First off, this here is North America. We call them ladybugs, not ladybirds. Why? Because they're not birds.
Alright, they're not technically bugs either (bug is, believe it or not, a technical term, and beetles aren't bugs), but they're a heck of a lot closer to bugs than to birds. I guess maybe we should listen to R.E. White and just call them lady beetles, but then we wouldn't be able to sing Ladybug's Picnic. We should be careful when in the UK though, because their choice to not call them ladybugs is kind of deliberate, since the word bug is associated pretty strongly with buggery (sodomy) there, and that's not the kind of thing one talks about in polite society. Just a heads up if you're planning on going abroad.
One thing everyone in the English-speaking world seems to agree on though, is the "lady" bit. But who's the lady? The lady is the Lady. For those not totally indoctrinated, the Lady is Mary: the Madonna (ma = my, donna = lady), Notre Dame (notre = our, dame = lady), namesake of countless Virgin Mary sightings (Our Lady Of Fatima). It all makes sense now, doesn't it? A small, red and black beetle is named after Mary, Mother of Christ.
Alright, that totally doesn't make any sense yet. So here are the stories behind naming them after Mary, and they're both good and believable, which means it's probably a combination of the two.
First off, is the knowledge of the working man, in this instance, farmers. Most ladybugs are predators, eating other insects (they've also been known to take a bite out of people when their normal food supplies gets low), and the insects they prefer are aphids and scale insects (both actual bugs, oddly enough). Aphids and scale insects are tiny sap-drinking insects that can be extremely damaging to many crops, including barley and hops. Barley and hops are two of four ingredients in traditional beers (the other two are water and yeast), and if you want a man to send thanks to Heaven, you'll send him something that will protect his beer supply. "Thank Mary for sending these beetles to save our beer!"
Alright, they eat the pests off a lot more than barley and hops, but come on, that's a good story, and is true enough to pass in court. Ladybugs eating agricultural pests is usually the cited reason for their name, and is supported by the following kid's rhyme:
Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly away home. Your house is on fire, And your children all gone.
or
Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home! Your house is on fire, Your children do roam. Except little Ann, who sits in a pan Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.
The burning house is a reference to farmers burning their hops fields (beer!) after harvest to enrich the soil, 'little Anne' is a reference to ladybug grubs and the 'gold laces' are the shed skins as the grubs moult.
Another reason they're associated with Mary is because they seem to be divinely protected. Very few things eat ladybugs, compared to other bugs of the same size. Your elementary school science lessons should tell you why. Come on, think back. What do bright colours usually mean for animals? That's right, they're either poisonous or they taste terrible. Ladybugs taste terrible. Don't believe me? Try one when the weather warms up and they come out again. You may not even have to eat the whole thing. When really frightened, ladybugs have a behaviour called 'reflexive bleeding', where they release a fluid from their joints that is yellowish, foul smelling and even more foul tasting. So this tiny, seemingly (to people, with our relatively poor sense of smell) defenseless beetle goes about its business, totally unmolested by birds and other animals, and people assumed that there was some sort of divine intervention on their behalf. In a time when people prayed to Mary to intervene on their behalf, it's logical to assume that the beetle is being graced by Mary as well.
There's a third story, but I find it hard to believe that it arose on its own, without the name ladybug/bird already in play. Many early paintings of Mary depicted her wearing a red cloak (where we're used to a baby-blue robe) that had black spots on it to represent, depending on the painting either the Seven Joys Of Mary, or in a complete about-face, to the seven sorrows of Our Lady Of Sorrows (another in a long litany of titles for Mary). By some strange coincidence, the most common type of ladybug (there are over 5,000 species worldwide) in England is red with seven black spots. Easy connection to make if you've seen a painting of her in red with black spots and you already believe them to be either sent by Heaven to protect your crops or that they're divinely protected themselves.
So there you go, the lady in ladybug is notre dame, the Madonna Mary.
Sources:
Ladybug articles from:
HowStuffWorks.com
Ladybug.com
University of Dayton (Ohio)
MuseumStuff.com
Etymonline.com - Online Etymology Dictionary
Wikipedia
Sesame Street's Ladybug Picnic on YouTube.com
Wikipedia article on The Seven Joys Of Mary
Great Big Sea singing The Seven Joys Of Mary from Christmas-tree.ca
MyCatholicTradition.com article on Our Lady Of Sorrows
Wikipedia article on the Seven Sorrows Of Mary
Wikipedia article on the Titles of Mary
Barley Pests
No comments:
Post a Comment