black

   Many traditional meanings of black are gloomy: night, death, evil, or the *Devil. Yet *chimney-sweeps are lucky, as is *coal, a black *cat, and (according to some sources) a single black lamb in a flock (Latham, 1878: 8, 10; Opie and Tatem, 1989: 29). The same is sometimes true of Negroes; one account of the Second World War mentions 'an African air-raid warden nicknamed Uncle Sam' who found people believed that because of his colour he was a lucky omen; 'He once calmed a panic in a shelter of 120 people, in the dark, by shining a torch on his face' (Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then (1971), 132).

   In some seasonal customs, the performers blacken their faces with soot, ashes, or burnt cork (e.g. the *Bacup Coconut Dancers, various *mummers); this is of course a convenient disguise, but since other easily available substances (flour, chalk) were rarely used, it is likely that black was deliberately chosen. The underlying reason may be the idea that dirt is lucky (see *excrement), or it may be because social norms are inverted at festive seasons.