Myths

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George Washington's dour expression in portraits is due to ill-fitting wooden teeth. 

WRONG!   

No trees were chopped down in the service of our first president's mouth... although it is true that he suffered for years from dental pain.  From the age of 24, Washington lost, on average, one tooth a year, and by the time he was elected president, he had only one of his own teeth left.

Dr. John Greenwood of New York City, who became known as the father of modern dentistry, produced several sets of dentures for Washington, none of which involved wood.  Washington's favorites were fashioned from hand-carved hippopotamus ivory and gold; the upper and lower plates were hinged with springs that held them in position when they were opened.  Washington had to bite down in order to keep his mouth closed.  If he relaxed his jaw, his mouth would pop open.

After Washington's death, one set of his dentures was donated to the University of Maryland Dental School.  Another is on display at Mount Vernon (it's currently on tour).  After the dental school loaned its set to the Smithsonian for its bicentennial display in 1976, it was stolen.  In 1982, half was returned.  The other half has not been seen since.

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Saint Patrick was Irish.

WRONG!     

That's Blarney.  Saint Patrick was born in 385 or 387 in what is now western Britain to a well-to-do Christian family of Roman heritage.  When he was about 16, he was captured by a band of Irish marauders and sold to an Irish chieftain, whom he served as a shepherd.  During this period, he spent considerable time learning the local language and customs.  He escaped after six years and returned to Great Britain.

Several years later, he started his studies for the priesthood, and around 433, he went back to Ireland, built churches, and converted thousands.  Although the exact dates are clouded in mythology, it appears that his mission lasted about 30 years; by the time of his death, in 461 or 493, Christianity had a firm hold in Ireland.  In about the eighth century, Patrick became Ireland's patron saint.  As for stories of driving out the snakes and using a three-leaf clover to explain the Trinity, most scholars consider them fanciful folklore.

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Untrue Christmas Myths

Myth:  Jesus was born on December 25.
Fact:  The idea of celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25 was first suggested early in the fourth century. This was a clever move on the part of Church fathers, who wished to eclipse the December 25 festivities of a rival pagan religion.The celebration of Christmas took permanent hold in the Western world in 337 with the Roman emperor Constantine. Christianity had become the official state religion in 313 AD. By 354, Bishop Liberius of Rome reiterated the importance of celebrating not only Christ's death but also his birth.


Myth:  Angels Sang at Christmas
Fact:  The Bible never says that the Angels sang! 


Myth:  The Bible tells of three wise men who travelled from afar on camels to visit the infant Jesus as he lay in the manger. 
Fact:  Mathew 2:1 tells us: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem . . . " That is the extent of it.  There is no mention of THREE wisemen and no mention of camel!

Myth:  The modern image of Santa Claus was created by Coca-Cola.   
Facts:  Haddon Sundblom drew his first Santa portrait for Coca-Cola in 1931... which popularized an existing image of Claus. In 1804, the New York Historical Society was founded with Nicholas as its patron saint, reviving the Dutch tradition of St. Nicholas as a bringer of gifts.  In 1809, Washington Irving published his satirical A History of New York, by one "Diedrich Knickerbocker," poking fun at New York's Dutch past, St. Nicholas included... in Dutch, "Sinterklaas". Irving revised his History of New York in 1812, adding details about Nicholas' "riding over the tops of the trees, in that selfsame waggon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children." In 1821,William Gilley wrote a poem about a "Santeclaus" who dressed all in fur and drove a sleigh pulled by one reindeer. On Christmas Eve of 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote down and read to his children a series of verses; his poem was published a year later as "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" ...more commonly known today by its opening line, "'Twas the night before Christmas . . ."

Myth:  Two of Santa's reindeer were named 'Donner' and 'Blitzen.'   
Fact:  In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote down in his "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" ...more commonly known today by its opening line, "'Twas the night before Christmas ..." And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name. "Now Dasher!  Now, Dancer!  Now, Prancer and Vixen!  On, Comet! on, Cupid! on Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now, dash away! dash away! dash away all! " The song about Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer first made the mistake in Donder's and Vixen's names!

Myth:  The suicide rate increases significantly during the winter holiday season. 
Fact:  1985 Mayo Clinic report: "Fewer suicides than expected may occur on weekends and major holidays because it may be easier to repress troublesome thoughts during these times of greater social interaction." 

