Channelled Ixia. _Ixia Bulbocodium._
Dedicated to _St. Gregory_.
[18] Butler’s Saints.
[19] Ribadeneira’s Saints.
[20] Porter’s Flowers.
[21] Nichols’s Anecdotes.
[22] Ibid.
~March 13.~
_St. Nicephorus_, Patriarch of Constantinople, A. D. 828. _St.
Euphrasia_, A. D. 410. _St. Theophanes_, Abbot, A. D. 818. _St.
Kennocha_, A. D. 1007. _St. Gerald_, Bishop, A. D. 732. _St.
Mochoemoc_, in Latin, _Pulcherius_, Abbot, A. D. 655.
~Mid-Lent Sunday.~
[Illustration: ~Winter and Spring allegorized--a Sport.~]
Mothering Sunday.--Refreshment Sunday.--Rose Sunday.
This is the fourth Sunday in Lent, and noted as a holiday in the church
of England calendar.
On this day boys went about, in ancient times, into the villages with a
figure of death made of straw; from whence they were generally driven by
the country people; who disliked it as an ominous appearance, while
some gave them money to get the mawkin carried off. Its precise meaning
under that form is doubtful, though it seems likely to have purported
the death of Winter, and to have been only a part of another ceremony
conducted by a larger body of boys, from whom the death-carriers were a
detachment, and who consisted of a large assemblage carrying two figures
to represent Spring and Winter, whereof one was called “Sommer tout”--
Apparelde all in greene, and drest in youthful fine arraye;
The other Winter, cladde in mosse, with heare all hoare and
graye.[23]
These two figures they bore about, and fought; in the fight Summer, or
Spring, got the victory over Winter, and thus was allegorized the
departure or burial of the death of the year, and its commencement or
revival as Spring. The custom described on March the 6th, (p. 339,) was
only a variation of the present, wherein also the boys carried about
cracknels or cakes:--
Thus children also beare, with speares, their cracknelles round
about.[24]
It is still a custom on Mid-Lent Sunday in many parts of England, for
servants and apprentices to carry cakes or some nice eatables or
trinkets, as presents to their parents; and in other parts, to visit
their mother for a meal of furmity, or to receive cakes from her with
her blessing. This is called going _a mothering_.[25] Herrick mentions
this custom in Gloucestershire:
I’le to thee a simnell bring
’Gainst thou go’st _a mothering_,
So that when she blesseth thee
Half that blessing thoul’t give me.
Going _a mothering_ is from the Roman catholic custom of going to the
_mother_-church on Mid-Lent Sunday, to make offerings at the high altar;
and that custom of the Romish Church is derived from the _Hilaria_, a
heathen festival celebrated by the ancient Romans, in honour of the
Mother of the Gods on the ides of March.[26] The offerings at the altars
were in their origin voluntary, and became church property. At length
the parish priests compounded with the church at a certain sum, and
these voluntary donations of the people have become the dues known by
the name of _Easter Offerings_.
_Mid-Lent_, or _Mothering Sunday_ is likewise called _Refreshment
Sunday_, “the reason of which,” says Wheatly, (on the Common Prayer) “I
suppose is the Gospel for that day, which treats of our Saviour’s
miraculously feeding five thousand; or else, perhaps, from the first
lesson in the morning, which gives us the story of Joseph entertaining
his brethren.” It is also denominated _Rose Sunday_, from the pope on
this day carrying a golden rose in his hand, which he exhibits on his
way to and from mass.[27]
On this day at Seville there is an usage evidently the remains of an old
custom. Children of all ranks, poor and gentle, appear in the streets
fantastically dressed, somewhat like English chimney-sweepers on
May-day, with caps of gilt and coloured paper, and coats made of the
crusade bulls of the preceding year. During the whole day they make an
incessant din with drums and rattles, and cry “Saw down the old woman.”
At midnight, parties of the commonalty parade the streets, knock at
every door, repeat the same cries, and conclude by sawing in two the
figure of an old woman representing Lent. This division is emblematical
of Mid-Lent.[28]
* * * * *