The Soviet Union 1949 CPA 1368 stamp (International Women’s Day, March 8. (Wikipedia)
Today, is International Women’s Day. It began, as an idea within Socialist organisations in 1909/1910. Following the February Revolution in Russia and women gaining the vote, March 8th was chosen as the day to celebrate. The wider feminist movement adopted it in the 1960s followed by the UN in 1977. Since when, it has been a day to celebrate women’s achievements and campaigns worldwide.
The Harper Road Burial Southwark (museum of London web site)
I have decided to post about the Harper’s Road burial. I was reminded about it by reading Dominic Perring’s new book ‘London in the Roman World.’ He uses it to establish that Southwark was a place where people lived both before and after the Roman Conquest in 43AD. The burial was found in the 1970s’ and dated to 50 – 70 AD (Roman Invasion of Britain was in 43 AD). Recent scientific analysis has shown that the burial was of a woman (21 – 38 years of age). She had brown eyes and black hair and was brought up in Britain. Her grave goods indicate she was wealthy. She had both imported Roman pottery but also typically British Iron Age objects. The combination shows some adaption between her native culture and the new Roman ways.
Her British objects included a bronze necklace (a torc possibly of Catevalaunian or Trinovantian origin) and a mirror. Dr Rebecca Redfern & Michael Marshall ) on the Museum of London’s website make a case for her being a:
‘Powerful women in late Iron Age London’.
They make a case for the mirror being
‘used by women for divination and magic, and were a source of knowledge that only women could command. Being able to use and read the mirror meant that the woman was highly regarded by her community.’
Iron age burials are often found either with a sword or a mirror and the thinking is that the mirror reflects an equivalent status to a sword. I think we can say that the finds do reflect someone of standing, but as to the use of the mirror that must be speculation. Divination using a mirror is called ‘scrying’ and the British Museum has John Dee’s scrying apparatus from the 16th Century. You can buy scrying mirrors on etsy. https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/scrying_mirror. But to make a case that Mirrors were not just utilitarian and prestige objects but also in use for supernatural/religious purposes is surely just speculation?
Melanie Giles & Jody Joy in ‘Mirrors in the British Iron Age: performance, revelation and power published in 2007 (and available to read here) concludes:
‘Iron Age mirrors, whether made of iron or bronze were beautiful, powerful, and potentially terrifying or dangerous objects. They were used in the preparation and presentation of the body and prestigious displays, but may also have been associated with powers of augury and insight into the past, or access to ancestral or spiritual worlds.’
The evidence we have for iron communities is for a powerful role for women in contrast to the Romans. The Romans dismissed women when they wrote that Boudicca was ‘uncommonly intelligent for a women’. In fact, she nearly forced the Romans to abandon their conquest of Britain. We also know that Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes had executive power in the North of Britain. The Britons also worshipped the three Mother Goddesses, which focussed on the value of woman as maidens, mothers, and grand-mothers.
A book to order for International Women’s Day is ‘Patriarchs’ in which Angela Saini investigates when the Patriarchy took over. I heard her talk about it and it seems an excellent introduction.
For March 6th, Ovid in his Almanac Poem called ‘Fasti’ (Book III: March 6) tells the story of Vesta. She is Hestria, in Greece and is depicted on the Parthenon Marbles, standing near Zeus and Athene. She was the Goddess of the Hearth, of the fire that keeps families warm, and fed. Vesta had 6 Virgins as her Priestesses,. They had to remain 30 years, from before puberty, as a virgin, or they were buried alive. Any partners in sin were beaten to death. At the end of their term they could marry, retire, or renew their vows. That suggests they would be late 30s, early 40s before they could retire.
The Vestal Virgins tended Vesta’s hearth. It was not supposed to go out, as it had, in theory, come from Troy with Aeneas. Vesta’s Temple also housed the Palladium. This was a wooden status of Pallas Athene, that kept Troy, then Rome free from invasion. Odysseus and Diomedes had stolen it just before the Trojan Horse episode ended the 10-year-long Trojan War. (To read more about this, look at my post here.)
The Temple of Vesta was in Rome’s Forum, and it was a circular temple or a Tholos. Next to the Sacred Shrine at Bath was a circular Tholos, which may have been dedicated also to Vesta.
Reconstruction of the Temple of Vesta in Rome
Here is what Ovid says in his March 6th entry:
When the sixth sun climbs Olympus’ slopes from ocean, And takes his way through the sky behind winged horses, All you who worship at the shrine of chaste Vesta, Give thanks to her, and offer incense on the Trojan hearth. To the countless titles Caesar chose to earn, The honour of the High Priesthood was added. Caesar’s eternal godhead protects the eternal fire, You may see the pledges of empire conjoined. Gods of ancient Troy, worthiest prize for that Aeneas Who carried you, your burden saving him from the enemy, A priest of Aeneas’ line touches your divine kindred: Vesta in turn guard the life of your kin! You fires, burn on, nursed by his sacred hand: Live undying, our leader, and your flames, I pray.
