Showing posts with label St. Andrew's Eve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Andrew's Eve. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

On Christmas Eve, No Visions of Sugar Plums for These Fairy Tale Characters


The 16th century report of Martin Luther is perhaps an apt introduction to the following saga. He relates that “…young maidens stripped themselves naked, flung themselves to the ground and prayed: O God, my God, O St. Andrew, give me a godly husband, show me tonight what manner of man shall wed me. One girl, he adds, was nearly frozen to death, but no man came.” (Quoted from the Oxford Book of Days, Oxford University Press). The time from St. Andrew’s Eve (November 29) until New Year’s Eve was a time for young maids to receive visions of their future husbands. Here is another Grimm’s saga about this custom:

Grimms’ Saga No. 118

On Christmas Eve in Coburg several maidens gathered together. They had a burning desire to see their future true love. The day before they had gathered and cut nine different types of wood. When midnight came, they made a fire on the hearth with this wood. The first girl threw off her clothes, tossed her blouse in front of the chamber door and spoke these words as she sat before the fire:

“Here I sit, completely starkers,
If only my dearest would come
And throw my blouse into my lap!”



When the blouse was thrown back into the room, the maiden caught a glimpse of the face of the person who would later became her suitor. The other girls also stripped themselves naked. But they threw out their blouses tangled together in a clump. The ghosts could not separate the pieces and began to make noises and crash about until the girls were quite frightened. They quickly poured water on the fire and crept back into bed, where they stayed until early in the morning. When they awoke they found their blouses torn into many thousands of little pieces.


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Saturday, November 28, 2009

November 30: Celebrating the Protoclete or Patron Saint of Lovers

(The lover revealed on St. Andrew's Eve)

According to popular belief, St. Andrew’s Eve (November 30th ) is the first prognostication or fate day of the year. This day was especially propitious for having visions of one’s future true love. Other so-called fate days occurred soon thereafter and included Saint Thomas’ Eve (12/21), Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Popular tradition identifies St. Andrew as the patron saint of fishermen and lovers. How Saint Andrew became revered as the protector of lovers is a bit murky. It was perhaps his propensity to receive or induce his own revelations that inspired young maids to claim him as their own. And as Jesus’ appointed fisher-of-men, Andrew might have had a romantic appeal as the protector of those who would rather cast their nets for human prey.

There are purportedly many ways to celebrate St. Andrew’s Eve. The simplest way is to gaze into a fire or mirror and say a special Andrew prayer; then wait for the face of one’s true love to appear. Other methods involved throwing shoes or shirts and interpreting how they fall, praying to the saint fervently and then falling asleep to receive a vision of love or melting wax or lead, dropping it into water and interpreting the odd shapes. One tradition likens lovers to barking dogs. (Perhaps in the belief that where there is bark there is most likely a swain. ) Grimm’s Saga No. 115 explains this folk tradition best but also makes clear that like all things concerning love, augering the future is not for the faint of heart.

Grimm’s Saga No. 115. Andreas Eve (or St. Andrew's Eve)

It is a common belief that on Andreas Eve, Thomas Eve, Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve a maid can invite her future lover to come to her and reveal himself to her. The girl must set a table for two but without any forks. Whatever the lover leaves behind after departing must be carefully preserved. He will then return to the person who keeps this lost item and will love that person mightily. But he must never see this lost object again, because then he will be tortured and suffer from such overwhelming pain that he will become aware that magic has been employed and a great misfortune will befall the lovers.

A beautiful lass in Austria wanted to see her true love at midnight and performed the usual customs whereby a shoemaker appeared with a dagger, threw it at her and then vanished quickly. She picked up the thrown dagger and locked it in her little chest. Soon the shoemaker came and courted her. Many years after their marriage she once went to her chest on a Sunday after vespers. She was looking for something she needed for the next days’s work. When she opened the chest, her husband came and wanted to look inside. She stopped him but he pushed her away with force. Looking into the chest he saw his lost dagger. He seized the blade and wanted to know how she came to have it because he had lost it some time ago. In fear and confusion she could not think of a reply, instead, she acknowledged it was the same dagger he had left with her in the night she wanted to see her lover. The man became furious and spoke a terrible curse: “Harlot, you are the lass who frightened me so inhumanely that night!” and he plunged the dagger into her heart.

This legend is told in many different places by many different people. Oral tradition: the story is told about a hunter, who relinquished his knife; soon after childbirth his wife asked him to fetch her little sewing box and wasn’t thinking that he would find the magic utensil inside. But he found it and killed her with it.

(*Protoclete: the "first called", Andrew was Jesus' first disciple)
The three patron saints of lovers:
Germany = Saint Andrew (Feast Day Nov. 29/30), Eastern Orthodox Church = St. Hyacinthus (Feast Day July 3), Western Church = St. Valentine (Feast Day February 14)


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