Riddling the ashes

24 April

Lore and belief

Cottage 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. A spiteful person could cause real misery by creeping in and marking the ashes with someone’s shoe. The eve had other charms too: a girl might hang her smock by the fire at midnight to see her future husband come and turn it, and nuts were set among the embers to jump away if a love was true.

riddling out all the ashes on the hearth-stone over night, in the expectation of seeing impressed upon them, in the morning, the footstep of any one of the party who was to die

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 550. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

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.
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 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.
The Scarborough watcher who saw herself Lore and belief YorkshireAbout eighty years before Henderson wrote, an old woman kept the St Mark's Eve watch in the porch of St Mary's, Scarborough, to see who would die that year.
Riddling chaff at Malton Lore and belief YorkshireIn Yorkshire people riddled chaff at midnight in a barn with its doors thrown open, to learn whether they would die within the year.
Running round the haystack on St Mark’s night Lore and belief YorkshireOn St Mark's night a Beverley woman ran nine times round a haystack with a ring in her hand to learn whether she would win the man she wanted.

Riddling the ashes

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