Caesar is Julius Caesar. Aeneas was the last Trojan who survived the end of Troy. He came to Italy, founded a Kingdom (Latium) in which his descendant, Romulus, would found Rome. This is told in Virgil’s Aeneid.
Rhea Silvia the Vestal Virgin
At the beginning of Book 3 of Fasti. Ovid tells us the story of Rome’s foundation, and how Mars took Silvia the Vestal while she slept. She was descended from Aeneas. She later gave birth to Romulus and Remus. The Goddess Vesta was displeased and put the holy fires out, shook the altar and shut the eyes of her image. Venus was more forgiving. The children survived. But Silvia eventually drowned in the Tiber.
Foundation Calendars
The new City chose Mars, the Roman God of War, father of their founder – as its patron God. He suited the Romans with their destiny to rule the world. So March was named after Mars, and 1st March was the beginning of the Roman year. (At least in Rome’s early days as I discussed in my post on March 1st). Ovid in the ‘Fasti’ makes the point, through Romulus’s voice and explains something about the various Calendars run by different tribes/Cities:
‘And the founder of the eternal City said: ‘Arbiter of War, from whose blood I am thought to spring, (And to confirm that belief I shall give many proofs), I name the first month of the Roman year after you: The first month shall be called by my father’s name.’ The promise was kept: he called the month after his father. This piety is said to have pleased the god. And earlier, Mars was worshipped above all the gods: A warlike people gave him their enthusiasm. Athens worshipped Pallas: Minoan Crete, Diana: Hypsipyleís island of Lemnos worshipped Vulcan: Juno was worshipped by Sparta and Pelopsí Mycenae, Pine-crowned Faunus by Maenalian Arcadia: Mars, who directs the sword, was revered by Latium: Arms gave a fierce people possessions and glory. If you have time examine various calendars. And you’ll find a month there named after Mars. It was third in the Alban, fifth in the Faliscan calendar, Sixth among your people, Hernican lands. The position’s the same in the Arician and Alban, And Tusculum’s whose walls Telegonus made. It’s fifth among the Laurentes, tenth for the tough Aequians, First after the third the folk of Cures place it, And the Pelignian soldiers agree with their Sabine Ancestors: both make him the god of the fourth month. In order to take precedence over all these, at least, Romulus gave the first month to the father of his race. Nor did the ancients have as many Kalends as us: Their year was shorter than ours by two months.
The Sabine Women
This section mentions the Sabines, these were a neighbouring tribe. The Romans were short of women, so they kidnapped the Sabine Women. It became known as the Rape of the Sabine Women. People argue whether they were raped or kidnapped. Romulus worked to convince the women that it was done out of necessity for Rome’s future. The Women, or some of them, certainly tried to escape. Many became pregnant. The Sabine Army approached and entered Rome determined to free their women and enact revenge on their neighbours. Ovid tells the story of Hersilia, Romulus’s wife trying to persuade the Women. The poem then returns to Mars’ viewpoint, and ends with a beautiful description of spring in March.
The battle prepares, but choose which side you will pray for: Your husbands on this side, your fathers are on that. The question is whether you choose to be widows or fatherless: I will give you dutiful and bold advice. She gave counsel: they obeyed and loosened their hair, And clothed their bodies in gloomy funeral dress. The ranks already stood to arms, preparing to die, The trumpets were about to sound the battle signal, When the ravished women stood between husband and father, Holding their infants, dear pledges of love, to their breasts. When, with streaming hair, they reached the centre of the field, They knelt on the ground, their grandchildren, as if they understood, With sweet cries, stretching out their little arms to their grandfathers: Those who could, called to their grandfather, seen for the first time, And those who could barely speak yet, were encouraged to try. The arms and passions of the warriors fall: dropping their swords Fathers and sons-in-law grasp each other’s hands, They embrace the women, praising them, and the grandfather Bears his grandchild on his shield: a sweeter use for it.
Hence the Sabine mothers acquired the duty, no light one, To celebrate the first day, my Kalends. Either because they ended that war, by their tears, In boldly facing the naked blades, Or because Ilia happily became a mother through me, Mothers justly observe the rites on my day. Then winter, coated in frost, at last withdraws, And the snows vanish, melted by warm suns: Leaves, once lost to the cold, appear on the trees, And the moist bud swells in the tender shoot: And fertile grasses, long concealed, find out Hidden paths to lift themselves to the air. Now the field’s fruitful, now ís the time for cattle breeding, Now the bird on the bough prepares a nest and home: It’s right that Roman mothers observe that fruitful season, Since in childbirth they both struggle and pray. Add that, where the Roman king kept watch, On the hill that now has the name of Esquiline, A temple was founded, as I recall, on this day, By the Roman women in honour of Juno. But why do I linger, and burden your thoughts with reasons? The answer you seek is plainly before your eyes. My mother, Juno, loves brides: crowds of mothers worship me: Such a virtuous reason above all befits her and me.í Bring the goddess flowers: the goddess loves flowering plants: Garland your heads with fresh flowers,
Ash Wednesday this year is late and on 5th March. It is the First Day of Lent, the solemn time which runs up to Easter, and is symbolic of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness.
