Folklore - Easter

Monday before Easter was called Blue Monday. The communion table was in the Catholic period covered in a blue cloth. This was the quiet week with Shrove Tuesday (Hvide tirsdag) and Ash Wednesday (Askeonsdag) On Shrove Tuesday people eat hot milk and æggesøbe = eggs whipped with sugar and added beer, and with white bread or wheat buns. Ash Wednesday was both the day before the lent at Shrovetide, but also the Wednesday before Maundy Thursday. People had to meet in church with an ash cross painted on their forehead. The ash cross was abolished at the reformation, but the name is still used

Maundy Thursday (Skærtorsdag): The Danish name: skær means clean, referring to that Christ washed the feet of the disciples on that day. This act was copied by the monks, who as a sign of Christian humility washed the feet of the poor. Maundy Thursday had both dark and light sides, one of the light was that the day was for the founding of the Holy Communion, one of the dark that Christ was betrayed by Judas.

                                                         

It was a good time for the  farmer to read signs from the holy  Easter period  in the old days for the coming field work and the harvest of the year. If the weather was mild on Maundy Thursay this would give a good harvest, and if it was raining this would mean gold for the farmer. In the western Jutland was a custom to carry clothes and linen out in the free to be aired, whatever the sun was shining or it was snowy weather. People meant this would free the clothes from fleas and moths for the year to come. There was a certain verse about the Ase-god Loke, who drove a sledge with the weight of so many fleas that the sledge went into pieces. Maundy Thursday was actually regarded as a dangerous day in the North. It was the big witch-day, where people had to take precautions against all magic from the witches. The witches were out flying the night before Maundy Thursday, but they always came back before the evening. They had to go to church!
  
The household had to eat nine cabbage at Maundy Thursday (see previous article Spring Equinox). And if it was too early in the year to get hold of all nine cabbages, it was okay to use the first spires of dandelion, goutweed, nettle and buds from trees. Nine was a holy number, probably because of the nine months from conception till birth. Nine has also a mathematic peculiarity; no matter which single number you multiply with nine, the sum of the digits will be nine. No other numbers are like that. And if people had eaten nine cabbages, they were protected against the evil magic of the witches.

Some people were afraid of going to church on the evening of Maundy Thursday - because the witches went to church that night. But if they wanted to find out which churchgoers were doing magic, they had to use the very first egg from a young hen. This gave them power to see the witches. People, who went to church with an egg like that in their pocket, could describe that the witches - who the rest of the year looked like everyone else - were dressed in the strangest head-wear: clay-pots, frying pans, vases and much else.

Good Friday  (Langfredag) was a quiet and sorrowful day, where people only had to go to church and remember Christ on the Cross. The superstitious people read their signs from Good Friday and said that he/she, who gets married on Good Friday, will be childless. If someone was sewing or spinning the wheel, they would get bad fingers -  or the horses would be limp. The weather of Good Friday influenced the rest of the year. If it was fog, then it would be necessary to ask God for help - but if it was a clear day, it would be a good and fertile year.

On Good Friday people had the most simple food. Rye flour-porridge was common, but if they put honey on the porridge, they would not have stomach ache the rest of the year

Easter Saturday (Påskelørdag) was called Skiden lørdag (Filthy Saturday) because it was a washing day, and people had for lunch Skiden æg ,boiled eggs in mustard sauce.  

Easter Sunday was the egg-day. Although we are not that superstitious anymore, many parents tell their children that the Easter bunny  is the deliverer of the delicious chocolate Easter eggs. But in the old days it was the chicken eggs, which owned the status as the real  Easter eggs. Superstition said that the more eggs you received, the more healthy you would be in the year to come. Another omen might stop the most eager egg-eaters from eating too many eggs, since the more Easter eggs you had eaten, the more snakes would you see in the year to come.

Source: Carsten Lingren, Hverdagens Overtro i det moderne Danmark, 2003.

The Cat

  




There is a reason why I talk about the cat now. It's about this time in late February that the cat had a really terrible fate all around the medieval Europe. They were killed in thousands, and the history about these cat-killings is gruesome. In Denmark we put the cat in a barrel, and the village guys beat he barrel, until the cat was dead. In articles about Fastelavn/Shrove Tide in this blog are descriptions about various customs.

