Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 18

CHAPTER VII

ALL HALLOW TIDE TO MARTINMAS

All Saints' and All Souls' Days, their Relation to a New Year Festival--All Souls' Eve and Tendance of the Departed--Soul Cakes in England and on the Continent--Pagan Parallels of All Souls'--Hallowe'en Charms and Omens--Hallowe'en Fires--Guy Fawkes Day--"Old Hob," the _Schimmelreiter_, and other Animal Masks--Martinmas and its Slaughter--Martinmas Drinking--St. Martin's Fires in Germany--Winter Visitors in the Low Countries and Germany--St. Martin as Gift-bringer--St. Martin's Rod.

ALL SAINTS' AND ALL SOULS' DAYS.

In the reign of Charles I. the young gentlemen of the Middle Temple were accustomed to reckon All Hallow Tide (November 1) the beginning of Christmas.{1} We may here do likewise and start our survey of winter festivals with November, in the earlier half of which, apparently, fell the Celtic and Teutonic New Year's Days. It is impossible to fix precise dates, but there is reason for thinking that the Celtic year began about November 1,[86]{2} and the Teutonic about November 11.{3}

On November 1 falls one of the greater festivals of the western Church, All Saints'--or, to give it its old English name, All Hallows'--and on the morrow is the solemn commemoration of the departed--All Souls'. In these two anniversaries the Church has 190 preserved at or near the original date one part of the old beginning-of-winter festival--the part concerned with the cult of the dead. Some of the practices belonging to this side of the feast have been transferred to the season of Christmas and the Twelve Days, but these have often lost their original meaning, and it is to All Souls' Day that we must look for the most conscious survivals of that care for the departed which is so marked a feature of primitive religion. Early November, when the leaves are falling, and all around speaks of mortality, is a fitting time for the commemoration of the dead.

The first clear testimony to All Souls' Day is found at the end of the tenth century, and in France. All Saints' Day, however, was certainly observed in England, France, and Germany in the eighth century,{5} and probably represents an attempt on the part of the Church to turn the minds of the faithful away from the pagan belief in and tendance of "ghosts" to the contemplation of the saints in the glory of Paradise. It would seem that this attempt failed, that the people needed a way of actually doing something for their own dead, and that All Souls' Day with its solemn Ma.s.s and prayers for the departed was intended to supply this need and replace the traditional practices.{6} Here again the attempt was only partly successful, for side by side with the Church's rites there survived a number of usages related not to any Christian doctrine of the after-life, but to the pagan idea, widespread among many peoples, that on one day or night of the year the souls of the dead return to their old homes and must be entertained.

All Souls' Day then appeals to instincts older than Christianity. How strong is the hold of ancient custom even upon the sceptical and irreligious is shown very strikingly in Roman Catholic countries: even those who never go to church visit the graves of their relations on All Souls' Eve to deck them with flowers.

The special liturgical features of the Church's celebration are the Vespers, Matins, and Lauds of the Dead on the evening of November 1, and the solemn Requiem Ma.s.s on November 2, with the majestic "Dies irae" and the oft-recurrent versicle, "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat 191 eis," that most beautiful of prayers. The priest and altar are vested in black, and a catafalque with burning tapers round it stands in the body of the church. For the popular customs on the Eve we may quote Dr. Tylor's general description:--

"In Italy the day is given to feasting and drinking in honour of the dead, while skulls and skeletons in sugar and paste form appropriate children's toys. In Tyrol, the poor souls released from purgatory fire for the night may come and smear their burns with the melted fat of the 'soul light' on the hearth, or cakes are left for them on the table, and the room is kept warm for their comfort. Even in Paris the souls of the departed come to partake of the food of the living. In Brittany the crowd pours into the churchyard at evening, to kneel barefoot at the grave of dead kinsfolk, to fill the hollow of the tombstone with holy water, or to pour libations of milk upon it. All night the church bells clang, and sometimes a solemn procession of the clergy goes round to bless the graves. In no household that night is the cloth removed, for the supper must be left for the souls to come and take their part, nor must the fire be put out, where they will come to warm themselves. And at last, as the inmates retire to rest, there is heard at the door a doleful chant--it is the souls, who, borrowing the voices of the parish poor, have come to ask the prayers of the living."{7}

To this may be added some further accounts of All Souls' Eve as the one night in the year when the spirits of the departed are thought to revisit their old homes.

