FOLKLORE AND TRADITION
We have so far considered the circles at Stonehenge, Stenness, the
Hurlers and Stanton Drew, and the avenues in Brittany and on Dartmoor.
Before I refer to my later work in the south-west of England or attempt
to present a summary of the results of the inquiry, I think it will be
convenient to turn for a time to another branch of it, for that there is
another closely connected series of facts to be considered in relation
to the monuments folklore and tradition abundantly prove.
So far in this book I have dealt chiefly with stones--as I hold,
associated with, or themselves composing, sanctuaries. We have become
acquainted with circles, menhirs, dolmens, altars, viæ sacræ, various
structures built up of stones. Barrows and earthern banks represented
them later.
The view which I have been led to bring forward so far is that these
structures had in one way or another to do with the worship of the sun
and stars; that they had for the most part an astronomical use in
connection with religious ceremonials.
The next question which concerns us in an attempt to get at the bottom
of the matter is to see whether there are any concomitant phenomena,
and, if there be any, to classify them and study the combined results.
Tradition and folklore, which give dim references to the ancient uses of
the stones, show in most unmistakable fashion that the stones were not
alone; associated with them almost universally were many practices
referred to on p. 26, such as the lighting of fires, passing through
them, and dancing round them; in the neighbourhood of the stones and
associated with the fire practices were also sacred trees and sacred
wells or streams.
Folklore and tradition not only thus may help us, but I think they will
be helped by such a general survey, brief though it must be. So far as
my reading has gone each special tradition has been considered by
itself; there has been no general inquiry having for its object the
study of the possible origin and _connection_ of many of the ancient
practices and ideas which have so dimly come down to us in many cases
and which we can only completely reconstruct by piecing together the
information derived from various sources.
I now propose to refer to all these matters with the view of seeing
whether there be any relation between practices apparently disconnected
in so many cases if we follow the literature in which they are
chronicled. We must not blame the literature, since the facts which
remain to be recorded now here, now there, are but a small fraction of
those that have been forgotten. Fortunately, the practices forgotten in
one locality have been remembered in another, so that it is possible the
picture can be restored more completely than one might have thought at
first.
It will be seen at once that from the point of view with which we are
at present concerned, one of the chief relations we must look for is
that of time, seeing that my chief affirmation with regard to the stone
monuments is that they were used for ceremonial purposes at certain
seasons, those seasons being based first upon the agricultural, and
later upon the astronomical divisions of the year, to which I drew
attention in Chapter III. In Chapter IV., when referring to the
agricultural and astronomical new years’ days, I indicated a possible
relation between the temple worship and the floral celebrations of that
time, and later on (p. 40), in connection with the monuments in
Brittany, I pointed out the coincidence of fire customs at the same time
of the year.
But in a matter of this kind it will not do to depend upon isolated
cases; the general trend of all the facts available along several lines
of inquiry must be found and studied, first separately and then _inter
se_, if any final conclusion is to be reached.
This is what I now propose to do in a very summary manner. It is not my
task to arrange the facts of folklore and tradition, but simply to cull
from the available sources precise statements which bear upon the
questions before us. These statements, I think, may be accepted as
trustworthy, and all the more so as many of the various recorders have
had no idea either of the existence of a May year at all or of the
connection between the different classes of the phenomena which ought to
exist if my theory of their common origin in connection with ancient
worship and the monuments is anywhere near the truth.
This question of time relations is surrounded by difficulties.
I gave in Fig. 7 the Gregorian dates of the beginning of the quarters
of the May year, if nothing but the sun’s declination of 16° 20′ N. or
S., four times in its yearly path, be considered. These were:--
May Greek Roman
Year. Calendar. Calendar.
End of Winter } Feb. 4 Feb. 7 Feb. 7
Beginning of Spring }
„ Summer May 6 May 6 May 9
End of Summer } Aug. 8 Aug. 11 Aug. 8
Beginning of Autumn }
„ Winter Nov. 8 Nov. 10 Nov. 9
In the table I also give, for comparison, the dates in the Greek and
Roman calendars (p. 20).
There is no question that on or about the above days festivals were
anciently celebrated in these islands; possibly not all at all holy
places, but some at one and some at another; this, perhaps, may help to
explain the variation in the local traditions and even some of the
groupings of orientations.
The earliest information on this point comes from Ireland.
Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel in the tenth century, states, according to
Vallancey, that “in his time four great fires were lighted up on the
four great festivals of the Druids, viz., in February, May, August and
November.”[24]
I am not aware of any such general statement as early as this in
relation to the four festivals of the May year in Great Britain, but in
spite of its absence the fact is undoubted that festivals were held, and
many various forms of celebration used, during those months.
