On St Thomas’s Eve in Austria, unmarried ladies would slice an apple in two to foresee their wedding. If there was an even number of pips, she would marry soon, an odd number meant a wait, if she’d cut through one of the pips she would have a more troubled life and end up a widow.
I was planning to do this tomorrow but I've got to go to the post office, the Polish deli & Aldi in the morning so I'll start now. Are you planning a special meal to celebrate the Solstice? If so would you like to share your menu? I thought it might be a little light in the darkness, & a little balm to our souls, to bond over delicious food. In case you are interested we are having a dumpling of three nations extravaganza with dips to match. What about you?
In previous times in the Tyrol, on St. Thomas's Day, an elaborate pie was baked & marked with the sign of the cross & sprinkled with holy water before it was baked. It was not eaten until St. Stephen's Day, when it was cut by the head of the household with considerable ceremony. Each maidservant was also given a pie, to take home to her family. If a lover offered to carry her pie, that was considered a marriage proposal.
Some believe that celebrating with a boar’s head is a holdover from a pagan tradition to honour Freyr, a Norse god of the harvest and fertility who was associated with boars. The Victorians used to make them out of cake which wasn’t quite the same.
The long and complicated recipe can be found in Charles Elmé Francatelli's The Royal English and Foreign Confectionery Book. (London: 1862), together with a fabulous picture of the finished result
Today's release: Speculation Publications' folklore/fairy tale anthology - Yule: Tales for the Winter Solstice.
During the cold winter months, we mirror the Earth as she lies quiet, waiting for the return of warm days. We gather around yule fires and perform rituals to lure back the sun. Drinking wassail...
It was believed that the weather for the 21st December to 21st March, could be foretold from the breast-bone of a Christmas goose. The more discolouration present when the bone has been revealed after cooking indicates an in increase in storms & bad weather in those months.
I'm continuing my "following folktales around the world" blog series with a spinoff: reading folktale collections from Hungarian Roma traditional storytellers.
First up: Jóni Ferenc, with talent for putting unexpected twists on well known tale types, and using elaborate cursing to color his tales for adults. His empathy shines through as well. I found many favorites in this book.
Christmas Eve is another big marriage divination date: you can make a dough-cake in silence, place it on the hearth, & prick your initials on the surface. At midnight, your future spouse will enter the room, go to the hearth, & prick their initials beside yours. You can also conjure the image of your future spouse by picking 12 sage leaves in the garden at midnight of Christmas Eve. Presumably also useful for the stuffing later in the day.
For those long cold dark nights ... Spirits of the Season: Portraits of the Winter Otherworld written by Dr Bob Curran and illustrated by Andy Paciorek
The kallikantzaros were either vampire or werewolf. They were red-eyed, covered in black hair, with a long tongue & club-feet & were said to climb down the chimney to devour festive foods on the 12 days of Christmas. Solutions ranged from hanging pork based snacks & sweets in the chimney to stop them coming in further, to throwing a honey-soaked doughnut onto the roof to distract them. Throwing salt onto the fire was said to discourage them. #Folklore@folklore