Before I enlisted in the Air Force, I had to go through the Military Entry Processing Station (MEPS), along with every other enlisted person. I prefer to call it the cattle line, because during MEPS every part of your physical well-being is tested, so it’s a long day of being poked, prodded, squeezed, and duck walking.
At one point during the physical, I had to strip down to my underwear while an older physician checked for skin issues and other woman-related health risks. When she saw me in my whitie tighties, she said “What’s wrong with your arms and chest?” and grabbed my arm to get a closer look.
“They’re just freckles … ” I said.
“Oh, she clucked. Good thing they’re not on your face.” (They are on my face, I was just wearing foundation that day.) Her thick accent let me know she wasn’t from the U.S., but I couldn’t pinpoint where she was from exactly.
Freckles have long been misunderstood and considered strange to people who haven’t had a lot of contact with them.
Often, freckles’ rarity has spurred superstitious stories so folks can make sense of them.
Here are a few mythologies centered on the little dots.
Freckles Mark the Witch
Around the 5th century AD, it was a dangerous time to be a freckled person because freckles were associated with witches. To determine if a freckle was truly a witch’s mark, or even the devil’s mark, a professional pricker would jab at the alleged witch with a sharp tool all over her body. If she didn’t yell out, it was a sure sign that she was a witch.
The witch’s marks didn’t just take the form of freckles, but any warts, moles, extra nipples, or scars could raise suspicions of witchcraft.
Spring Makes Freckles Vanish
More recently, folklore in the American South has made some interesting connections between freckles and the springtime. Still considered a less than desirable marking, freckles could be erased by washing with springtime’s first dew—or so the story goes.
It’s recorded that Illinois’ freckled superstition was more specific. A freckled person had to wash their face with dew on the first day of May, then walk backward into the house to disappear their freckles.
The Irish Were Gifted Freckles By the Gods
Finally! Leave it to the Gaels to promote some freckle positivity. In Gaelic legend, the gods dispersed people around the globe and gave them different languages. But the immortal beings soon became concerned about the Gael’s ability to see the night sky.
The island of the Gaels was misty, and would cloud the views of constellations and the night sky. One of the gods told the Gael people that he would draw a constellation map on their faces and bodies, so that they would never forget what the heavens looked like.
These dots were called “bricini,” the Gaelic word for stars.
Do you know of your own legends, folklores, and superstitions around freckles? Write me at freckledtheblog@gmail.com or comment below. I’d love to hear it!
Freckled 