ASCENSION-DAY, or HOLY THURSDAY. This, as the name sufficiently implies, is the anniversary of Christ's Ascension, but there is no peculiar mention of this festival amongst the elder writers on such subjects. It is celebrated on the fortieth day after the passover, because Christ ascended into Heaven on the fortieth day after his resurrection.* A few trifling observances still cling to it in some parts, the relicks of our forefathers' superstitions. Thus we are told by a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, when speaking of superstitions prevalent in the neighbourhood of Exeter, "that the figure of a lamb actually appears in the east on the morning of AscensionDay is the popular persuasion. And so deeply is it rooted hath frequently resisted (even in intelligent minds) the force of the strongest argument.”† Reginald Scot also mentions two superstitions as connected with this day, but without localizing them—“ in some countries," he says, "they run out of the doors in time of tempest, blessing themselves with a cheese, whereupon there was a cross made with a rope's end upon Ascension-Day-Item, to hang an egg, laid on AscensionDay in the roof of the house preserveth the same from all hurts."+ In conclusion it should not be forgotten that the custom of parochial perambulations has amongst us been chiefly confined to this day; but such deviations from the original observance are too common to excite the least surprise. "Apud vetustiores authores festi Ascensionis Christi peculiaris mentio nulla fit, sed comprehendunt illud sub Quinquaginta illis festis diebus post Pascha." Hospinian De Festis Christianorum, p. 86. + Gentleman's Magazine, for August 1787, vol. lvii. p. 718, note. The Discovery of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot, p. 152, folio, Lond. 1665. Pentecost: Whitsuntide. This term was anciently used with two very different meanings; first, as denoting the whole fifty days from Easter to Whitsuntide, i.e. the Paschal solemnity, which in early times was one continued festival in commemoration of Christ's resurrection; and secondly, as signifying that particular day on which the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles. In this more restricted sense it was called Pentecost because it was the fiftieth day from the Passover; and Whitsunday, i.e. White-Sunday, either metaphorically from the light which then diffused itself amongst the apostles; or,—and this seems more probable-from its being one of the two principal seasons of public baptism, when the baptized wore white garments, or chrisoms, in token of the spiritual purity they received at the font, and their promised whiteness of life for the future. It must not, however be concealed that Wheatley mentions a curious letter of Gerard Langbain's upon this subject, giving a very different meaning to the word. From his account it would seein, that Langbain, who was a perfect glutton of Bodleian manuscripts, stumbled upon one, which in substance states, that it was a custom among our ancestors upon this day to give all the milk of their ewes and kine to the poor for the love of God, in order to qualify themselves to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which milk being then—as it is still in some counties,-called Whitemeat, &c. therefore this day from that custom took the name of Whitsunday." 66 * Wheatley's account is as follows-"The letter I have is in manuscript, but seems to be a transcript of a printed letter of Langbain, dated from Oxford on Whitsun-Eve, 1650, and writ in answer to a friend that had enquired of him the original of the word, Whitsuntide, in which after he had hinted at some other opinions he gives the above-mentioned account in the following words." Extat illic (in Bodleianâ) MS. hoc titulo, De Solemnitatibus Sanctorum Feriandis. This day also, like those immediately preceding it, had its peculiar superstition. Amongst other things it was believed that whatever was asked of Heaven on Whitsunday would be infallibly granted, a notable instance of which we have in the Echo of a certain fanatic,* who called himself Arise Evans, and who tells us, "hearing some say that whatsoever one did ask of God upon Whitsunday morning at the instant when the sun arose and play'd, God would grant it him; having a charitable beliefe of the report, being willing to try all the ways possible to obtain my petition, I arose betimes on Whitsunday morning, and went up a hill, at a place called Gole Ronnw, to see the sun arise-Gole Ronnw in Eng Author est anonymus, qui de Festo Pentecostes agens hoc habet: 'Judæi quatuor præcipua celebrant solemnia; Pascha, Pentecosten, Scenopegiam, Encænia. Nos autem duo de illis celebramus, Pascha et Pentecosten, sed alia ratione. Illi celebrant Pentecosten, quia tunc legem perceperunt; nos autem ideo, quia tunc Spiritus Sanctus missus est discipulis. Illi