The custom of keeping one in your pocket chestnut said “crazy” to protect oneself from seasonal ailments, originates from Renaissance folklore, but It has no scientific basis. In ancient times, in fact, matte chestnuts were used for look after horsesand this led to the belief that they also had beneficial properties for humans, as supported by collections of nineteenth-century studies on popular customs in Italy and Europe. In reality, “crazy chestnuts” are the fruit of the horse chestnut (and not the chestnut), an ornamental tree that is inedible and toxic to humans: for this reason they are harmful to human beings, even if popular tradition continues to consider them as protection from seasonal ailments and colds.
The origin of the popular belief of the “crazy chestnut” in Italy
The legend of the crazy chestnut arises from popular folklore, which attributed healing properties for horses to the horse chestnut. The name of the plant, which spread to Europe in 1500 thanks to the trade routes of the Balkans and Asia Minor, still retains this origin today: hipposhorse, and chestnutchestnut. THE horse chestnut seedsIn fact, they were used to treat swelling in the legs of horses, which at the time were essential for humans because they were used as the main means of transport, to improve their circulation, as well as to reduce their coughing.
This is probably where the association of the crazy chestnut as a remedy against seasonal ailments, colds and joint pain arose, a tradition that continued throughout the nineteenth century and has come down to us as a true popular legend. Giuseppe Pitrè, doctor and great scholar of European popular traditions of the 19th century, in his volume “Habits, customs, beliefs and prejudices of the Sicilian people” (1870) recounts the custom of carrying “crazy chestnuts” with you as natural amulets against colds and rheumatism, like walnuts, cloves of garlic or smooth stones, not only in Sicily but in other Italian regions. The elderly recommended that children keep one in their pockets and chestnuts were often also inserted into pillows and mattresses. In some areas of the peninsula, they even blessed themselves on the day of All Saints’ Day, immediately after the celebration, thus consolidating their protective and symbolic role.
The crazy chestnut in the legends of Northern Europe
The idea that “the crazy chestnut” protected from the cold was not only widespread in Italy but also in the rest ofEurope. Jacob Grimm, one of the two famous Brothers Grimm known for collecting and transcribing fairy tales such as Snow White, in his study of German mythology “Deutsche Mythologie” (1835) mentions the belief that the Rosskastaniethe red chestnut, would protect against Kältegeistthe spirit of the cold. Comparing this date with the publication of Pitrè’s volume, we can hypothesize that the idea of the healing properties of the crazy chestnut originated in Northern Europe, and then spread and arrived in Italy through folk tales and traditions.
The origin of the German legend seems to date back, once again, to the veterinary use of the chestnut to treat horses, and also in France the plant is called châtaigne de cheval (horse chestnut). According to the English “Woodland Trust”, “the markings on the stem of the leaves resemble a horseshoe (…) chestnuts were ground and given to horses to relieve coughs”. These details also suggest to us why, probably, the association between chestnuts and horses arose in Nordic folklore: the observation of the marks on the leaves reminded men of the iron on the hooves of animals.
The crazy chestnut today: how to distinguish them from real chestnuts
The custom of put a crazy chestnut in your pocket and preserving it as a remedy against the cold is affectionately maintained today, but it is a tradition without scientific basis. The horse chestnut is very widespread in our parks and in our cities, as well as in many wooded and countryside areas and, to distinguish “bad chestnuts” from the good ones, it is necessary to first observe the shell that contains it: the fruit of the horse chestnut has sparse and rounded thornswhich do not sting, while that of the chestnut, fruit of the chestnut tree, is thick and pungent. The first is shiny and rounded, the second is more opaque and irregular.
Today we know that horse chestnut seeds, properly treated, actually have draining properties – and here the ancient intuition is confirmed – but this has nothing to do with the chestnut fruit itself. Indeed, it has been widely demonstrated that these fruits are toxic to humansand if ingested they can cause serious kidney and liver problems.
