The charms of St Catharine

25 November

Lore and belief

Mother Bunch’s Golden Fortune Teller gave a charm for St Catharine’s night. Between three and seven young women met alone as the clock struck eleven, each with a sprig of myrtle she had worn in her bosom all day, folded in tissue paper. Over a chafing dish of charcoal each burned nine hairs from her head and parings of her toe and finger nails, then sprinkled myrrh and frankincense and held the myrtle in the fumes. Each went to bed while the clock struck twelve with the myrtle under her head, sure to dream of her future husband.

Go to bed while the clock is striking twelve, and place the myrtle exactly under your head.

From Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 411. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Cathar’ning No longer kept England, KentSt Catherine was the patron of spinsters, and on her day young women met to make merry together, which was called Cathar'ning.
St Catherine’s fast Lore and belief IrelandIn Ireland women and girls once fasted every Wednesday and Saturday of the year, and some also on St Catherine's Day.
The Cattern bowl at Worcester No longer kept WorcestershireUntil shortly before Ellis wrote, the dean and chapter of Worcester gave out a rich mixture of wine and spices on St Catharine's Day, the last day of their yearly audit, to the people living in the cathedral precincts.
The ropemakers’ Queen Catherine at Chatham No longer kept KentOn St Catherine's night the ropemakers of Chatham dockyard carried a woman dressed as Queen Catherine, founder of the ropery, through Chatham, Rochester and Brompton by torchlight.
Laurel for St Catherine’s learned men Lore and belief EnglandBy St Catherine's Day only the evergreen laurel was left in leaf, and the rhyme of the saints' flowers says it crowned learned men on her feast, since Catherine was the patron of scholars.
Five hundred lights round St Paul’s steeple No longer kept LondonOn the evening of St Catherine's Day 1553, five hundred great lights were carried round the steeple of St Paul's in her procession.

The charms of St Catharine

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