In the Vosges mountains while the bells are ringing in All Souls' Eve it is a custom to uncover the beds and open the windows in order that the poor souls may enter and rest. Prayer is made for the dead until late in the night, and when the last "De profundis" has been said "the head of the family gently covers up the beds, sprinkles them with holy water, and shuts the windows."{8}

The Esthonians on All Souls' Day provide a meal for the dead and invite them by name. The souls arrive at the first c.o.c.k-crow and depart at the second, being lighted out of the house by the head of the family, who waves a white cloth after them and bids them come again next year.{9}

In Brittany, as we have seen, the dead are thought to return at 192 this season. It is believed that on the night between All Saints' and All Souls' the church is lighted up and the departed attend a nocturnal Ma.s.s celebrated by a phantom priest. All through the week, in one district, people are afraid to go out after nightfall lest they should see some dead person.{10} In Tyrol it is believed that the "poor souls" are present in the howling winds that often blow at this time.{11}

In the Abruzzi on All Souls' Eve "before people go to sleep they place on the table a lighted lamp or candle and a frugal meal of bread and water.

The dead issue from their graves and stalk in procession through every street of the village.... First pa.s.s the souls of the good, and then the souls of the murdered and the d.a.m.ned."{12}

In Sicily a strange belief is connected with All Souls' Day (_jornu di li morti_): the family dead are supposed, like Santa Klaus in the North, to bring presents to children; the dead relations have become the good fairies of the little ones. On the night between November 1 and 2 little Sicilians believe that the departed leave their dread abode and come to town to steal from rich shopkeepers sweets and toys and new clothes.

These they give to their child relations who have been "good" and have prayed on their behalf. Often they are clothed in white and wear silken shoes, to elude the vigilance of the shopkeepers. They do not always enter the houses; sometimes the presents are left in the children's shoes put outside doors and windows. In the morning the pretty gifts are attributed by the children to the _morti_ in whose coming their parents have taught them to believe.{13}

A very widespread custom at this season is to burn candles, perhaps in order to lighten the darkness for the poor souls. In Catholic Ireland candles s.h.i.+ne in the windows on the Vigil of All Souls',{14} in Belgium a holy candle is burnt all night, or people walk in procession with lighted tapers, while in many Roman Catholic countries, and even in the Protestant villages of Baden, the graves are decked with lights as well as flowers.{15}

Another practice on All Saints' and All Souls' Days, curiously 193 common formerly in Protestant England, is that of making and giving "soul-cakes." These and the quest of them by children were customary in various English counties and in Scotland.{16} The youngsters would beg not only for the cakes but also sometimes for such things as "apples and strong beer," presumably to make a "wa.s.sail-bowl" of "lambswool," hot spiced ale with roast apples in it.{17} Here is a curious rhyme which they sang in Shrops.h.i.+re as they went round to their neighbours, collecting contributions:--

"Soul! soul! for a soul-cake!

I pray, good missis, a soul-cake!

An apple or pear, a plum or a cherry, Any good thing to make us merry.

One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for Him who made us all.

Up with the kettle, and down with the pan, Give us good alms, and we'll be gone."{18}

Shrops.h.i.+re is a county peculiarly rich in "souling" traditions, and one old lady had cakes made to give away to the souling-children up to the time of her death in 1884. At that period the custom of "souling" had greatly declined in the county, and where it still existed the rewards were usually apples or money. Grown men, as well as children, sometimes went round, and the ditties sung often contained verses of good-wishes for the household practically identical with those sung by wa.s.sailers at Christmas.{19}

The name "soul-cake" of course suggests that the cakes were in some way a.s.sociated with the departed, whether given as a reward for prayers for souls in Purgatory, or as a charity for the benefit of the "poor souls,"

or baked that the dead might feast upon them.[87] It seems most probable that they were relics of a feast once laid out for the souls. On the other hand it is just possible that they were originally a sacrament of the corn-spirit. 194 A North Welsh tradition recorded by Pennant may conceivably have preserved a vague memory of some agricultural connection: he tells us that on receiving soul-cakes the poor people used to pray to G.o.d to bless the next crop of wheat.{20}

