation would be useless if done without first going to church or if put off until after dinner.
The following paragraph appeared in our Notes and Queries columns in 1897: "On Good Friday in some Somerset parishes (Holton for instance) the parish clerk used to go round the parish with large buns for sale, and made a considerable perquisite by the custom. Probably this is still done in Holton and other places; but generally the custom of hot-cross buns is dying out. Thirty years ago there were ten hawkers of buns on Good Friday where there is one to-day."
Many women refuse to do any washing on Good Friday, They affirm, and apparently believe, that anything washed on that day would turn blood red. It is also a common belief in Somerset and Dorset that soapy water should on no account be thrown away on Good Friday. It is said that soapy water