From the introduction of Christianity attempts of different kinds were
made to destroy this ancient time system and to abolish the so-called
“pagan” worships and practices connected with it. Efforts were made to
change the date and so obliterate gradually the old traditions; another
way, and this turned out to be the more efficacious, was to change the
venue of the festival, so to speak, in favour of some Christian
celebration or saint’s day. The old festivals took no account of
week-days, so it was ruled that the festivals were to take place on the
first day of the week; later on some of them were ruled to begin on the
first day of the month.
When Easter became a movable feast, the efforts of the priests were
greatly facilitated, and indeed it would seem as if this result of such
a change was not absent from the minds of those who favoured it.
The change of style was, as I have before stated, a fruitful source of
confusion, and this was still further complicated by another difficulty.
Piers[25] tells us that consequent upon the change “the Roman Catholics
light their fires by the new style, as the correction originated from a
pope; and for that very same reason the Protestants adhere to the old.”
I will refer to each of the festivals and their changes of date.
_February 4._
Before the movable Easter the February festival had been transformed
into Ash Wednesday (February 4). The eve of the festival was Shrove
Tuesday, and it is quite possible that the ashes used by the priests on
Wednesday were connected with the bonfires of the previous night.
It would seem that initially the festival, with its accompanying
bonfire, was transferred to the first Sunday in Lent, February 8.
I quote the following from Hazlitt[26]:--
“Durandus, in his ‘Rationale,’ tells us, Lent was counted to begin on
that which is now the first Sunday in Lent, and to end on Easter Eve;
which time, saith he, containing forty-two days, if you take out of them
the six Sundays (on which it was counted not lawful at any time of the
year to fast), then there will remain only thirty-six days: and,
therefore, that the number of days which Christ fasted might be
perfected, Pope Gregory added to Lent four days of the week
before-going, viz., that which we now call Ash Wednesday, and the three
days following it. So that we see the first observation of Lent began
from a superstitious, unwarrantable, and indeed profane, conceit of
imitating Our Saviour’s miraculous abstinence. Lent is so called from
the time of the year wherein it is observed: Lent in the Saxon language
signifying Spring.”
Whether this be the origin of the lenten fast or not it is certain that
the connection thus established between an old pagan feast and a new
Christian one is very ingenious: 24 days in February plus 22 days in
March (March 22 being originally the fixed date for Easter) gives us 46
days (6 × 7) + 4, and from the point of view of priestcraft the result
was eminently satisfactory, for thousands of people still light fires
on Shrove Tuesday or on the first Sunday of Lent, whether those days
occur in February or March. They are under the impression that they are
doing homage to a church festival, and the pagan origin is entirely
forgotten not only by them but even by those who chronicle the practices
as “Lent customs.”[27]
Finally, after the introduction of the movable Easter, the priests at
Rome, instead of using the “pagan” ashes produced on the eve of the
first Sunday in Lent or Ash Wednesday in each year, utilised those
derived from the burning of the palms used on Palm Sunday of the year
before.
Further steps were taken to conceal from future generations the origin
of the “pagan” custom due on February 4. February 3 was dedicated to St.
“Blaze.” How well this answered is shown by the following quotation from
Percy.[28] “The anniversary of St. Blazeus is the 3rd February, when it
is still the custom in many parts of England to light up fires on the
hills on St. Blayse night: _a custom antiently taken up perhaps for no
better reason than the jingling resemblance of his name to the word
Blaze_.”
This even did not suffice. A great candle church festival was
established on February 2. This was called “Candlemas,” and Candlemas is
still the common name of the beginning of the Scotch legal year. In the
Cathedral of Durham when Cosens was bishop he “busied himself from two
of the clocke in the afternoone till foure, in climbing long ladders to
stick up wax candles in the said Cathedral Church; the number of all the
candles burnt that evening was 220, besides 16 torches; 60 of those
burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high altar.”[29]
There is evidence that the pagan fires at other times of the year were
also gradually replaced by candles in the churches.
_May 6._
The May festival has been treated by the Church in the same way as the
February one. With a fixed Easter Sunday on March 22, 46 days after
brought us to a Thursday (May 7), hence Holy Thursday[30] and Ascension
Day. With Easter movable there of course was more confusion. Whit
Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost, was only nine days after Holy Thursday,
and it occurred, in some years, on the same day of the month as
Ascension Day in others. In Scotland the festival now is ascribed to
Whit Sunday.
It is possibly in consequence of this that the festival before even the
change of style was held on the 1st of the month.
In Cornwall, where the celebrations still survive, the day chosen is May
8.
