Guernsey Folk Lore: a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that islandMacCulloch, Edgar, Sir
History
Guernsey Folk Lore: a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that island
MacCulloch, Edgar, Sir
Folklore -- Guernsey
[18] EDITOR’S NOTE.--“In Sark, on Good Friday it is the custom for boys
to go and sail small boats on the ponds or pools by the sea-shore; and
these boats are made a good while beforehand, or treasured up of long
standing; this custom they never fail to keep up. Numbers of these same
boys also go in the afternoon to the Eperquerie drill-ground, to play
a game which they call rounders. It is played with a ball and a stick,
and somewhat resembles cricket.”--From _A Descriptive Sketch of the
Island of Sark_, by the Rev. J. L. V. Cachemaille (for many years Vicar
of the island), published in Clarke’s _Guernsey Magazine_, October,
1875.
Easter.
There do not appear to be any particular customs connected with Easter,
but some old people can still remember that in their youth the children
in some parts of the country used to go about from door to door
begging for eggs.[19] This was called “demander la mouissole,” and was
evidently derived from the practice, so common in all parts of Europe,
of giving presents of eggs at this season. _Mouissole_ is derived from
the old Norman word _mouisson_, which means “a bird.”
[19] EDITOR’S NOTE.--In the country the dinner on Easter Sunday used
always to consist of fried eggs and bacon. As an old woman said, “it
was the only day we ever tasted an egg.” If they could not get fowls’
eggs, they even got wild birds’ eggs, and fried and ate them!
“In the North of England boys beg on Easter Eve eggs to play with, and
beggars ask for them to eat.”--_De Ludis Orientalibus_, by Hyde, 1694.
p. 237.
“The custom of eating a gammon of bacon at Easter, which is kept up
in many parts of England, was founded on this, _viz._, to shew their
abhorrence to Judaism at that solemn commemoration of our Lord’s
Resurrection.”--From _Aubrey_, 1679.
The First of April.
The first of April is not forgotten by children, who amuse themselves
on this day by attaching long shreds of paper or bits of rag by means
of crooked pins to the clothes of passers-by,[20] and then crying out
as loud as they can bawl, “La Coûe! La Coûe!” or “La Folle Agnès.” No
one knows the reason of the latter exclamation.
[20] EDITOR’S NOTE.--In _Lancashire Folk-Lore_ p. 225, it says, “On
Mid-Lent or ‘Bragot’ Sunday it is a custom for boys to hook a piece of
coloured cloth to the women’s gowns, and a similar custom prevails in
Portugal at carnival times.”
Sundays in May.
On the first Sunday in May the young men and women of the lower orders
arise at daybreak and sally forth into the country in groups, returning
home with large nosegays generally pilfered from the open gardens that
adorn the neat cottages of the peasantry.[21]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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