Myth:  Poinsettia plants are poisonous to humans. 
Fact:  The poinsettia poison myth had its origin when a young child of an Army officer in Hawaii died of poisoning, incorrectly assumed to be a poinsettia leaf.  A 50 lb. child would have to eat more than 1.25 lbs. or 500 - 600 leaves , according to the POISINDEX Information Service.  Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants lists the symptoms of eating Poinsetta as vomiting as a side effect of ingesting otherwise harmless poinsettia leaves.

Myth:  Man dressed as Santa Claus gets stuck in chimney and dies. 
Fact:  This story has been around for almost as long as the Santa Claus legend itself.  It is a variation of the motif of juxtaposing an otherwise happy occasion with a senseless tragedy.  Note Ella Fitzgerald's "Santa Claus Got Stuck in My Chimney," Jimmy Boyd's "Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney," and Gisele MacKenzie's "Too Fat for the Chimney." 

Myth:  The "Immaculate Conception" refers to the birth of Jesus.
Fact:  The Immaculate Conception has nothing to do with either the birth of Jesus or any virgin birth.  It is a specific dogma of Roman Catholicism which decrees that the Virgin Mary was preserved free from original sin by divine grace from the moment of her conception.  Although this dogma had been argued since the 12th century, it was not made official Pope Pius X did so in 1854. Since then December 8 has been observed as a Roman Catholic feast in commemoration of the Immaculate Conception.

Myth:  Candy canes were created to symbolize Jesus, their shape representing the letter "J" and their colors standing for the purity and blood of Christ... and were started in Indiana .
Fact:  Candy canes were most assuredly NOT created by "a candymaker in Indiana" who "stained them with red stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received.  Candy canes have been in existance long before there ever was an Indiana!  They initially bore neither red coloration nor striping.... the red stripes were a feature that did not appear until a few hundred years later, at the beginning of the 20th century.  More elaborate Christmas coloration and decoration have been added to these candies in recent years ... for purely marketing purposes.


Myth:  The song The Twelve Days of Christmas was created as a coded reference to important articles of the Christian faith. 
Fact:  See our Twelve Days of Christmas site for the complete low down.  This 1870 English Christmas song with origins running deeper in history in France was merely a silly Children's memory game.

Myth:  'Xmas' is a modern, disrespectful abbreviation of the word 'Christmas'.
Fact:   X is a substitute for the Greek, Chi, which was an early church representation of Christ.  It has been around for a long time and had no meaning of disrespect.

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So what's the evidence that the Hope diamond is cursed?  Is it myth or fact.   

There are plenty of stories of the stone's owners meeting horrible fates, but scholars tend to believe that many of these tales were cooked up or embellished on, at one time or another, by the gem's various owners, in hopes that an incredible history would fetch the diamond a better price in a sale.  The diamond has changed hands many times, and for a few periods in its life, the name of the owner is lost to history.

Here, we'll focus on the people who owned the rock for the most significant chunks of time, and whose fates historians can confirm.

The most commonly accepted origin of the curse dates back to 1653, when a French merchant named Jean Baptiste Tavernier obtained the original 115-carat blue diamond in India.  The story goes that Tavernier plucked the gem from one of the eyes of a Hindu idol and, for this sacrilege, was later mauled to death by dogs.  In fact, the story is a myth: Tavernier returned to France and sold the gem to King Louis XIV for a pretty penny, after which he retired to Russia and died peacefully there.  Scholars even question how Tavernier came upon the gem, as a second diamond never turned up, and no one else ever found the statue in question.

Louis, too, escaped misfortune despite his ownership of the "French Blue," as the Hope was then called.  However, one of Louis' descendants who inherited the stone was not as lucky.  King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, lost their heads to the guillotine during the French Revolution, and their crown jewels – including the diamond – were ransacked by thieves.

A cut-down piece of the French Blue resurfaced in London two decades later, and the financier Henry Philip Hope bought it in 1839 (the diamond is now known by the family's name).  The stone's "curse" skipped over Henry but came down with a vengeance on a descendant, Lord Francis Hope.  After Lord Francis received his inheritance at the age of 21, he married an American showgirl named Mary Yohe and lived so far beyond his means that he was eventually forced to sell the magnificent diamond and declare bankruptcy.  The showgirl ran off with one of his rivals and eventually died in poverty.

