When we went to Wales three years ago, we spent one night in a wonderful place called Gwydir Castle. Pat talked the couple who had bought and were restoring the place into letting us stay, even though Kelsea was under the age limit for acceptable guests. It was so worth it.
Our room was on the second floor and overlooked an interior courtyard. In the morning, we were amazed to see peacocks on the window ledge. They flew up from the ground – I didn’t know they could fly – and perched on the stone railing and awoke us with their amazing gurgle-gobbling. We were all a little disoriented, and it took us a few minutes to figure out what we were hearing.
The peacocks roamed the grounds freely. Pat and I took a walk together through the spreading trees and up the garden paths.
It is a nice memory – and we encountered one fellow in particular who seemed to have developed a….fondness for me. He was definitely trying to impress, blocking our path, and spreading his tail to its fullest extent, then slowly revolving to show me how much more handsome he was than my current companion. He refused to let me go for some time, so I took advantage of his preening by taking pictures.
We found peacock feathers all over the grounds, and thought it was wonderful. Kelsea and I collected feather bouquets and played with them – she did a wonderful peacock impersonation.
There was no way we could take them with us, so we decided to take them outside and give them back to the grounds. As we were leaving our wing of the castle, we encountered the male half of the couple who owned the property. We wanted to make clear that we weren’t smuggling the feathers away, in case they used them for something. As soon as we showed them to him, he literally blanched (I’ve never seen anyone do this before), backed away, stammered something unintelligible and disappeared down the stairs.
Kelsea and I were disturbed – had we done something to offend him? Was he angry with us? We caught up with his wife and asked if we had made some grievous error. She explained that he loved having the peacocks on the grounds, but he’d been raised to believe that having the feathers in the house (detached from the bird) was terribly unlucky, and meant that death would come to the house.
I had never heard this superstition before, so I did a little research after we got home.
Apparently this legend works both ways. In certain counties in the United Kingdom, peacock feathers in the house do indeed portend ill luck. Documentation of this belief goes as far back as 1866. However, the more modern side of the psychic community believes that peacock feathers indoors signify protection of the energy of the home environment. This belief is particularly common in Asian cultures.
How did this superstition arise? The end of a peacock’s feathers resemble the “evil eye” of olde, otherwise known as the eye of the she-demon, Lilith,
or perhaps reflective of the evil Argus, with one hundred eyes all over his body, who was transformed into a peacock with an eye at the end of each tail feather.
Thus, villagers thought that the bird’s feathers would bring bad luck. Other theories are more focused on protecting the species. The “evil eye” feather indicated that the flesh of the peacock was poisonous, a totally false idea which was propagated to save the peacock from becoming the main dish at any and every elegant banquet in Renaissance Europe.
Of course, when you consider what peacock feathers have been used for (and how many have been used), they might have been justified in their concerns around the survival of this species of fowl. Consider:
– This Chinese wedding dress has 2009 peacock feathers as part of the train, at a cost of $1.5 million smackeroos.
– A handmade peacock feather cloak (this one took 1500 feathers) – image credit for this goes to Rob Jan: http://farm1.staticflickr.com/19/112389836_4704c3fc7f.jpg
– Peacock feather shoes by designer Pedro Garcia
– Peacock feather wedding bouquets (doesn’t the bad luck thing rear its head here?)
And finally, the ubiquitous peacock feather fan.
My mother always wanted one, and so I gave her one that I found in an antique store in Georgetown, Colorado for Christmas one year. She would never do anything with it other than fan herself (duh) but it was one of those lifelong dreams fulfilled (sort of like me wanting an Easy-Bake Oven and a Mystery Date game.)
Peacocks are not the brightest bird in the boat, but they are beautiful. We found them at several Welsh castles (including an albino peahen at Ruthin Castle)
and they terrorize small children with food at the Denver Zoo.
Kelsea and I laid out our peacock feathers artistically on a hedge at Gwydir Castle before our departure. We never saw our host again. Hopefully by now, he has recovered from the shock.
15 comments
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March 6, 2011 at 12:28 am
Lana Pelham
I am delighted you like the peacock feather fan I created as well as the peacock feather caketop. Is it possible for you to give me credit under the photos, for my images you are using? Many thanks. Lana Pelham, Fairbanks Florist, Orlando, Florida
March 6, 2011 at 7:59 am
Seasweetie
I just did so, Lana – and I apologize for not doing so earlier. I can’t recall where I found those photos. They are lovely, and this posting is one of my most popular. I hope it brings you new business and good luck! Thank you for contacting me.
March 23, 2011 at 11:15 am
amy
Just wanted to assure you and clear up any misconception that a peacock is killed for its tail feathers.
Peacocks molt their entire tail in the fall and regrow a new one every year
March 23, 2011 at 11:56 am
Seasweetie
Thank you for sharing that, Amy. I had known that, but it is good of you to mention it.
July 27, 2011 at 4:15 am
diksha
thanx for sharing this
July 27, 2011 at 4:13 am
diksha
all r beautiful …………………………….
August 8, 2011 at 8:32 pm
teena
they are beautyfull
September 19, 2011 at 2:55 pm
leah
WOW love the dress!!! it is kinda sad though think of all the birds who died to make that 😦 Whales seems like a great vacation spot though!
September 19, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Seasweetie
Thanks for visiting, Leah. (Love your name – it’s my niece’s name too.) As much as I saw those peacocks shed, I don’t know for sure that they’d have to kill the birds to get that many feathers. Maybe they just pick up fallen feathers from some peacock farm (do they have those?) Hard to imagine a bunch of bald peacocks strutting around. And ys, Wales was wonderful!
December 4, 2011 at 8:48 am
S K Jain
I am from India whose national bird is peacock. Utilizing fallen feathers is one aspect but infringing in its territory to forcefully extract its feather is disturbing. Peacocks play a very important in maintaining ecological balance. But I feel disturbed and pained to see injured peacocks at birds hospital. Any small step in protecting them however may be small, it is step for our green in positive.
February 11, 2012 at 9:24 am
Allyson
I collected my peacock feathers many years ago from a farm down south of Western Australia. The owners of the farm had more interest in horses and so I must have picked up over 20 feathers which I thought were a great souviener of our holiday. Well contrary to what I have heard of bad luck, ill-health and death since having peacock feathers indoors; in the 12 years that I have had my lovely bouquet (in my bedroom) I have landed a great job, met the love of my life, bought 2 houses and had 3 beautiful daughters.
Definately our fortunes have far outweighed any bad luck and we all feel secure and happy. Life has never been better than in the past decade so I will be proudly keeping my geogous treasured peacock feathers indoors and hope others don’t be put off by superstition.
February 14, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Seasweetie
What a lovely snippet, Allyson. I’m so glad your feathers have been a constant in your life’s happy changes. I don’t hold with the superstition either. 🙂
September 14, 2013 at 4:23 am
Rob Jan
Ta for sharing the piccy of my peacock feather cloak! 🙂
Here’s where the full story is at:
September 15, 2013 at 2:02 pm
Seasweetie
I’ve added your link to the post, Rob Jan – thanks for providing!
February 26, 2015 at 5:35 am
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