3.4- The Devil’s Nutting Day

Be careful when you go out nutting, you might find yourself between the devil and his nuts.

Hazel Nuts and the Devil (Nikki’s Inspiration)

Helpful gentleman or devil in disguise?

Several counties in England have traditional nutting days, when the hazel nuts in the hedgerow are finally ripe for picking.

In fact, schools in some areas had 14th September (one of the traditional nutting dates) as a teacher training day to allow students to gather perfectly ripe nuts for over Winter.

Nutting Day is also associated with the third Sunday in September (or Holy Rood Day), the tradition of picking nuts in the hedgerows after church quickly became associated with courting couples. After all, how many other excuses did young people have to spend time idling in the countryside alone?

There are even cautions to maidens who go a-nutting to guard themselves against sin. Nutting Day had become synonymous with unexpected pregnancies!

Perhaps this is how the devil creeps in to nutting day. In some parts of the country maidens are cautioned against the good looking man who appears out of nowhere to offer assitance to a nut picking girl.

But could this gentleman be the devil in disguise? Be careful maids of England. You could be about to go nutting with Lucifer.

The Devil’s Nut Bag

One famous local legend takes the idea of the devil’s taste for nuts and spins it into a story set against a local landmark. A hill known in modern times as Alcock’s Arbour, just outside of Stratford upon Avon, has long been associated with the devil.

The story goes that the devil is out gathering nuts on 21st September when he is interupted by the appearance of the Virgin Mary. He is so shocked that he drops his bag of nuts, which formed the hill we see today.

So do be careful if you go out gathering nuts in September. If you smell brimstone then flee for your life because the devil is out gathering his nuts too.