May 18, 2026
RUSH
The sea-nymph Galatea was devotedly attached to Acis, a young shepherd of Sicily, who warmly returned her affection. Unfortunately Galatea was passionately loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom she treated with the greatest disdain. One day the Cyclops surprised the lovers who fled from his jealous wrath. The giant, however, hurled a mass of broken rock after Acis, and a fragment striking him, he was crushed to death. Galatea, inconsolable for the loss of her lover, determined to change him into a stream. The blood of the mangled shepherd issuing from the fragment of rock which had overwhelmed him gradually changed into flowing water. Simultaneously
The Flowering-rush (Butomus umbellatus) is considered to be the plant which sprang from the blood of Acis. The ancients knew it under name of the Juncus floridus, and Gerarde calls it the water Gladiole.
The flower now known as Acis is a dwarf Amaryllid.
In olden times, before carpets were known, it was usual to strew the floor with sweet Rushes, which diffused a fragrance. When William the Conqueror was born in Normandy, where that custom prevailed, at the very moment when the infant first saw the light and touched the ground, he filled both hands with the Rushes strewn on the floor, firmly grasping what he had taken up. This was regarded as a propitious omen, and the persons present declared the boy would become a king. This custom of strewing sweet Rushes was in vogue during Elizabeth’s reign, for we find several allusions to it in Shakspeare’s plays. Cardinal Wolsey, when in the zenith of his power, had the strewings of his great hall at Hampton Court renewed every day. It was customary formerly to strew Rushes on the floors of Churches on the Feast of Dedication, and on all high days. Till recently the floor of Norwich Cathedral was strewn with Acorus Calamus on feast days, or, if the Acorus was scarce, then with yellow Iris-leaves. At the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, Rushes are strewn every Whitsuntide.
In Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Westmoreland, the old custom of Rush-bearing is observed, which apparently had for its origin the ancient practice of carrying Rushes to adorn the Church on the Feast of Dedication. The following account of a Rush-bearing at Ambleside is taken from ‘Time’s Telescope,’ for 1824:—“July 26, 1823.—On this and the following day, the antient custom of Rush-bearing took place at Ambleside. At seven o’clock on Saturday evening, a party of about forty young girls went in procession to the Church, preceded by a band of music. Each of the girls bore in her hands the usual Rush-bearings, the origin and signification of which have so long puzzled the researches of our antiquarians. These elegant little trophies were disposed in the Church, round the pulpit, reading-desk, pews, &c., and had a really beautiful and imposing effect. They thus remained during the Sunday, till the service was finished in the afternoon, when a similar procession was formed to convey these trophies home again. We understand that formerly, in some parts of Lancashire, a similar ceremony prevailed, under the same designation, in which the Rush-bearings were made in the form of females, with a fanciful rosette for the head; and on looking at these in Ambleside, some faint resemblance of the female form may be traced in the outline. No satisfactory explanation of this ceremony has ever yet been given: the attempt at one is, that it is a remnant of an antient custom, which formerly prevailed, of strewing the church-floors with Rushes to preserve the feet from damp; but we cannot perceive what resemblance there is between the practice of strewing the church with Rushes, and the trophies which are now carried from time immemorial.”
To dream of Rushes portends unpleasantness between friends.