The Hope diamond exchanged hands a few times before American jeweler Pierre Cartier obtained it, and again the "curse" skipped him.  In fact, historians suspect Cartier embellished some of the curse rumors to entice the diamond's next buyer, the glamorous Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who became the modern poster child for the stone's curse.

McLean and her husband obtained it in 1912 and proceeded to lead a notably tragic life. Her young son was killed in a car accident, and her daughter committed suicide.  Her husband left her for another woman  and eventually ended up in an insane asylum.  In the words of the Smithsonian, "More than anyone, Evalyn Walsh McLean became the poster child for the Hope diamond's legendary curse."

The jeweler Henry Winston bought the diamond from McLean's estate and avoided its curse, eventually selling it to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1958.  The museum, too, did well... attendance grew and the museum is now home to one of the world's finest gem collections.... but James Todd, the postman who delivered it, did indeed meet with misfortune: He was hit by a truck (not fatally), his wife and dog died not long after, and his home caught fire.

Perhaps the museum is lucky to be one of the owners spared the wrath of the Hope diamond.  Or perhaps there is no ruinous curse at all.  That's what its market value would imply, anyway: Today the sky-blue gem is worth a quarter of a billion dollars.

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STRANGE MYTHS

1.Avoid people who talk to themselves. According to Ukrainian legend, that could indicate a dual soul and the second one doesn't die!

2.Also watch out for the seventh son of a seventh son, a person born with a red caul (amniotic membrane covering the head), or a child born with teeth.

3.A vampire can result if a cat or dog walks over a fresh grave, a bat flies over the corpse, or the person has died suddenly as a result of suicide or murder.

4.Unfinished business can also cause a body to rise, as can inadequate burial rites, including a grave that is too shallow.

5.Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting.

6.In medieval times, thunderstorms were believed by some to be the work of demons. So when it stormed, bell ringers would go up into the bell towers to ring the consecrated bells in an effort to stop the storm. This practice didn't always work out well for the bell ringer.

7.One legend claims stealing someone's shadow (by measuring it against a wall and driving a nail through its head) can turn the victim into a vampire.

8.Most vampires are described in folklore as flushed and ruddy, with swollen bodies and bloated faces. Often, they can be identified because they're sitting up in the grave.

9.According to folklore, there are a number of ways to protect yourself from vampires, including the ever-popular wearing of garlic or a religious symbol. You can slow a vampire down by giving him something to do, like pick up poppy seeds or unravel a net. (They're quite compulsive.) Cross water and he can't follow. If you can find the body, give it a bottle of whiskey or food so it doesn't have to travel. If that doesn't work, either shoot the corpse (may require a silver bullet) or drive a stake through the heart. And remember, the vampire won't enter your dwelling unless invited.

10.Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and the crossroads.

11.In Dante's "Inferno" the Ninth Circle of Hell is reserved for those who betray family or country. The denizens of this deepest circle, who are frozen in ice, include Judas (betrayer of Christ) and Cassius and Brutus (betrayers of Julius Caesar).

12.Abe Silverstein, who headed NASA's Space Flight Development Program, proposed the name Apollo for the space exploration programs in the 1960's. He chose that legendary Greek name because the virile Apollo was a god who rode through the skies in a magnificent golden chariot. The precedent of naming manned spacecraft for mythological gods had been set earlier with Project Mercury, also named by Silverstein.

13.Some people consider the $1 bill unlucky because there are so many 13's on it: 13 stars, 13 stripes, 13 steps, 13 arrows and even an olive branch with 13 leaves on it. Of course the $1 bill is unlucky - if it was lucky it would be a $100 bill.

14.The name of the legendary Lady Godiva's horse - Aethenoth

15.An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.

16.When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway.

17.According to legend, if a hare crosses a person's path as he starts out on a journey, the trip will be unlucky and it's best to return home and start again. If a pregnant woman sees a hare, her child may be born with a hare-lip. If a hare runs down the main street of a town, it foretells a fire. Cornish legend says that girls who die of grief after being rejected by a lover turn into white hares and haunt their former beaus.

18.Ancient Greeks wove marjoram into funeral wreaths and put them on the graves of loved ones. The wreaths served as prayers for the happiness of the deceased in a future life.

19.Breaking of a glass is traditional in some wedding ceremonies. This custom symbolizes different things. To some its the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and for some its the represents the fragility of a relationship.

