April 24. ] ST. MARK'S EVE.

Previous

April 24.]

ST. MARK’S EVE.

In Poor Robin’s Almanac for 1770 is the following:—

“On St. Mark’s Eve, at twelve o’clock,
The fair maid will watch her smock,
To find her husband in the dark,
By praying unto good St. Mark.”

Ass-ridlin

is another superstition practised in the northern counties. The ashes being riddled or sifted on the hearth, if any of the family be to die within the year the mark of the shoe, it is supposed, will be impressed on the ashes; and many a mischievous wight has made some of the credulous family miserable by slyly coming down stairs, after the rest have retired to bed, and marking the ashes with the shoe of one of the members.—Jamieson, Etymol. Dict.

Northamptonshire.

On St. Mark’s Eve it is customary in this county for young maidens to make the dumb-cake, a mystical ceremony which has lost its origin. The number of the party never exceeds three; they meet in silence to make the cake, and as soon as the clock strikes twelve, they each break a portion off to eat, and when done they walk up to bed backwards without speaking a word, for if one speaks the spell is broken. Those that are to be married see the likeness of their sweethearts hurrying after them, as if wishing to catch them before they get into bed; but the maids being apprised of this beforehand (by the cautions of old women who have tried it), take care to unpin their clothes before they start, and are ready to slip into bed before they are caught by the pursuing shadow. If nothing is seen, the desired token may be a knocking at the doors, or a rustling in the house, as soon as they have retired. To be convinced that it comes from nothing else but the desired cause, they are always particular in turning out the cats and dogs before the ceremony begins. Those that are to die unmarried neither see nor hear anything; but they have terrible dreams, which are sure to be of newly-made graves, winding-sheets, and churchyards, and of rings that will fit no finger, or which, if they do, crumble into dust as soon as put on. There is another dumb ceremony, of eating the yolk of an egg in silence and then filling the shell with salt, when the sweetheart is sure to make his visit in some way or other before morning.—Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 523.

Yorkshire.

In Yorkshire it is usual for the common people to sit and watch in the church-porch from eleven o’clock at night until one in the morning. In the third year, for this must be done thrice, it is supposed that they will see the ghosts of all those who are to die the next year pass into the church. When any one sickens, who is thought to have been seen in this manner, it is presently whispered about that he will not recover, for that such a one who has watched St. Mark’s Eve, says so. The superstition is in such force that, if the patients themselves hear of it, they almost despair of recovery, and many are actually said to have died by the influence of their imaginations on this occasion.

“‘’Tis now,’ replied the village belle,
‘St. Mark’s mysterious Eve;
And all that old traditions tell
I tremblingly believe.
‘How, when the midnight signal tolls,
Along the churchyard green
A mournful train of sentenced souls
In winding-sheets are seen!
‘The ghosts of all whom Death shall doom
Within the coming year,
In pale procession walk the gloom
Amid the silence drear.’”

Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1819, vol. i. p. 192; J. Montgomery, Vigil of St. Mark.

Ornamental line
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Clyx.com


Top of Page
Top of Page