Not in Great Britain alone are soul-cakes found; they are met with in Belgium, southern Germany, and Austria. In western Flanders children set up on All Souls' Eve little street altars, putting a crucifix or Madonna with candles on a chair or stool, and begging pa.s.sers-by for money "for cakes for the souls in Purgatory." On All Souls' morning it is customary, all over the Flemish part of Belgium, to bake little cakes of finest white flour, called "soul-bread." They are eaten hot, and a prayer is said at the same time for the souls in Purgatory. It is believed that a soul is delivered for every cake eaten. At Antwerp the cakes are coloured yellow with saffron to suggest the Purgatorial flames. In southern Germany and Austria little white loaves of a special kind are baked; they are generally oval in form, and are usually called by some name into which the word "soul" enters. In Tyrol they are given to children by their G.o.dparents; those for the boys have the shape of horses or hares, those for the girls, of hens. In Tyrol the cakes left over at supper remain on the table and are said to "belong to the poor souls."{21}

In Friuli in the north-east of Italy there is a custom closely corresponding to our "soul-cakes." On All Souls' Day every family gives away a quant.i.ty of bread. This is not regarded as a charity; all the people of the village come to receive it and before eating it pray for the departed of the donor's family. The most prosperous people are not ashamed to knock at the door and ask for this _pane dei morti_.{22}

In Tyrol All Souls' is a day of licensed begging, which has become a serious abuse. A noisy rabble of ragged and disorderly folk, with bags and baskets to receive gifts, wanders from village to village, claiming as a right the presents of provisions that were originally a freewill offering for the benefit of the departed, and angrily abusing those who refuse to give.{23}

The New Year is the time for a festival of the dead in many parts of the world.{24} I may quote Dr. Frazer's account of what 195 goes on in Tonquin; it shows a remarkable likeness to some European customs[88]:--

"In Tonquin, as in Sumba, the dead revisit their kinsfolk and their old homes at the New Year. From the hour of midnight, when the New Year begins, no one dares to shut the door of his house for fear of excluding the ghosts, who begin to arrive at that time. Preparations have been made to welcome and refresh them after their long journey.

Beds and mats are ready for their weary bodies to repose upon, water to wash their dusty feet, slippers to comfort them, and canes to support their feeble steps."{25}

In Lithuania, the last country in Europe to be converted to Christianity, heathen traditions lingered long, and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century travellers give accounts of a pagan New Year's feast which has great interest. In October, according to one account, on November 2, according to another, the whole family met together, strewed the tables with straw and put sacks on the straw. Bread and two jugs of beer were then placed on the table, and one of every kind of domestic animal was roasted before the fire after a prayer to the G.o.d Zimiennik (possibly an ancestral spirit), asking for protection through the year and offering the animals.

Portions were thrown to the corners of the room with the words "Accept our burnt sacrifice, O Zimiennik, and kindly partake thereof." Then followed a great feast. Further, the spirits of the dead were invited to leave their graves and visit the bath-house, where platters of food were spread out and left for three days. At the end of this time the remains of the repast were set out over the graves and libations poured.{26}

The beginning of November is not solely a time of memory of the dead; customs of other sorts linger, or until lately used to linger, about it, especially in Scotland, northern England, Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, and the West Midlands. One may conjecture that these are survivals from the Celtic New Year's Day, for most of them are of the nature of omens or charms. Apples and nuts are prominent on Hallowe'en, the Eve of All 196 Saints;[89] they may be regarded either as a kind of sacrament of the vegetation-spirit, or as simply intended by h.o.m.oeopathic magic to bring fulness and fruitfulness to their recipients. A custom once common in the north of England{27} and in Wales{28} was to catch at apples with the mouth, the fruit being suspended on a string, or on one end of a large transverse beam with a lighted candle at the other end. In the north apples and nuts were the feature of the evening feast, hence the name "Nutcrack night."{29}

Again, at St. Ives in Cornwall every child is given a big apple on Allhallows' Eve--"Allan Day" as it is called.{30} Nuts and apples were also used as means of forecasting the future. In Scotland for instance nuts were put into the fire and named after particular lads and la.s.ses.

"As they burn quietly together or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courts.h.i.+p will be."{31} On Hallowe'en in Nottinghams.h.i.+re if a girl had two lovers and wanted to know which would be the more constant, she took two apple-pips, stuck one on each cheek (naming them after her lovers) and waited for one to fall off. The poet Gay alludes to this custom:--

"See from the core two kernels now I take, This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn, And b.o.o.by Clod on t'other side is borne; But b.o.o.by Clod soon falls upon the ground, A certain token that his love's unsound; While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last; Oh! were his lips to mine but joined so fast."{32}

In Nottinghams.h.i.+re apples are roasted and the parings thrown over the left shoulder. "Notice is taken of the shapes which the parings a.s.sume when they fall to the ground. Whatever letter a paring resembles will be the initial letter of the Christian name of the man or woman whom you will marry."{33}

197 Hallowe'en is indeed in the British Isles the favourite time for forecasting the future, and various methods are employed for this purpose.

