Cannot see how it is unlucky to bring it into the house. Just another daft old wife's tale. (With apologies to all more mature married ladies everywhere!)

There is an old wives tale about bringing lilac into the house and it bringing bad luck.....all I can say is I have brought lilac into my home every year now for many years and I am still here. Having said that I have not won the lottery yet so perhaps I will give it a miss next year and see what happens. Enjoy you lilac either in the garden or in the home and breath in that wonderful scent.

My mother used to say it was, and never did, but I don't have any truck with that kind of nonsense, cheerfully putting new shoes on the table, bringing lilac into the house, opening umbrellas indoors, passing people on the stairs, and particularly looking forward to Friday the 13th, always a good day for me. I guess it depends whether you believe there's fairies at the bottom of the garden... but I would say that, if you expect a bit of bad luck, it might be a self fulfilling prophecy! About the only superstition I can think of that might be based in sense is not walking under ladders - after all, there might be a painter at the top and you could get splashed...

Totally agree with Owdb. and Bamboo my mother would never allow lilac in the house and I could never understand why!

I have a vase full of Peacock feathers in mine....another "old wives tale" bring it in it smells lovely.

If you bring a large bunch into the house in a glass vase, don't see where you are going and trip over the cat, smash the vase and cut yourself; then I suppose you could say that it was unlucky.

Hi, I agree with the others, I bring some into the house every year, and as yet have had no particularly bad luck, there again I haven't had any particularly good luck either, just another 'old wives tale' bring it in and enjoy the fantastic perfume, Derek.

Lilac has a very powerful scent and so before we had embalmers it was used to mask the smell of the dead person that was lying in the house prior to burial, so the scent was associated with death and was considered unlucky.

The same reason putting shoes on the table is considered unlucky is that in the 18th century if a man died at work his shoes were placed on the table as a symbol that he had died. The reason for this was that in those days shoes were probably the only thing a man wore that could identify him to his family without them having to see his body.

Only if you are suspicious! Lilac smells divine :-)

Thanks for the explanation Myron, there has to be some foundation for all these things, Derek.

it doesn't last long in a vase either so it would be better to leave it on the shrub. Unlucky for the flower .
but for my mum it was hawthorn/may blossom that she wouldn't have in as that was unlucky.

I really relate to BA's comment.

I always bring it in, reminds me of the description of the white lilac in 'Rebecca'.

Well done, Myron. Like many others, my mum would never have it in the house and I never knew why and nobody seemed to know the answer. Just shows, you learn something new every day. Brilliant.

I concur. Thanks for the explanation, Myron. Nice to know the reasons behind these old superstitions. Not bringing hawthorn blossom inside is the other common one. Perhaps the same reason, used for the scent?

I never heard of the hawthorn one, but thanks to Myron, at least I know the story behind lilac. Funny enough, my dad couldn't tolerate lily of the valley, either in the garden or the house, because that's what the funeral parlour surrounded his mother's coffin with when she died - he was only 5, so its quite understandable, but it wasn't a superstition, obviously, more a painful memory triggered by the scent. Perhaps lily of the valley was a substitute for lilac when it wasn't in flower, possibly?

I found something else on line - that the rich plant owning Victorians spread the myth that lilac was unlucky in the house because all the 'peasants' were stealing the blooms...

Hi Bamboo, I like your version better, Derek.

Interestingly I personally can't stand chrysanthemums in the house, when I gave birth in winter back in 1970 all the flowers that arrived aside from Bulbas were 'mums and the smell, yes to me smell not perfume, was just overpowering!