20.In Greek culture, brides carry a lump of sugar in their wedding glove. It's supposed to bring sweetness to their married life.

21.Placing a wreath on a grave is part of an ancient belief it was necessary to provide comforts for the dead and give them gifts in order for their spirits to not haunt the mourners. The circular arrangement represents a magic circle which is supposed to keep the spirit within its bounds.

22.The Sphinx at Giza in Egypt is 240 feet long and carved out of limestone. Built by Pharaoh Khafre to guard the way to his pyramid, it has a lion's body and the ruler's head.

23.The Vikings believed that the Northern lights which are seen from time to time in the north sky were caused by the flashing armor and spears of Odin's handmaidens as they rode out to collect warriors slain in battle.

24.One gift-giving taboo in China is the giving of straw sandals, which are associated with funerals, and therefore considered bad luck.

25.Crossing one's fingers is a way of secretly making the sign of the Cross. It was started by early Christians to ask for divine assistance without attracting the attention of pagans.

26.One sign of rain that farmers once searched for was for their pigs to pick up sticks and walk around with them in their mouths.

27.During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments. He reportedly sent the following message via wire to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." Within a day, the U.S. government sent three trainloads of onions to the front.

28.Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no Buddhists in India, nor have there been for about a thousand years.

29.On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses.

30.One superstition says that if a girl leaves her house early on Valentine's Day and the first person she meets is a man, then she will be married within three months.

31.Less romantic was the old historical opinion that Valentine's Day is a good day to prepare eels for the purposes of magic. Eating an eel's heart was once believed to enable a person to see into the future.

32.The reason one wears a wedding ring on the third finger is that (tradition says) there is supposed to be a vein which goes directly from that finger to the heart—i.e., the seat of love. Also, not everyone wears that wedding ring on the third finger of the LEFT hand. In some traditions, such as the Jewish one, it is worn on the right hand. Also, I'm given to understand that nuns ("brides of Christ") wear a wedding ring, again on the right hand.

33.To prevent evil spirits from entering the bodies of their male children, parents dressed them in blue. Blue was chosen because it's the color of the sky and was therefore associated with heavenly spirits.

34.Girls weren't dressed in blue, apparently because people didn't think that evil spirits would bother with them. Eventually, however, girls did get their own color: pink. Pink was chosen because of an old English legend which said that girls were born inside of pink roses.

35.The famous Citgo sign near Fenway Park in Boston is maintained not by Citgo, but by Boston's historical society.

36.In the 1700's you could purchase insurance against going to hell, in London England.

37.The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields.

38.Black cats are considered lucky in England.

39.Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting.

40.In medieval times, thunderstorms were believed by some to be the work of demons. So when it stormed, bell ringers would go up into the bell towers to ring the consecrated bells in an effort to stop the storm. This practice didn't always work out well for the bell ringer.

41.No one knows where the expression "to grin like a Cheshire cat" originated, but it wasn't with Carroll. The Cheshire cat is a well-known character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but the expression, meaning a sneering smile that shows the gums, existed long before he wrote the book. There is no such breed of cat.

42.Superstition says that the left side is the wrong side of the bed.

43.Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love.

44.The ace of spades in a playing card deck symbolizes death.

45.The dove is considered the symbol of peace.

46.The mythical figure Father Time carries an hourglass and a scythe.

47.It's a myth that owls don't hunt in the daytime because they can't see in daylight. It's just that rats and mice, the main items on owl menus, are most active after dark.

48.Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means a lucky trip.

49.The mythical Scottish town of Brigadoon appears for one day every 100 years.

50.During the middle ages, it was widely believed that men had one less rib than woman. This is because of the story in the Bible that Eve had been created out of Adam's rib.

51.The seven deadly sins (sins serious enough to kill one's soul) are currently anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, and covetousness. They haven't always been so, however. Originally, there were eight deadly sins (as proposed by Avagrius of Pontus). The eight (in order of increasing severity) were gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, apathy, vainglory, and pride. Gregory the Great later decided that vainglory and pride were too much alike to be counted separately and combined them. He added envy. Later still, the Roman Catholic Church decided sadness wasn't a sin, and added sloth. Somewhere along the way, apathy was dropped as well.

52.Hindu men once believed it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marrying a tree first. The tree (his third wife) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again.

53.The Vikings also thought the spirits of the murdered person would guide and guard the craft.