A girl may cross her shoes upon her bedroom floor in the shape of a T and say these lines:--

"I cross my shoes in the shape of a T, Hoping this night my true love to see, Not in his best or worst array, But in the clothes of every day."

Then let her get into bed backwards without speaking any more that night, and she will see her future husband in her dreams.{34}

"On All Hallowe'en or New Year's Eve," says Mr. W. Henderson, "a Border maiden may wash her sark, and hang it over a chair to dry, taking care to tell no one what she is about. If she lie awake long enough, she will see the form of her future spouse enter the room and turn the sark. We are told of one young girl who, after fulfilling this rite, looked out of bed and saw a coffin behind the sark; it remained visible for some time and then disappeared. The girl rose up in agony and told her family what had occurred, and the next morning she heard of her lover's death."{35}

In Scotland{36} and Ireland{37} other methods of foreseeing the future are practised on Hallowe'en; we need not consider them here, for we shall have quite enough of such auguries later on. (Some Scottish customs are introduced by Burns into his poem "Hallowe'en.") I may, however, allude to the custom formerly prevalent in Wales for women to congregate in the church on this "Night of the Winter Kalends," in order to discover who of the paris.h.i.+oners would die during the year.{38} East of the Welsh border, at Dorstone in Herefords.h.i.+re, there was a belief that on All Hallows' Eve at midnight those who were bold enough to look through the windows would see the church lighted with an unearthly glow, and Satan in monk's habit fulminating anathemas from the pulpit and calling out the names of those who were to render up their souls.{39}

198 Again, there are numerous Hallowe'en fire customs, probably sun-charms for the New Year, a kind of h.o.m.oeopathic magic intended to a.s.sist the sun in his struggle with the powers of darkness. To this day great bonfires are kindled in the Highlands, and formerly brands were carried about and the new fire was lit in each house.{40} It would seem that the Yule log customs (see Chapter X.) are connected with this new lighting of the house-fire, transferred to Christmas.

In Ireland fire was lighted at this time at a place called Tlachtga, from which all the hearths in Ireland are said to have been annually supplied.{41} In Wales the habit of lighting bonfires on the hills is perhaps not yet extinct.{42} Within living memory when the flames were out somebody would raise the cry, "May the tailless black sow seize the hindmost," and everyone present would run for his life.{43} This may point to a former human sacrifice, possibly of a victim laden with the acc.u.mulated evils of the past year.{44}

In North Wales, according to another account, each family used to make a great bonfire in a conspicuous place near the house. Every person threw into the ashes a white stone, marked; the stones were searched for in the morning, and if any one were missing the person who had thrown it in would die, it was believed, during the year.{45} The same belief and practice were found at Callander in Perths.h.i.+re.{46}

Though, probably, the Hallowe'en fire rites had originally some connection with the sun, the conscious intention of those who practised them in modern times was often to ward off witchcraft. With this object in one place the master of the family used to carry a bunch of burning straw about the corn, in Scotland the red end of a fiery stick was waved in the air, in Lancas.h.i.+re a lighted candle was borne about the fells, and in the Isle of Man fires were kindled.{47}

GUY FAWKES DAY.

Probably the burning of Guy Fawkes on November 5 is a survival of a New Year bonfire. There is every reason to think that the commemoration of the deliverance from "gunpowder 199 treason and plot" is but a modern meaning attached to an ancient traditional practice, for the burning of the effigy has many parallels in folk-custom. Dr. Frazer{48} regards such effigies as representatives of the spirit of vegetation--by burning them in a fire that represented the sun men thought they secured suns.h.i.+ne for trees and crops. Later, when the ideas on which the custom was based had faded away, people came to identify these images with persons whom they regarded with aversion, such as Judas Iscariot, Luther (in Catholic Tyrol), and, apparently, Guy Fawkes in England. At Ludlow in Shrops.h.i.+re, it is interesting to note, if any well-known local man had aroused the enmity of the populace his effigy was subst.i.tuted for, or added to, that of Guy Fawkes. Bonfire Day at Ludlow is marked by a torchlight procession and a huge conflagration.{49} At Hampstead the Guy Fawkes fire and procession are still in great force. The thing has become a regular carnival, and on a foggy November night the procession along the steep curving Heath Street, with the glare of the torches lighting up the faces of dense crowds, is a strangely picturesque spectacle.[90]