susceperunt tabulis lapideis extrinsecus scripta, ad designandam eorum duritiem, quoniam usque ad spiritualem intellectum literæ non pertingebant; sed Spiritus Sanctus datus est sexaginta duobus discipulis in corde, digito Dei spiritualem intellectum intus dedicante. Ideoque Dies intellectus dicitur Witsonenday, vel item Vitsonenday; quia prædecessores nostri omne lac ovium et vaccarum suarum solebant dare pauperibus illo die, pro Dei amore, ut puriores efficirentur ad recipiendum Donum Spiritus Sancti.'Quocum, fere ad verbum, consentit manuscriptus alter hoc titulo Doctrina quomodo Curatus possit sanctorum vitas per annum populo denunciare. Et certe quod de lacte vaccarum refert, illud percognitum habeo, in agro Hamptoniensi (an et alibi nescio) decimas lacticiniorum venire vulgo sub hoc nomine, The Whites of Kine; apud Leicestrenses etiam Lacticinia vulgariter dicuntur Whitemeat." Wheatley's Rational Illustration of Common Prayer, p. 241, Folio, Lond. 1720. * An Echo to the voice from Heaven, or a narration of the life and manner of the special calling and visions of Arise Evans. 12mo. Blackfriars, 1652, p. 9. lish is, they will give light—and seeing the sun at its rising skip, play, dance, and turn about like a wheel, I fell down upon my knees." At this particular season were used to be celebrated the so-called Whitsun-ales. Of the meaning and derivation of this word I shall speak presently; the sport, or feast is thus described by Rudder.* "Two persons are chosen previous to the meeting, to be lord and lady of the yule who dress as suitably as they can to the characters they assume. A large empty barn, or some such building, is provided for the lord's hall, and fitted up with seats to accommodate the company. Here they assemble to dance and to regale in the best manner their circumstances and the place will afford, and each young fellow treats his girl with a ribband or favour. The lord and lady honour the hall with their presence, attended by the steward, sword bearer, purse-bearer, and macebearer, with their several badges or ensigns of office. They have likewise a page, or train-bearer, and a jester drest in a party-coloured jacket, whose ribaldry and gesticulation contribute not a little to the entertainment of some part of the company. The lord's music, consisting generally of a pipe and tabor is employed to conduct the dance. All these figures, handsomely represented in basso-relievo, stand in the north wall of the nave of Cirencester church, which vouches sufficiently for the antiquity of the custom. Some people think it a commemoration of the ancient drink-lean, a day of festivity formerly observed by the tenants and vassals of the lord of the fee within his manor, the memory of which, on * History of Gloucestershire, p. 23. Folio, Cirencester. 1779. + Yule, i.e. the festival. This affords a sufficient proof of what I have stated above,-that the word, yule, was not originally restricted to Christmas, but meant a festival generally. account of the jollity of those meetings, the people have thus preserved ever since. It may notwithstanding have its rise in Druidism,* as on these occasions they always erect a May-pole, which is an eminent sign of it. I shall just remark that the mace is made of silk finely plaited with ribbands on the top, and filled with spices and perfume for such of the company to smell to as desire it. Does not this afford some light towards discovering the original use, and account for the name of the mace, now carried in ostentation before the steward of the court on court days, and before the chief magistrate in corporations; as the presenting of spices by great men at their entertainments was a very ancient practice." From what Aubrey says, these Whitsun-ales supplied the place of poor-rates, which did not exist at all in his time; but indeed there is something so delightful in his picture of the general happiness of the lower classes in the age immediately preceding his own-mixed up, it must be owned, with more questionable matters,—that I can not resist the temptation of transcribing it: "No younger brothers then were by the custom and constitution of the realm to betake themselves to trades, but were churchmen or retainers, and servants to great men, rid good horses, now and then took a purse, and their blood, that was bred of the good tables of their masters, was upon every occasion freely let out in their quarrels; it was then too common among their masters to have feuds with one another; and their servants at market, or where they met * May!-unquestionably it had. It would be hard indeed to find any popular festival that did not spring from some ancient religious observance, and Druidism being the earliest known form of religion in England, to what other source can we refer them? That Druidism itself was borrowed from the east is another matter. |