Today children beat the cat out of the barrel, and a cat-king and a cat-queen are the winners, but inside the barrel is now candy and the picture or drawing of a cat. The children won' t even put their beloved toy-cat in a barrel. We are friendlier to animals today. They have become members of the family, and there is an immense grief in the family when they lose their beloved cat or dog. 

Cornish Rex

History in Short
The domestic cat, felis domestica, was introduced to Europe probably in Iron Age, but outside Europe it was known long before. The ancient Egyptians had cats already 3.000 years B.C.  They considered the cat a sacred animal,  and balmed cats were found from that period. The Egyptians had a goddess, Bats, with a cat's head and always accompanied by cats. In the ancient Egypt it was a mortal sin to kill a cat. If the favorite cat of the house died, the owner would shave off his eybrows as a sign of grief.

Cats from a flock living in a fishing harbour.

In the classic era of the Mediterranean the moon goddess Artemis (in Rome Diana) was the protector of cats. She was always followed by cats, and people believed she could transform into a cat.. Artemis was closely connected to another demon of the dark, Hekate, who like Artemis was worshipped as a moon goddess. She was also able to transform into a cat, and she also had cats in her entourage, when she was out on her wild hunts in moonlit nights, and the ancient witches and magicians worshipped Hekate as their goddess. Hekate was a magician and a witch herself, and they prayed to her when they were not sure, if their witchcraft was strong enough.

Tricolore-cat

In the ancient Greece and Rome the cat was considered an animal in collusion with all kinds of evil and magic. According to sources from the early Middle Ages the cats of the ancient north were connected to the love goddess Freja. They were pulling her wagon, while she was out driving. So - the cat was in pre-Christian times partly a sacred animal in Scandinavia and Egypt - and partly an animal belonging to the powers of the dark in Greece and Rome.

During the Middle Ages, when the cat became common in Europe, an idea spread that some cats - especially the black cats - were transformed witches, or they were controlled by witches. This belief that the cat was an animal of the witches is seen in European witch-processes and in the stories about witches, which were told from mouth to mouth since the Middle Ages and up to our time.

You're not black. Please cross the road.

Is Superstition still Alive?
We are still a little superstitious today. Or  not? Some of us? If a cat crosses the road in front of you it brings bad luck - especially if it's a black cat. There is actually some evidence that traffic accidents were caused by a superstitious driver, who suddenly put the brakes on when he saw a black cat crossing the road. In a report in the Danish morning-paper B.T. from 28. February 1963 is read:
"a black cat wanted to cross the road in front of N.N, Ølstrup at Holstebro. He put on the brakes violently, and the car hit a lamp standard, which broke. The car then drove into a house, where the outer wall tumbled into the living room. Neither cat nor people were injured." 

A white cat is a rare sight.

The black cat is a bad omen in most of Europe and also in the U.S. Some Americans say however that it brings good luck, if a black cat crosses your road from the right to the left. A white cat brings luck no matter where it comes from. In England it means good luck if a black cat crosses your road, but it means bad luck to meet a white cat. In connection to an English wedding ceremony it is important that a black cat crosses the road in front of the bride and groom. This brings good luck to their marriage. It is said that this is often arranged. (Don't kill the messenger!)

So - when it came to superstition - the black cat was as popular in England as it was unpopular in many other places in Europe - but only if you met it in the road! You can break the bad omen, if you spit three times where the cat came running. Or cross your fingers!

So you think you're hiding?

If you bring a cat into a new home, the good luck is secured for this house. People imagined that the cat would be some kind of magnet and suck up the evil into itself and let it be there. If you steal a cat you steal the happiness of the home. People also had the idea that it was good to have the cat in the bed at night - the cat would suck up diseases, especially rheumatism.

The Dangerous Hunter

No matter if you are superstitious or not, the cat is a lovely family member, a beautiful gracious creature with the same sharp senses as the big wild cats. Out little sweet cat, who sits there so peacefully in the sun at the terasse is no less than a mini-tiger with the brilliant physical and mental skills of a tiger. But the cat is however - in spite of the close relationship to the big predators - the most charming and friendly little animal, who comes up to us trusting, rubbing itself against our leg and spinning in delight.

