A fairy ring is a circle of mushrooms or grass. Some folks believe these are magical places where fairies dance and socialize together. It is thought that if you run clockwise around the circle nine times, you will be able to see the fairies inside the ring. However, you must not dance with the fairies as they will enchant you. Another belief is if you sit in the middle of the circle on a night with a full moon and make a wish, it will come true.
Other myths have also been associated with fairy rings. In the 17th century in Devon, if horses were tired in the morning the fairies were to blame for riding them around and around at night making circles in the grass. There was also a superstition that said a maiden should never wash her face in dew collected from a fairy ring or she would transform into an ugly hag.
In the Lake District of the UK, some rings are thought to be about six hundred years old. In France, they call them witches’ rings and one is seven hundred years old and half a mile across. However, in Holland it was thought the rings were made by the Devil. This would happen when the Devil stole milk from cows and would put down his huge churn making a circle in the grass. In Denmark they believed the rings were burnt into the earth by dancing elves.
Of course there is also a far-fetched theory that the rings are actually caused by a fungus that lives on dead organic matter. The fungi grows out from the middle of the ring and expands until the food supply is used up or soil too damp, then dies off leaving only the outer ring behind, barren in the middle. I mean really, who came up with that?!?
