Part 20 (1/2)

ST. CATHERINE'S DAY.

November 25 is St. Catherine's Day, and at Woolwich a.r.s.enal a similar ceremony was then performed: a man was dressed in female attire, with a large wheel by his side to represent the saint, and was taken round the town{8} in a wooden chair. At Chatham there was a torchlight procession on St. Catherine's Day, and a woman in white muslin with a gilt crown was carried about in a chair. She was said to represent not the saint, but Queen Catherine.{9}

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St. Catherine's Day was formerly a festival for the lacemakers of Northamptons.h.i.+re, Buckinghams.h.i.+re, and Bedfords.h.i.+re. She was the patroness of spinsters in the literal as well as the modern sense of the word, and at Peterborough the workhouse girls used to go in procession round the city on her day, dressed in white with coloured ribbons; the tallest was chosen as Queen and bore a crown and sceptre. As they went to beg money of the chief inhabitants they sang a quaint ballad which begins thus:--

”Here comes Queen Catherine, as fine as any queen, With a coach and six horses a-coming to be seen, And a-spinning we will go, will go, will go, And a-spinning we will go.”{10}

We may perhaps see in this Saint or Queen Catherine a female counterpart of the Boy Bishop, who began his career on St. Nicholas's Day. Catherine, it must be remembered, is the patron saint of girls as Nicholas is of boys. In Belgium her day is still a festival for the ”young person” both in schools and in families.{11} Even in modern Paris the dressmaker-girls celebrate it, and in a very charming way, too.

”At midday the girls of every workroom present little mob-caps trimmed with yellow ribbons to those of their number who are over twenty-five and still unmarried. Then they themselves put on becoming little caps with yellow flowers and yellow ribbons and a sprig of orange blossom on them, and out they go arm-in-arm to parade the streets and collect a tribute of flowers from every man they meet.... Instead of working all the afternoon, the midinettes entertain all their friends (no men admitted, though, for it is the day of St. Catherine) to concerts and even to dramatic performances in the workrooms, where the work-tables are turned into stages, and the employers provide supper.”{12}

ST. ANDREW'S DAY.

The last day of November is the feast of St. Andrew. Of English customs on this day the most interesting perhaps are those connected with the ”Tander” or ”Tandrew” merrymakings

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of the Northamptons.h.i.+re lacemakers. A day of general licence used to end in masquerading. Women went about in male attire and men and boys in female dress.{13} In Kent and Suss.e.x squirrel-hunting was practised on this day{14}--a survival apparently of some old sacrificial custom comparable with the hunting of the wren at Christmas (see Chapter XII.).

In Germany St. Andrew's Eve is a great occasion for prognostications of the future. Indeed, like Hallowe'en in Great Britain, _Andreasabend_ in Germany seems to have preserved the customs of augury connected with the old November New Year festival.{15} To a large extent the practices are performed by girls anxious to know what sort of husband they will get.

Many and various are the methods.

Sometimes it suffices to repeat some such rhyme as the following before going to sleep, and the future husband will appear in a dream:--

”St. Andrew's Eve is to-day, Sleep all people, Sleep all children of men, Who are between heaven and earth, Except this only man, Who may be mine in marriage.”{16}

Again, at nightfall let a girl shut herself up naked in her bedroom, take two beakers, and into one pour clear water, into the other wine. These let her place on the table, which is to be covered with white, and let the following words be said:--

”My dear St. Andrew!

Let now appear before me My heart's most dearly beloved.

If he shall be rich, He will pour a cup of wine; If he is to be poor, Let him pour a cup of water.”

This done, the form of the future husband will enter and drink

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of one of the cups. If he is poor, he will take the water; if rich, the wine.{17}

One of the most common practices is to pour molten lead or tin through a key into cold water, and to discover the calling of the future husband by the form it takes, which will represent the tools of his trade. The white of an egg is sometimes used for the same purpose.{18} Another very widespread custom is to put nutsh.e.l.ls to float on water with little candles burning in them. There are twice as many sh.e.l.ls as there are girls present; each girl has her sh.e.l.l, and to the others the names of possible suitors are given. The man and the girl whose sh.e.l.ls come together will marry one another. Sometimes the same method is practised with little cups of silver foil.{19}

On the border of Saxony and Bohemia, a maiden who wishes to know the bodily build of her future husband goes in the darkness to a stack of wood and draws out a piece. If the wood is smooth and straight the man will be slim and well built; if it is crooked, or knotted, he will be ill-developed or even a hunchback.{20}

These are but a few of the many ways in which girls seek to peer into the future and learn something about the most important event in their lives.

Far less numerous, but not altogether absent on this night, are other kinds of prognostication. A person, for instance, who wishes to know whether he will die in the coming year, must on St. Andrew's Eve before going to bed make on the table a little pointed heap of flour. If by the morning it has fallen asunder, the maker will die.{21}

The a.s.sociation of St. Andrew's Eve with the foreseeing of the future is not confined to the German race; it is found also on Slavonic and Roumanian ground. In Croatia he who fasts then will behold his future wife in a dream,{22} and among the Roumanians mothers anxious about their children's luck break small sprays from fruit-trees, bind them together in bunches, one for each child, and put them in a gla.s.s of water. The branch of the lucky one will blossom.{23}

In Roumania St. Andrew's Eve is a creepy time, for on it vampires are supposed to rise from their graves, and with coffins

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on their heads walk about the houses in which they once lived. Before nightfall every woman takes some garlic and anoints with it the door locks and window cas.e.m.e.nts; this will keep away the vampires. At the cross-roads there is a great fight of these loathsome beings until the first c.o.c.k crows; and not only the dead take part in this, but also some living men who are vampires from their birth. Sometimes it is only the souls of these living vampires that join in the fight; the soul comes out through the mouth in the form of a bluish flame, takes the shape of an animal, and runs to the crossway. If the body meanwhile is moved from its place the person dies, for the soul cannot find its way back.{24}

St. Andrew's Day is sometimes the last, sometimes the first important festival of the western Church's year. It is regarded in parts of Germany as the beginning of winter, as witness the saying:--

”Sunten-Dres-Misse, es de Winter gewisse.”[93]{25}

The nights are now almost at their longest, and as November pa.s.ses away, giving place to the last month of the year, Christmas is felt to be near at hand.

In northern Bohemia it is customary for peasant girls to keep for themselves all the yarn they spin on St. Andrew's Eve, and the _Hausfrau_ gives them also some flax and a little money. With this they buy coffee and other refreshments for the lads who come to visit the parlours where in the long winter evenings the women sit spinning. These evenings, when many gather together in a brightly lighted room and sing songs and tell stories while they spin, are cheerful enough, and spice is added by the visits of the village lads, who in some places come to see the girls home.{26}

THE KLoPFELNaCHTE.