Chronicles of the Virus Day 48. Broom to Sweep.
Today the sky has decided to tumble down upon us. It's grey, damp, and with a permanent fine rain. Yesterday was similar, but not as closed down, with a few intervals of just plain grey. In one of those intervals I went out and got my broom.
I'd almost forgotten that it was May Eve, or Walpurgis Night, until our daughter sent me a text telling me what she was going to do, since she couldn't go walking out to the woods surrounding Santiago. This month has been one of the longest in my life. There have been others in which I lost count of time, but this year, it's ridiculous. In my head, we're still in the middle of April, and Easter was a week ago.
So, during a cloudy interval yesterday afternoon, I hopped across the road to the woods (illegal, yes) and cut off a few branches of broom. Towards sunset, my husband and I broke off the sprigs and put them on both cars, on the gates, and on the doors of our house and my parent's old house, now empty.
It's a custom against witches that has been dying out over the years. One year, my husband and I went driving down the coast on a beautiful first of May. At a place where we stopped, someone called out that we had some plant caught in our front license plate. It was a sprig of broom. We explained what it was doing there, that it was a charm against witches that were supposed to be out in full force on the eve of May. While we didn't believe (but; habelas, hailas, or; exist, they probably exist), we didn't want to break the chain of a pretty tradition.
The first of May was once Beltane, one of the four important Celtic holy days, and the first day of summer once upon a time. Those holy days were Imbolc (February 2nd, or Candlemas), Beltane (May 1st), Lugnasadh (August 1st, or Lammas), and the most important, Samhain (November 1st, All Saint's Day). These holy days all began upon the sunset of the day before, hence the tradition of beginning to celebrate certain holidays from the evening before. These are fire festivals, and are also the traditional beginning of each of the four seasons. Few places still light fires on those days, Sweden being one of them. In Sweden, April 30th is Valborg (Walpurgis) and bonfires are lit.
In rural Spain (mostly) people collect broom, with its yellow blossoms, and put twigs on doors, gates, and cars, to sweep away the witches that roam loose on that night. Brooms used to be made with broom, once upon a time. When we first moved here, my mother made rudimentary brooms to use outside with a few good branches, which she tied together. The witch part comes from the Christianization of the Celtic holy day, which converted the old gods into devils.
Few houses are going to have broom on their doors this year, but, since the woods are right across the road from my front door, and I could see various bushes of yellow-blossomed broom, waving in the wind, I just hopped across with my garden shears, and picked a few. Hey, this is one year in which the witches definitely have to beaten back.
Speaking of old beliefs, in a suburb of Norwich, in Great Britain, a man was seen by neighbors walking around, wearing black clothes and a beak mask worn by plague doctors once upon a time. There were various complaints about the apparition, which seems to have scared the bejesus out of more than one neighbor. Though, some were honestly puzzled over why anyone would wear such asphyxiating clothes on a warm, 20º sunny day.
Oh, what did my daughter put on her apartment's front door? Her broom, of course, tied to the doorknob. It may be modern, but it sweeps just like the plant.
Life continues.
I'd almost forgotten that it was May Eve, or Walpurgis Night, until our daughter sent me a text telling me what she was going to do, since she couldn't go walking out to the woods surrounding Santiago. This month has been one of the longest in my life. There have been others in which I lost count of time, but this year, it's ridiculous. In my head, we're still in the middle of April, and Easter was a week ago.
So, during a cloudy interval yesterday afternoon, I hopped across the road to the woods (illegal, yes) and cut off a few branches of broom. Towards sunset, my husband and I broke off the sprigs and put them on both cars, on the gates, and on the doors of our house and my parent's old house, now empty.
It's a custom against witches that has been dying out over the years. One year, my husband and I went driving down the coast on a beautiful first of May. At a place where we stopped, someone called out that we had some plant caught in our front license plate. It was a sprig of broom. We explained what it was doing there, that it was a charm against witches that were supposed to be out in full force on the eve of May. While we didn't believe (but; habelas, hailas, or; exist, they probably exist), we didn't want to break the chain of a pretty tradition.
The first of May was once Beltane, one of the four important Celtic holy days, and the first day of summer once upon a time. Those holy days were Imbolc (February 2nd, or Candlemas), Beltane (May 1st), Lugnasadh (August 1st, or Lammas), and the most important, Samhain (November 1st, All Saint's Day). These holy days all began upon the sunset of the day before, hence the tradition of beginning to celebrate certain holidays from the evening before. These are fire festivals, and are also the traditional beginning of each of the four seasons. Few places still light fires on those days, Sweden being one of them. In Sweden, April 30th is Valborg (Walpurgis) and bonfires are lit.
In rural Spain (mostly) people collect broom, with its yellow blossoms, and put twigs on doors, gates, and cars, to sweep away the witches that roam loose on that night. Brooms used to be made with broom, once upon a time. When we first moved here, my mother made rudimentary brooms to use outside with a few good branches, which she tied together. The witch part comes from the Christianization of the Celtic holy day, which converted the old gods into devils.
Few houses are going to have broom on their doors this year, but, since the woods are right across the road from my front door, and I could see various bushes of yellow-blossomed broom, waving in the wind, I just hopped across with my garden shears, and picked a few. Hey, this is one year in which the witches definitely have to beaten back.
Speaking of old beliefs, in a suburb of Norwich, in Great Britain, a man was seen by neighbors walking around, wearing black clothes and a beak mask worn by plague doctors once upon a time. There were various complaints about the apparition, which seems to have scared the bejesus out of more than one neighbor. Though, some were honestly puzzled over why anyone would wear such asphyxiating clothes on a warm, 20º sunny day.
Oh, what did my daughter put on her apartment's front door? Her broom, of course, tied to the doorknob. It may be modern, but it sweeps just like the plant.
Life continues.
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| My front door. |
Bonito costume que non coñecía.
ReplyDeletePara o ano fágoo.
É interesante. Non souben dela ata que retornamos de emigración e miña nai púxoa o primeiro maio que pasamos aquí. Agora, a nosa filla tamén o fai en Santiago o ano que pode.
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