Folklore

Lore, beliefs and customs no longer kept, day by day, from Hone’s Every-Day Book, Chambers’s Book of Days and others.

Thursday 1 April

Folklore from the old calendars

Riddling the ashes Lore and belief EnglandCottage families on St Mark's Eve sifted the ashes over the hearth-stone at night, hoping not to find in the morning the footprint of anyone who would die that year.
The dumb cake Lore and belief NorthamptonshireA correspondent near Peterborough told Hone that girls in his district still made the dumb cake on St Mark's Eve.
Joe Brown the church watcher Lore and belief YorkshireIn Yorkshire a watcher at the church door at midnight on St Mark's Eve, Old Style, was said to see the souls of all who would be buried there within the year go into the church in the order they would die, those to drown coming in splashing and struggling.
The church-porch watchers of Burton Lore and belief LincolnshireIn the north of England it was believed that anyone who watched in the church porch from eleven till one on St Mark's Eve would see the ghosts of all who would be buried there in the coming year.