Folklore's Environmental Friend - Page 2
© Virginia Marin
Another interpretation of Lady Bug lore is found in the older English version of the rhyme:
Your house is on fire and your children are gone.
All but one, and her name is Ann
And she crept under the pudding pan.
Here, a cryptic reference is made to the fall of the matriarchy and rise of patriarchy--thus the reference to St. Ann who portends an eventual return to goddess worship. Nursery rhymes, especially English rhymes, always alluded to some social or religious malefactor.
The Lady Bug rhyme is also a rhyme of resurrection of everlasting life since the central figure is the beetle, one of the world's oldest symbols of the resurrection. Pictures of beetles have been found in ancient caves and Egyptian pyramids.
This tiny Lady Bug is accepted the world over as a beneficial organism. She has collected many unusual and colorful names:
Iraq -- Water Delivery Man's Daughter
India -- Indra's Cowherd
Africa -- Crop Picker
Iran -- Good News
Switzerland -- Lord God's Little Fatty
Italy -- Vacchetta della Madonna
France -- Cows of the Virgin
Germany -- Mary's Beetles
The Lady Bug is every gardener's friend...
...Nature always tends to act in the simplest way.
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