Wonderful! I read somewhere that in Roman times young people wrote their names on pieces of wood and cast them into two baskets, one for men, one for women. One or the other gender got to pick a name from the basket of the opposite gender and spend the day – or night – with them.
Christians co-opted the festival, but adjusted it to suit their mores. A single basket was used, into which names of saints had been inscribed on pieces of wood. Everyone picked out a piece with a saint’s name on it – and prayed to them.
But for some inexplicable reason the latter festival wasn’t as popular as the former.
Edward Fox
“Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
– H. L. Mencken
Wonderful! I read somewhere that in Roman times young people wrote their names on pieces of wood and cast them into two baskets, one for men, one for women. One or the other gender got to pick a name from the basket of the opposite gender and spend the day – or night – with them.
Christians co-opted the festival, but adjusted it to suit their mores. A single basket was used, into which names of saints had been inscribed on pieces of wood. Everyone picked out a piece with a saint’s name on it – and prayed to them.
But for some inexplicable reason the latter festival wasn’t as popular as the former.
“Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
– H. L. Mencken