I hope to clear up some obscurities which still remain, and to answer some objections which may have suggested themselves to the reader.
We start from the point at which we left off—the spring customs of European peasantry. Besides the ceremonies already described there are two kindred sets of observances in which the simulated death of a divine or supernatural being is a leading feature. These observances are commonly known as “Burying the Carnival,” and “Driving or carrying out Death.” Both customs are chiefly practised, or at least best known, on German and Slavonic ground. The former custom is observed on the last day of the Carnival, namely. Shrove Tuesday (Fastnacht), or on the first day of Lent, namely, Ash Wednesday. The latter custom is commonly observed on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, which hence gets the name of Dead Sunday (Todteitsonntag); but in some places it is observed a week earlier; in others again, as amongst the Czechs of Bohemia, a week later. Originally the date of the celebration of the “Carrying out Death” appears not to have been fixed, but to have depended on the appearance of the first swallow or of some other natural phenomenon.[1] A Bohemian form of the custom of “Burying the Carnival” has been already described.[2] The following Swabian form is obviously similar. In the neighbourhood of Tübingen on Shrove Tuesday a straw-man, called the Shrovetide Bear, is made up; he is dressed in a pair of old trousers, and a
- ↑ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 645; K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lansitz, ii. 58; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, p. 86 sq.; id., Das festliche Jahr, p. 77 sq. The Fourth Sunday in Lent is also known as Mid-Lent, because it falls in the middle of Lent, or as Laetare from the first word of the liturgy for the day. In the Roman Calendar it is the Sunday of the Rose, Domenica rosae.
- ↑ See p. 244.
