INNOCENT'S DAY. It was a popular superstition, which, in the remote parts of the island, is not yet extinct, that no undertaking could prosper which was begun on that day of the week on which Childer-mass or Innocent's day last fell. The custom is thus alluded to, in the old play, by some attributed to Shakspeare, of "Sir John Oldcastle." "Friday, quotha, a dismal day! Childermass this year was Friday." Children were flogged by our ancestors not only for punishment, but to fix things in their memory. Accordingly, the children were whipped in their beds on the morning of Innocent's Day, by their parents, in order that the memorie of Herod's murder of the Innocents mighte stick the closer." There were also processions of children on that day. LAMMAS DAY. The first of August received this appellation from the following circumstance :-During the superstitious days of Popery, the priests at this time of the year began to say masses for the sheep and lambs, that they might be preserved in the time of the cold season, being recently deprived of their woolly covering by the hands of the shearer. Hence it obtained the name of Lamb mass Day, and for the sake of a smooth pronunciation, contracted as it now appears." ST. STEPHEN'S DAY. It was an ancient custom to gallop horses on St. Stephen's Day, December 26, until they perspired, and then bleed them, to prevent their having any disorders during the ensuing year. This practice is supposed to have been introduced by the Danes. Blessings were also implored upon pastures. ST. THOMAS' DAY. This day, the 21st day of December, is denominated the shortest day. At the village of Thornton, near Sherborne, an ancient custom exists among the tenants, of depositing 5s. in a hole, in a certain tomb-stone in the church-yard, which prevents the lord of the manor from taking tythe of hay during the year. This must invariably be done on St. Thomas' Day, before twelve o'clock, or the privilege is lost. EMBER WEEK. Ember Weeks are those in which the Ember days fall. A variety of explanations have been given of the word Ember, but Nelson prefers Dr. Marechal's, who derives it froin the Saxon word, importing a circuit or course : so that these fasts not being occasional, but returning every year in certain courses, may properly be said to be Ember days, because fasts in course. The Ember days are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, and after the 13th of December, DOG DAYS. "Shut, shut the door, good John (fatigued I said), rages! Pope. In an ancient calendar preserved by Bede, the beginning of the dog-days was placed on the 14th of July. In one prefixed to the Common Prayer, printed in the time of queen Elizabeth, they are said to begin on the 6th of July, and to end on the 5th of September; and this was continued from that time till the restoration, when that book was revised, and the dog-days omitted. From that time to the correction of the British Calendar, our Almanacks had the beginning of the dog-days on the 19th of July, and the end on the 20th of August, but since that correction, the times of the beginning and end have been altered, and the former was placed at the 30th of July, and the latter at the 7th of September. The dog-days have been commonly reckoned for about forty days, viz. twenty days before, and twenty days after the heliacal rising; and almanackmakers have usually set down the dog-days in their almanacks to the changing time of the star's rising; and thus they had at length fallen considerably after the hottest season of the year; till of late, a very proper alteration had been introduced into the almanacks, and they have been made to commence with the 3d of July, and to terminate with the 11th of August. The propriety of this alteration will be evident, if we consider that the ancients meant to express by the dog-days, the hottest time of the year, which is commonly during the month of July, about which month the dog-star rose heliacally in the time of the most ancient astronomers, whose observations have been transmitted to us. Ancient authors tell us that on the day the canicula, or dog-star, first rises in the morning, the sea boils, wine turns sour, dogs begin to grow mad, the bile increases and irritates, and all animals grow languid; and that the diseases ordinarily occasioned in men by it, are burning fevers, dysenteries, and phrensies. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog every year to Canicula, at its rising, to appease its rage. The Egyptians carefully watched the rising of this star, and judging by it of the swelling of the Nile, called the star the sentinel and watch of the year. Hence according to their mode of hieroglyphic writing, they represented it under the figure of a dog (that faithful animal having been, even in these times, distinguished for his peculiar qualities of watching over the affairs of man), or of a man with a dog's head, and worshipped him under the name of Anubis, whose figure was hung up in all their temples, to give notice of the approach of the inundation of the Nile. Darwin beautifully describes this event Sailing in air, when dark monsoon inshrouds The bright expanse to Egypt's showerless lands; Gigantic Sphinx in circling waves admire, botanic Garden, Canto 3. GULE OF AUGUST. The first day of August is so called. According to Gebelin, as the month of August was the first in the Egyptian year, it was called Gule, which being latinized makes Gula, a word in that language signifying throat. "Our legendaries," says Brand, "surprised at seeing this word at the head of the month of August, converted it to their own purpose." They made out of it the feast of the daughter of the tribune Quirinus, who they pretend was cured of a disorder in the throat (gula), by kissing the chain of St. Peter on the day of its festival. Forcing the Gule of the Egyptians into the throat of the tribune's daughter, they instituted a festival to Gule upon the festival day of St. Peter ad Vincula. CRISPIN'S DAY. "The twenty-fifth of October, More Snobs drunk than sober." St. Crispin was a shoemaker, and consequently was chosen by the craft as their Patron Saint. The Rev. Alban Butler, in his "Lives of the Saints," says, "St. Crispin, and St. Crispinian, two glorious martyrs, came from Rome to preach at Soissons, in France, towards the middle of the third century, and, in imitation of St. Paul, worked with their hands in the night, making shoes, though they were said to be nobly born and brothers.