A very affectionate little cat

Karel Appel: Cat, Herning Museum

The cat was always a favorite and very used model for painters and writers. Kipling and Eliot described the cat's character perfectly. Mark Twain, who loved cats, once said that the cat is the only creature, who will not accept to be chained as a slave.





Source: Iørn Pio, Håndbog om hverdagens magi, Politikens forlag 1973. 
Arne Eklund og Maj-Britt Ericson: Fakta om katten
photo cats: grethe bachmann

Bacchus on the Barrel

Fastelavn/ Carnival


In February when it's Fastelavn it is still common to beat the cat out of the barrel, in the old days it was a real cat, but now the barrel is filled with candy and other good stuff. Each Kindergarten has a celebration on our Fastelavns-Monday, where the children are dressed out and "beat the cat out of the barrel". And a cat-king or a cat-queen is elected.

But earlier were more customs around Fastelavn in Denmark, although most of those customs could not be compared to the customs in Mid- and South Europe, where a whole district or town is celebrating the carnival. A special custom was "Bacchus on the Barrel", especially celebrated in the Danish "South Sea" islands Lolland, Falster, but also at Sjælland, Funen and in South Jutland. This custom had many European common features. Everyone took part in this feast in the village, parish or town, but the custom died out in the late 1930s.

The archives can tell us about it.It was an impressive arrangement, this procession with a fat "Bacchus on the Barrel" . Everyone in the procession had a certain role and was dressed out for this. The rest of the people were busy in treating them with food and drink, when they went from farm to farm to collect money for the great Fastelavn's feast, the great finish of the day. A description of a day like this tells us that they visited 32 farms and then held this great feast, where they danced until sunrise.

In front of the Bacchus- procession was the leader in his officer's uniform with a sabre. After him came the Master of Ceremonies. After them two standard bearers dressed in white tie and tails. Then followed the musicians, the singers and the carriers with garderhuer (like the Queen's Guards), they wore white shirts, decorated with red and blue revenue labels. The carriers had a ladder upon which sat Bacchus, all dressed in white and stuffed with hay to make him look real fat. He sat upon a small barrel with water and splashed water on people, if they came too close.

After this all the other figures came, and all with certain roles to play. "The Summer" was a man dressed in summer-dress and with sun-glasses. When the procession came indoors, he at once opened all the windows, claiming that it was too hot. But "the Winter", who was dressed in fur coat and wooden-soled boots, closed the windows again very quickly and went to sit in the chimney corner because he froze. In the meantime the wheat farmer with his meerschaum-pipe and a long coat with silver buttons bargained about the harvest of the year, and he smoke so much that he was almost covered in tobacco-smoke. The clowns removed all kinds of domestic utensils and gave them back - in return for payment. There was also a knife-grinder and his madam, both in old, ragged clothes. He sang his knife-grinder-song.

When the procession came to a farm the Master of Ceremonies went inside and asked if they might come in, which he said in a special jingle. When they came into the yard, they played music and sang a Fastelavn's-song. The whole company came into the living room and was treated with food and drink, and the Master of Ceremonies thanked host and hostess in a verse. The jester with fool's cap and bell told him to ask if they might come back next year. "Yeah, yeah! mister Barrejads!" said the MC, "let's see, if we live that long". And the company sang another song.



Some of the customs like the man in officer's uniform and the standard bearers belong to rather new customs from the 1800s, but there are variations, which remind about a medieval fool's play. The jester made all kinds of tomfoolery, he hid pots and pans in the most incredible places. There was Jerusalem's shoemaker dressed as a very old man with long white hair; he went along and measured the girls' legs in order to make them high boots. He received money in advance, but they never got any boots. The knife-grinder's madam stole as a raven as soon she came inside. Two people wore a straw-doll named Ole Lukøje (Sandman) ; one of the persons was dressed as a man in top and as a woman in bottom and number two was dressed the other way round. When they came near a water-hole people tried to push the waggon with the straw-doll into the water to make him drown.

