ST. ANDREW’S DAY 2012 - Poland St. Andrew’s Day is celebrated on November 29th, it is a traditional fortune-telling evening. That evening divination ruled the fate, not the usual fate but this related to marriage. St. Andrew predictions were common throughout Christian Europe. Saint Andrew is considered the patron saint of brides who want to quickly change their marital status. He was to help the girls in discovering the future. They wanted to find out when they marry, to know the name and character of the future husband. St. Andrew’s Day is a special opportunity to
Transcript
ST. ANDREW’S DAY 2012 - Poland
St. Andrew’s Day is celebrated on November
29th, it is a traditional fortune-telling evening.That evening divination ruled the fate, not the usual fate but this related to marriage.
St. Andrew predictions were common throughout Christian Europe. Saint Andrew is considered the patron saint of brides who want to quickly change their marital status. He was to help the girls in discovering the future. They wanted to find out when they marry, to know the name and character of the future husband. St. Andrew’s Day is a special opportunity to organize the last revelry before the beginning of Advent.
Some St. Andrew divination and magic procedures:
Drawing objects with symbolic meaning for example a leaf meant spinsterhood, ring or ribbon with cap - close to the wedding, the rosary - priesthood.
Pouring wax into cold water (often through the eye of a key), and predicting the shape of the solidified mass or shadow cast by her future lover profiles, accessories related to his profession.
Setting one shoe of all the people one by one from the wall to the threshold. The shoe which is the first to reach the threshold was the first to marry.
Home of the barking dog was supposed to be the one that comes with the future bridegroom.
Participants wrote names on two pages: the names of girls on one side and boys on the other. Then each girl took a needle and pierced a clean piece of paper with the names of the boys but could not look. The girl was supposed to marry the boy whose name was pierced.
The boys did the same with the girls’ names.
This year our students who belong to Comenius project together with the school
student council representatives organized the St. Andrew’s Day. We made posters informing the whole school community about the event and placed them on the school corridors, created invitations for each class to encourage as many students as possible. Our group also prepared funny divinations and traditional games. The event was connected with the disco which took place in the school assembly hall in the evening of 29th October 2012. All the participants had to pay a small amount of money which was collected for the needs of the school annual action helping the poorest
students and families before Christmas. It was great fun!
