Ooo! I need to go in search of Dyngus Day for sure! My impression is that the traditions of Hocktide & Easter Monday tend to get mixed around quite a bit over the centuries.
Wonderful Kristin and a lot of good work. And it is still Tuesday here. Where I come from in Surrey and Sussex the chalk streams fed from springs were still farming the finest watercress in my childhood. And the rural children of previous generations went to school with a hunk of bread and watercress. The cress was termed 'poor man's meat' in those days. It acgtually has valuable nutrient properties, not just the Vitamin C.
Your thought on the integration of Easter and customs ring bells. There was always a need to 'let the hair down'. These could be hard and indeed rough times and I imagine ordinary families could share, with care, the wilder side of life while relying on the faith that secured the turning year.
Thanks for the links by the way and your beautiful illustrations.
You're so kind, Philip - thank you for reading and for the encouragement. I've now been driven to dive down the rabbithole into chalk streams - I heard this term for the first time when listening to the recent Ffern podcast (https://ffern.co/podcast), which tells such a lovely story of the streamside habitat - and then I read your comment, and now the curiosity is cemented! How absolutely lovely to have cress growing alongside those streams.
Thank you again...it's always a joy to get to learn from you!
Not all our chalk streams survive very sadly. My little gang when we were 12 and 13y old found an unobserved way a little downstream from the source, into a still clean tiny fragment, an old 'leat' below a disused watermill that had been repurposed as an office, a way that the other kids did not know how to reach. It was paradise with a kingfisher's nest. We have talked about it in our old age. (There are different kinds of leats/leets. I wax lyrical!)
In Kate Seredy's somewhat autobiographical novel "The Good Master" we read about the custom of "sprinkling the girls" on Easter Monday in rural Hungary. The community went to the church for the event, the priest said a blessing, and the boys were given little bottles of water to sprinkle on the girls. On Tuesday, the girls got to sprinkle the boys...
Thank you for the time you put into such lovely resources! I am truly grateful for them!
I was wondering if there was one of those beautiful illuminated style calendar pages for April? I wasn't sure if there were only some of the months in the Scriptorium or if I was just overlooking?
Aw, thank you so much, Erica! That makes my day. I love getting to dive into all of this, so it's really a dream getting to share it with others.
And I'm so glad that you're enjoying the illuminated calendar pages...you're actually not overlooking them, I just ran out of steam at the time and didn't keep up with them (though I LOVED creating them). I think I'm missing about half the year. If you find them helpful, I'd surely love to chip away at the remaining months!
Hocktide seems to have some similarities to Dyngus Day, which is celebrated in Poland (and in the Polish diaspora like Cleveland, Ohio!).
Ooo! I need to go in search of Dyngus Day for sure! My impression is that the traditions of Hocktide & Easter Monday tend to get mixed around quite a bit over the centuries.
I was about to say the same, sounds like a less watery Smigus Dyngus!
Wonderful Kristin and a lot of good work. And it is still Tuesday here. Where I come from in Surrey and Sussex the chalk streams fed from springs were still farming the finest watercress in my childhood. And the rural children of previous generations went to school with a hunk of bread and watercress. The cress was termed 'poor man's meat' in those days. It acgtually has valuable nutrient properties, not just the Vitamin C.
Your thought on the integration of Easter and customs ring bells. There was always a need to 'let the hair down'. These could be hard and indeed rough times and I imagine ordinary families could share, with care, the wilder side of life while relying on the faith that secured the turning year.
Thanks for the links by the way and your beautiful illustrations.
You're so kind, Philip - thank you for reading and for the encouragement. I've now been driven to dive down the rabbithole into chalk streams - I heard this term for the first time when listening to the recent Ffern podcast (https://ffern.co/podcast), which tells such a lovely story of the streamside habitat - and then I read your comment, and now the curiosity is cemented! How absolutely lovely to have cress growing alongside those streams.
Thank you again...it's always a joy to get to learn from you!
Not all our chalk streams survive very sadly. My little gang when we were 12 and 13y old found an unobserved way a little downstream from the source, into a still clean tiny fragment, an old 'leat' below a disused watermill that had been repurposed as an office, a way that the other kids did not know how to reach. It was paradise with a kingfisher's nest. We have talked about it in our old age. (There are different kinds of leats/leets. I wax lyrical!)
Oh wow that sounds like childhood paradise for sure - and now you have me looking into leats! Kingfishers are such incredible birds.
In Kate Seredy's somewhat autobiographical novel "The Good Master" we read about the custom of "sprinkling the girls" on Easter Monday in rural Hungary. The community went to the church for the event, the priest said a blessing, and the boys were given little bottles of water to sprinkle on the girls. On Tuesday, the girls got to sprinkle the boys...
I love this! Another book to go in my TBR pile…
Thank you for the time you put into such lovely resources! I am truly grateful for them!
I was wondering if there was one of those beautiful illuminated style calendar pages for April? I wasn't sure if there were only some of the months in the Scriptorium or if I was just overlooking?
Thanks!
Aw, thank you so much, Erica! That makes my day. I love getting to dive into all of this, so it's really a dream getting to share it with others.
And I'm so glad that you're enjoying the illuminated calendar pages...you're actually not overlooking them, I just ran out of steam at the time and didn't keep up with them (though I LOVED creating them). I think I'm missing about half the year. If you find them helpful, I'd surely love to chip away at the remaining months!
Very interesting...
I just love these lost holidays! I'm so glad you enjoyed.