_August 8._
For the migrations of the dates of the “pagan” festival in the beginning
of August from the 1st to the 12th, migrations complicated by the old
and new style, I refer to Prof. Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 418, in
which work a full account of the former practices in Ireland and Wales
is given. The old festival in Ireland was associated with Lug, a form of
the Sun-God; the most celebrated one was held at Tailetin. This
feast--Lugnassad--was changed into the church celebration Lammas, from
A.S. hl’áfmaesse--that is loaf-mass or bread-mass, so named as a mass or
feast of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the corn harvest. The old
customs in Wales and the Isle of Alan included the ascent of hills in
the early morning, but so far I have found no record of fires in
connection with this date.[31]
_November 8._
The facts that November 11 is quarter day in Scotland, that mayors are
elected on or about that date, show, I think, pretty clearly that we are
here dealing with the old “pagan” date.
The fact that the Church anticipated it by the feast of All Souls’ on
November 1 reminds us of what happened in the case of the February
celebration; later I give a reference to the change of date; and perhaps
this date was also determined by the natural gravitation to the first of
the month, as in the case of May, and because it marked at one time the
beginning of the Celtic year.
But what seems quite certain is that the feast which should have been
held on November 8 on astronomical grounds was first converted by the
Church into the feast of St. Martin on November 11. The _Encyclopædia
Britannica_ tells us: “The feast of St. Martin (Martinmas) took the
place of an old pagan festival, and inherited some of its usages, such
as the Martinsmännchen, Martinsfeuer, Martinshorn, and the like, in
various parts of Germany.”
St. Martin lived about A.D. 300. As the number of saints increased, it
became impossible to dedicate a feast-day to each. Hence it was found
expedient to have an annual aggregate commemoration of such as had not
special days for themselves. So a church festival “All Hallows,” or
“Hallowmass,” was instituted about A.D. 610 in memory of the martyrs,
and it was to take place on May 1. For some reason or another this was
changed in A.D. 834; May was given up, and the date fixed as November 1.
This was a commemoration of all the saints, so we get the new name “All
Saints’ Day.”
There can be little doubt that the intention of the Church was to
anticipate, and therefore gradually to obliterate the pagan festival
still held at Martinmas, and it has been successful in many places. In
Ireland, for instance; at Samhain,[32] November 1, “the proper time for
prophecy and the unveiling of mysteries.”... It was then that fire was
lighted at a place called after Mog Ruith’s daughter Tlachtga. From
Tlachtga all the hearths in Ireland are said to have been annually
supplied, just as the Lemnians had once a year to put their fires out
and light them anew from that brought in the sacred ship from Delos. The
habit of celebrating _Nos Galan-galaf_ in Wales by lighting bonfires on
the hills is possibly not yet extinct.
Here, then, we find the pagan fires transferred from the 8th to the 1st
of November in Ireland, but in the Isle of Man this is not so. I will
anticipate another reference to Rhys by stating that Martinmas had
progressed from the 11th to the 24th before the change of style brought
it back, “old Martinmas,” November 24, being one of the best recognised
“old English holidays,” “old Candlemas” being another, at the other end
of the May year; this last had slipped from February 2 to February 15
before it was put back again.
With regard to the Isle of Man Rhys writes[33] that the feast is there
called Hollantide, and is kept on November 12, a reckoning which he
states “is according to the old style.” The question is, are we not
dealing here with the Martinmas festival _not_ antedated to November 1?
He adds, “that is the day when the tenure of land terminates, and when
serving men go to their places. In other words it is the beginning of a
new year.” This is exactly what happens in Scotland, and the day is
still called Martinmas.
There is a custom in mid-England which strikingly reminds us of the
importance of Martinmas in relation to old tenures, if even the custom
does not carry us still further back. This is the curious and
interesting ceremony of collecting the wroth silver, due and payable to
his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury on “Martinmas Eve.”
The payment is made on an ancient mound on the summit of Knightlow
Hill, about five miles out of Coventry, and in the parish of
Ryton-on-Dunsmore. One feature about this singular ceremonial is that it
must take place before sun-rising.
[24] Hazlitt, _Dictionary of Faiths and Folklore_, under Gule of August.
[25] _Survey of the South of Ireland_, p. 232.
[26] Under Ash Wednesday.
[27] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, iii., 238 _et seq._
[28] _Notes to Northumberland Household Book_, 1770, p. 333.
[29] Quoted by Hazlitt.
[30] Much confusion has arisen with regard to the Holy Thursday in
Rogation week because there is another Holy or Maundy Thursday in Easter
week. Archæologists have also been often misled by the practice of many
writers of describing the May festivals as midsummer festivals. The
first of May, of course, marked the beginning of summer.
[31] Mr. Frazer informs me that the 13th August was Diana’s day at Nemi
and there was a fire festival.
[32] _Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514.
[33] _Celtic Folklore_, p. 315.