St. Paul daily globe., 1888-02-19
LENTEN CUSTOMS.
History Of the Observance Of the Forty
Days Fast.
ITS ANCIENT TRADITIONS
Peculiar Customs Associated With
Shr0ve Tuesday and Ash Wednes-
day Throughout the World.

II huhiiiteOh VIII CdlIy OuC UdCh W Iuo
forty days deluge, the forty years.
tramp of the Hebrews in the wilderness,
Moses fast on the mountain and Eli
Jah's abstinence in the woods. Careful
analysis of the code of Moses will dem
OnStrate that he was one of the wisest
lawgivers the world has ever known.
He knew perfectly well that cleanliness
is next to gOdlinesS, especially in such
a country as that travelled by his fol-
lowers, and consequently when they
settled down in Canada they had a code
with an excellent hygienic basis, which,
however, was gradually ObScured in the
ceremonial and ritual born of the rich
imagination of the East. But the re-
membrance of the forty days or years
remained, says the Philadelphia Times.
AS many of the Hebrew customs were
engrafted upon the Christian church it
was natural that, when some time of
self-denial was set apart as prepara-
ton of the feast of Easter, the period of
forty days should have been selected,
and as Easter came in the spring, con-
tempOraneOuS with the feast of the
passover, the time in which the an
the. name to. it in English. At
first Lent began on what is
now the first Sunday in Lent-forty
days before Easter. But as Sunday is
never fast day, the six Sundays being
deducted from the six weeks, left but
thirty-siX days of fasting. To remedy
this deficiency, to the six weeks were
added four days of the week preceding,
at some time before the beginning of
the eighth century, and this originated
Ash Wednesday,. At first the season
was rigidly observed by outward marks
OF humiliation and by fasting. AS the
oh in, h
influence to the uttermOSt parts of
Europe, adapting herself to circum-
stances, and in many instances arrang-
ing her festivals to supplant or to incOr-
pOrate those of the pagan nations she
conquered, many curious practices grew
up about the Lenten fast.
In England this was particlarly the
case. There, from the nature of the
country and from the overlapping char
acter of its settlement, local customs
grew apace, and were with difficulty up
rooted. Upon some Englishmen fell
the shadow OF the Spring-fast before
on the preceding Monday to take leave
for the season of collOps, thin slices of
meat Usually dried, and hence arose
the phrase. .COllup Monday. This custom
was typical of fasting, and was recog-
nized by the butchers of New Castle
upOn-Tyne, who in 1921 entered into an
agreement neither to seek nor to accept
opportunities for killing cattle during
Lent without the consent of the brother
hood. Deprived of meat, people were
ready to indulge on Shrove Tuesday, or
Fastin's eve, Of those delicious prepara-
tiOnS known as pancakes.
Shrove Tuesday has its name from the
former custom of people making their
Shrift to the parish priest as prepara-
tiOn for the next day. Confessions made
and the pancake bell rung, people hur-
ried home to feast for once in the year
upon the dyspepsia breeding cakes,
which were Of various kinds, ranging
from the doughnut to the large flat slice
of dough stepped in grease. The day
was given up to merriment and sports,
and, as it was practically the close of the
Christmas rejoicing, it was marked by
characteristics similar to the carnis
capium, the Roman carnival and the old
SaturnaIia. One of the. old English
worthless noticed the resemblance and
was moved to write: ''What the church
debars us one day she gives us leave to
take out In anOther-frst there is
a carnival and then a Lent" In
the midst of the general laxity
of law and order Oh Pancake
Tuesdays, certain customs were prom
inent. In one part of an English vii
lage would be seen the young girls
burning an effigy called the Holly Boy,
which they had captured from the boys,
who, in another place, were burning
their Ivy Girl, stolen from. the girls.
This sport may have been intended to
typify the departure of Christmas, aud
was probably related to the custom of
the peaSantry of France carving
around on Ash Wednesday an etfigy
and levying small sums of money on its
burial. Boys, moreover, were accuS-
toned to barricade the school house
doors and keep the master away with
their pOp-gunS. If he failed within a
certain allotted time to effect an en-
trance he had to agree with the boys
upon the tasks and holidays they would
have during the next year.
COck-ighting and throwing sticks at
cocks were special features of the OBJ
servance of the day. The prominence
given to these birds at that time is ac-
counted for in several ways. One theory
is that descendants of Danes and Sax
Ons thus vented their feelings against
the cock whose growing ON ShrOve Tues
day, centuries before, had prevented the
SaXOnS from maSSacreing the Danes;
another that contempt was thus shown
by Englishmen for their Gallo rivals,
the word galluS being the Latin for cock,
and another that men somehow or other
got to lay the blame of Peters
treachery upon the cock that crowed
twice. Chicken-fighting was con-
Quoted openly on the commons
with only the lamentations of human
itarians as a rebuke. COck-throwing
was equally unconcealed. The unfortu-
nate bird, in many instances trained for
the purpose, was tied with long string
to post in field. The boys and idling
men, by the payment of small fee to
the owner of the bird, were allowed the
privilege of shying bloOmsticks at it,
missiles to the best of it's ability. The
boy who knocked down the cock won it.
Inspired with the idea of throwing, the
village boys would travel around in
squads and belabOr house windows with
sticks and stones until the occupants
satisfied them with pancakes or money.
This sport was also called Lent-crock-
ing, from the pieces of crOckery some
times used.
But the hustle and good-humored
rowdyism of Shrove Tuesday were
abated on Ash Wednesday. Among
primitive Christians it was customary
to spend that day in sack-cloth and
ashes, emblems of humility and grief.
With prosperity much of the austerity
of the fast was done away with. though
the priest continued the custom by
signing with ashes cross on the fore
head of his flock and repeating the
formula: Remember, man, thou art
dust and shalt return to DUST" The re-
naming days of Lent were marked byno
particular Observances beside the giving
of the hour by the kings cock-crower.
The fourth Sunday in Lent, or mid-Lent
Sunday, was also known before the
reformation in England as 'Mothering
Sunday" from the habit of parishioners
in outlying districts visiting then the
mother church and of exchanging sim
mel oQIpC with their HQrQnfc fIGnIa Ii,