In return for the fine treating with food and drink from the people on the farms everyone was invited to the Fastelavn's-party which was held on the last farm, a total-feast, in which the whole village took part. A total-feast like this is characteristic for traditional, primitive societies. When modern times arrived it became difficult to carry through a feast with everyone taking part - so the custom died out.

The rituals in such a feast can be mysterious, but earlier sources make it possible to see dimly the outline of a heathen carnival, which survived up to the present time. The figures from "Bacchus on the Barrel" are all repetitions from the European Carnival traditions. They were all representatives of the local society, of the world around which they depended on, and of outcast-groups, which was neither this nor that. The straw-doll Ole Lukøje (Sandman) shows signs of relations to various personifications of the old year, which has to be drowned or burnt. And the wheat farmer walks around selling his wheat. A sign of spring to come.




Source: Archaeological Magazine SKALK, Nr. 1, Gustav Henningsen: Det Danske Karneval, February 2006; Lis Paludan & Ulla Dietl, Bo Bedre, Børnenes Idébog 1972.

Fastelavn /Shrove-Tide - Masks

February 3rd


Viking-mask (The Århus-mask)

Fastelavn/Shrove Tide was originally a pagan spring-and fertility feast. Later it was added to the church tradition, but during the Reformation in 1536 the clergy made an attempt to abolish it - in vain. They considered it to be too violent and too heathen. The Fastelavn-custom arrived in Denmark in the end of the 1300s with German merchants and workmen. The name Fastelavn comes from the German Faste-Abend, meaning a night for fasting - the night before the beginning of the Lent which is seven weeks before Easter.

After the Middle Ages the Fastelavn-celebrations were less heathen. In the country the guys on the farms gathered in a group on horseback. They were dressed in their finest clothes and the girls had decorated their favorite guy with silk ribbons on their shirts and hats. Everyone was dressed as either a beggar, a bitch or a clown. The clown wore a white shirt with tassels and a half-mask and a special hat. The beggar was dressed as an old man, and the bitch was a man dressed in a woman's clothes. The guys rode from farm to farm with musicians in front, and when they came to a farm they danced with the girls to the music. They were treated with beer and snaps, and the farm-wife gave them a basket with eggs for their special egg-drinks in the evening.


Viking-mask from Sweden

During the 1900s Fastelavn was mostly for children who went from house to house with a collecting-box, singing a song and begging for buns and money.The children were dressed in imaginative clothes, and their faces were painted or they wore face-masks. This was a tradition on Fastelavns- Monday, and it's still popular to dress up in fantastic dresses. The tradition with the collection-box has almost disappeared.

A Danish Fastelavns-Song: (the children sing if the don't get any buns then they'll make some trouble. )

Fastelavn er mit navn
boller vil jeg have,
hvis jeg ingen boller får
så laver jeg ballade

Boller op, boller ned,
boller i min mave,
hvis jeg ingen boller får
så laver jeg ballade.


Viking-mask from Skern, West Jutland

Another tradition with origin in ancient traditions was to 'beat the cat out of the barrel'. In the Middle Ages a black cat was considered an evil creature. A living cat was put into a barrel, and then the barrel was beaten into pieces, which meant that they were chasing the winter away. Today the custom is still in use, but the barrel is filled with fruit and candy and sometimes a paper figure of a black cat. Children in gaily coloured Fastelavns-costumes line up in a row and beat the barrel. When the barrel finally falls down the last one who gave it a beat is the cat-king or the cat-queen and gets a golden paper crown on his/her head.

Another custom came to Denmark in the 1700s where a birch-twig was used to 'whip' the women. It was some kind of fertility-rite. The women then thanked the men by giving them buns and cakes. In the 1900s the Fastelavns-twig was decorated twith multicoloured tissue paper strings and used by children to 'beat up' their parents, who then gave a breakfast with delicious Fastelavns-buns. Today the Fastelavns-twig is only used as a gift or as an extra decoration at home , decorated with candy and funny toy things.

The custom about the Fastelavns-buns will probably never disappear. Those buns are extremely popular, and the bakers already start selling them after Christmas. Buns with creme, jam, marzipan or whipped cream - and with pink, white or chocolate icing - or icing sugar on top. Very delicious.

Pictures of viking masks from the archaeological magazine 'Skalk', Højbjerg, Århus