Folklore for March
Mar. 3rd, 2007 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatIt's really great having a folklore calendar in the kitchen. There I am, busy with cooking, when I happen to notice a phrase like "pea eating customs in the north-east of England" (March 25th, by the way), and then I have to rush off to find more in the folklore books, and then I have to read up on the rest of the months, and before I know it, Pellinor has finished making dinner.
So here are the results of this month's distraction:
Today, March 3rd, is St Winwaloe's Day. St Winwaloe is "a somewhat obscure Breton saint" (The English Year, by Steve Roud - an essential book.) He is so obscure that no-one knows if he really is called Winwaloe, as opposed to Winneral, Winnold or Winnal. He was big in the Middle Ages, but no-one seems to know what people actually did on his day. Poor chap.
Today is also the day in which there is hurling in St Columb in Cornwall, though this is a moveable feast, dependent on Easter. The calendar calls this "St Columb hurling - the return", but sadly St Columb isn't hurled, and it is "return" only because it is the sequel to the Shrove Tuesday match. Instead, "a small silver ball flies through the streets". In other words, this is clearly an early ancestor of quidditch. More here.
March 5th is St Piran's Day. No-one knows who St Piran was, but he's the patron saint of tin miners. No-one knows why, but the tin miners didn't bother to question. They just took the day off, and got roaringly drunk. They might have done other tin-minerly traditions, but tin miners didn't normally keep diaries or write histories, so any associated traditions have vanished from history, as so often happens with customs kept only by the poor.
Actually, not an awful lot happens in March, compared with other months. I wonder if this is because it is usually dominated by Lent, so you can't do too much carousing.
The weather on March 10th determines the weather for the year, but no-one can agree quite how.
On March 22nd, St Clement Danes church gives oranges and lemons to local children. I expect the local children are suitably impressed.
March 25th is Lady Day, the old New Year, and also a day when a lot of hiring fairs took place, since work contracts often ran from Lady Day to Lady Day. It's also the day of the Titchborne Dole, when locals can wander along to Titchborne Park can collect a gallon of flour for free. (Children get only half a gallon). They have to carry it away in pillowcases.
The fifth Sunday of Lent, which this year is also March 25th, is Carling Sunday. Carlings are grey peas steeped overnight in water, then fried with butter and seasoned with pepper. They were sometimes served with sugar and rum.
The last three days of March were allegedly "borrowed days", since March borrowed them from April. They are always very windy, like all April days are. Allegedly.
Actually, rather worryingly, for April 21st, the calendar says "Godshill Mumming Play, IOW." I think this is us. We did a Mummers' Play in Godshill on St George's Day, or the nearest Sunday to it, for a few years, but aren't doing one this year. I don't think that something done for a few years in the twenty-first century really counts as tradition, though.
I now need to get ready for the annual Morris Men's feast. I declined the offer of a lift, on the grounds that I might enjoy the feast a bit more if I drink, but I will enjoy tomorrow a whole lot more if I don't. Pellinor is not under the same restriction. I am anticipating much singing later.
So here are the results of this month's distraction:
Today, March 3rd, is St Winwaloe's Day. St Winwaloe is "a somewhat obscure Breton saint" (The English Year, by Steve Roud - an essential book.) He is so obscure that no-one knows if he really is called Winwaloe, as opposed to Winneral, Winnold or Winnal. He was big in the Middle Ages, but no-one seems to know what people actually did on his day. Poor chap.
Today is also the day in which there is hurling in St Columb in Cornwall, though this is a moveable feast, dependent on Easter. The calendar calls this "St Columb hurling - the return", but sadly St Columb isn't hurled, and it is "return" only because it is the sequel to the Shrove Tuesday match. Instead, "a small silver ball flies through the streets". In other words, this is clearly an early ancestor of quidditch. More here.
March 5th is St Piran's Day. No-one knows who St Piran was, but he's the patron saint of tin miners. No-one knows why, but the tin miners didn't bother to question. They just took the day off, and got roaringly drunk. They might have done other tin-minerly traditions, but tin miners didn't normally keep diaries or write histories, so any associated traditions have vanished from history, as so often happens with customs kept only by the poor.
Actually, not an awful lot happens in March, compared with other months. I wonder if this is because it is usually dominated by Lent, so you can't do too much carousing.
The weather on March 10th determines the weather for the year, but no-one can agree quite how.
On March 22nd, St Clement Danes church gives oranges and lemons to local children. I expect the local children are suitably impressed.
March 25th is Lady Day, the old New Year, and also a day when a lot of hiring fairs took place, since work contracts often ran from Lady Day to Lady Day. It's also the day of the Titchborne Dole, when locals can wander along to Titchborne Park can collect a gallon of flour for free. (Children get only half a gallon). They have to carry it away in pillowcases.
The fifth Sunday of Lent, which this year is also March 25th, is Carling Sunday. Carlings are grey peas steeped overnight in water, then fried with butter and seasoned with pepper. They were sometimes served with sugar and rum.
The last three days of March were allegedly "borrowed days", since March borrowed them from April. They are always very windy, like all April days are. Allegedly.
Actually, rather worryingly, for April 21st, the calendar says "Godshill Mumming Play, IOW." I think this is us. We did a Mummers' Play in Godshill on St George's Day, or the nearest Sunday to it, for a few years, but aren't doing one this year. I don't think that something done for a few years in the twenty-first century really counts as tradition, though.
I now need to get ready for the annual Morris Men's feast. I declined the offer of a lift, on the grounds that I might enjoy the feast a bit more if I drink, but I will enjoy tomorrow a whole lot more if I don't. Pellinor is not under the same restriction. I am anticipating much singing later.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-03 07:18 pm (UTC)Thank you for sharing - these odd little traditions are very amusing.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 10:42 am (UTC)If I remember, I'll do a monthly post on things like this. Flicking through the calendar yesterday, there are some particularly intriguingly-named traditions in May, but I'm refraining from looking them up until May starts.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 01:01 pm (UTC)More traditions would be nice. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-03 07:52 pm (UTC)Did you know that in certain parts of Italy, Joseph is the patron saint of cuckolded husbands.
Think about it -- that takes some chutzpah. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 10:06 am (UTC)I looked up St Joseph in The English Year, and it just says that there are no records of anyone celebrating his day in England. Poor chap. However, apparently, "on St Joseph's Day, you should throw away the warming pan." Strange.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 02:38 pm (UTC)I got the Tolkien Reading Day stuff through the post - thanks! I doubt we can do anything in the library, since it's a Sunday, and we've got only two libraries open for 3 hours each, with skeleton staff, just covering the very basic services. But I can at least publicise it, so library users know about it and are able to do things themselves.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:21 pm (UTC)By curious co-incidence, the fellowship left Rivendell on December 25th. So yes, JRRT is pretty clearly fitting events around the liturgical calendar.
- creatrix
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 08:38 pm (UTC)I't alright, somebody will go for the ankles...
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 08:46 pm (UTC)*smile*
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 03:37 pm (UTC)