* This day, in 1415, is famed in the annals of England, as the one on which the memorable battle of Agincourt was fought. In the play of Henry 5th, Shakspeare assigns the following speech to that monarch: This day is called, the feast of Crispian : He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, And rouse him at the name of Crispian: He, that shall live this day, and see old age, And say,-To-morrow is St. Crispian: Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars. Old men forget; yet shall not all forget, But they'll remember, with advantages, What feats they did that day; Then shall our names, Warwick, and Talbot, Salisbury and Glo'ster, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd: This story shall the good man teach his son: And Crispin Crispian, shall ne'er go by, We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here; That fought with us upon St. Crispin's day. LOW SUNDAY. The Sunday after Easter-day is called Low Sunday, because it is Easter-day repeated, with the church service somewhat abridged or lowered in the ceremony, from the pomp of the festival the Sunday before. INVENTION OF THE CROSS. Mr. Audley says, the word Invention sometimes signifies the finding a thing that was hidden; thence the name of this festival, which celebrates the alledged finding of the Cross of Christ by St. Helena, who is said to have found three crosses on Mount Calvary, but the true one could not be distinguished, till a sick woman being placed on each, was healed by one, which was therefore pronounced the True Cross. Mr. Audley quotes, that the custody of the cross was committed to the bishop of Jerusalem. Every Easter Sunday it was exposed to view, and pilgrims from all countries were indulged with little pieces of it enchased in gold or gems. What was most astonishing, the sacred wood was never lessened, although it was perpetually diminished, for it possessed a secret power of vegetation! Ribadeneira says, "the Cross being a piece of wood without sense or feeling, yet it seemeth to have in it a living and everlasting virtue; for although severed, parted, and divided, it still remains whole and entire for all that come to reverence and adore it." ROGATION SUNDAY. The fifth Sunday after Easter is called Rogation Sunday. The term Rogation signifies supplication, from the Latin rogare, to beseech. Rogation Sunday obtained its name from the succeeding Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which are called Rogation Days, and were ordained by Mamertus, archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphine; about the year 469, he caused the Litanies, or Supplications, to be said upon them, for the deliverance from earthquakes, fires, wild beasts, and other public calamities, which are alledged to have happened in his city; hence the whole week is called Rogation Week, to denote the continual praying.* RESTORATION DAY. This day is so called, from its being the anniversary of the day whereon king Charles 2d, entered London, in 1660, and re-established royalty, which had been suspended from the death of his father. It is usual with the vulgar people to wear oak-leaves in their hats on this day, and dress their horses' heads with them. This is in commemoration of the shelter afforded to Charles by an Oak, while making his escape from England, after his defeat at Worcester, by Cromwell, on the 3d of September, 1651. BLACK BARTHOLOMEW. Mr. Audley says, there is a shocking propriety in the epithet given to this day (August 24th) for the horrid massacres of Protestants, which commenced in the reign of Charles 9th. In Paris only, * Butler. ten thousand were butchered in a fortnight, and ninety thousand in the provinces, making together one hundred thousand. This, at least, is the calculation of Perefixe, tutor to Louis 14th, and archbishop of Paris: others reduce the number much lower. SICILIAN VESPERS. This is another of those bloody massacres which so much disgrace history. It occurred on the 30th of March, 1282, when the Sicilians rose on the French, and destroyed in cold blood, eight thousand of them. The signal was the sounding of the vesper, or evening prayer bell; and from whence came the term of the Sicilian Vespers. PALM SUNDAY. So called in commemoration of boughs, or branches of Palm Trees, being carried in procession before Christ when he rode into Jerusalem. TRANSLATION OF SAINTS. Of the origin of the Translation of Saints, a great deal has been written; it is, however, generally supposed to take its data from the following: In the year 359, the emperor Constantius, out of a presumed, and perhaps, not inconsistent respect, caused the remains of St. Andrew, and St. Luke, to be removed from their ancient place of interment, to the Temple of the Twelve Apostles, at Constantinople; and from that example, the practice of searching for the bodies of saints and martyrs increased so rapidly, that in the year 386, we find almost the whole of the devotees engaged in that pursuit. Relics, of course, speedily became of considerable value; and as they were all alledged to possess peculiar virtues, no expence or labour were spared to provide such treasures for every public religious foundation. As a specimen, the following relics, says Nugent, in his "Travels in Germany," may be seen in the church of Doberan, in the duchy of Mecklenburgh: Á small quantity of flax, which the Virgin Mary had for spinning. A bundle of hay, which the three Wise Men of the East had for their cattle, and left behind them at Bethlehem. A bone of Ignatius Lloyola, the founder of the Jesuits. A piece of poor Lazarus's garment. A bone of St. Christopher's, and the first joint of his thumb. A piece of linen cloth, which the Virgin Mary wove with her own hands. A piece of the head belonging to the fish mentioned in Tobit. The napkin which the bridegroom made use of at the marriage of Cana, of Gallilee. Some bones of Mrs. Adams, grandmother of an abbot of Doberan. A hair of St. Jerome's mustachios. Part of Judas's bowels, which gushed out as he burst asunder. The scissors with which Dalilah cut off Samson's hair. A piece of the apron which the butcher wore when he killed the calf upon the return of the Prodigal Son. One of the five smooth stones which David put in his bag when he went to encounter the great Goliah. A branch of the tree on which Absalom hung by the hair. The head of St. Paul. |