In Anglo Saxon the name for the season of Spring was ‘lencthen’. It is thought to derive from the idea of the lengthening days. Lighting up time has just increased to 6pm here in London. So strictly, Lent means Spring. The Romance languages use the term used for Lent which derives from the Latin ‘Quadragesima’ which means the 40 days of Fast. Spanish (Cuaresma), French (Carême), and Italian Quaresima). For Germans it is the fasting time: fastenzeit. In England, Lent became a specialised word for the fast period. And Spring took over as the name of the season.
A time of fasting? Maybe once upon a time. But when I was young, it was 40 days when you were supposed to give something up. Smoking, or drinking, or chocolate. An idea taken up by a new generation, as, for example, Dry January? A time of reflection? No, never did that.
Ash Wednesday is named after the ashes smeared on the heads of worshippers to remind us that we are dust. I’ve never seen this done either. However, my footballing Vicar friend Andrew missed our Wednesday Game so that he could mark foreheads with ash crosses. The ashes were traditionally made from palms used for Palm Sunday decorations, which is indeed what Andrew did. Look here to see my post on Palm Sunday.
On the subject of dust here are lyrics by Joni Mitchell.
We are stardust We are golden And we’ve got to get ourselves Back to the garden
Woodstock by Joni Mitchell
!970’s Live performance by Joni Mitchell of Woodstock
40 Days
We all know that there are 40 days in Lent, except there are not. Its 46 this year. This is pointed out by Tim Harford who presents a BBC radio programme called ‘More or Less’. It is a programe about statistics, or more widely about Fact Checking statistics in the news. This week’s episode was about the 40 days and claims about the US had spent much more than Europe on the defence of the Ukrainians. (No, that was Fake News, Europe and America spent about the same amount.) Anyway, back to Lent. Take away the Sundays was one answer proposed but, my mathmatics tells me this still leaves 42. The answer Tim Harford came up with is that 40 days just means a long time.
So it is the length of time of Lent, but also:
The duration of the Great Flood The time Moses was on Mt Sinai The time the Israelites spy on Canaan Goliath trails Saul Elijah Walks Jesus in the Desert The time from Resurrection to Ascension
In other words, a long time to be doing any one thing. As Hartford says, it’s like our word ‘umpteenth’. For example, ‘Kevin this is the umpteenth time I’ve told you to tidy your bedroom’. So my mother said to me as she threw my clothes out of the window.
This year, March 4th is Shrove Tuesday, the end of the Carnival. Etymology-on line says the origins of the term Carnival are:
1540s, “time of merrymaking before Lent,” from French carnaval, from Italian carnevale “Shrove Tuesday,” from older Italian forms such as Milanese *carnelevale, Old Pisan carnelevare “to remove meat,” literally “raising flesh,” from Latin caro “flesh” (originally “a piece of flesh,” from PIE root *sker- (1) “to cut”) + levare “lighten, raise, remove” (from PIE root *legwh- “not heavy, having little weight”).
Folk etymology has it from Medieval Latin carne vale ” ‘flesh, farewell!’ ” Attested from 1590s in the figurative sense of “feasting or revelry in general.” The meaning “a circus or amusement fair” is attested by 1926 in American English.Related entries & more
Pancake Day is another name for Shrove Tuesday. It is the day we eat up all our surplus food. Then on Ash Wednesday we must begin our lenten fast and turn out mind to repentance. Pancake Day, in the UK, is celebrated with a simple pancake with lemon and sugar. Here is a recipe from the BBC. On the other hand Shrove Tuesday can be a day of excess before the 40 days of restraint. Shrovetide was normally three days from the Sunday before Lent to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. (Here is my post on Ash Wednesday).
Mardi Gras
In France, it’s called Mardi Gras which means Fatty Tuesday, in Italy Martedi Grasso. In New Orleans it stretches from Twelfth Night to Shrove Tuesday. But as we saw, in my post on Fat or Lardy Thursday‘ the Carnival period might be up to a week. In most other places it is oneto three days. In Anglo-Saxon times there was ‘Cheese Week’, ‘Butter Week’, ‘Cheesefare Sunday’ and ‘Collop Monday’, preceeding Ash Wednesday.
Shrove Tuesday the Day to be Shriven
Shrove Tuesday is the day we should be ‘shriven’ which means to make confession. The Church has been leading up to Easter since Advent – before Christmas. (See more on Advent Sunday here). Easter is the date of the conception and, also, the date of the execution and apotheosis of Jesus Christ. So the pious should confess their sins, then undertake their lenten fast before entering the Holy Week purged and sin-free.
In the Anglo-Saxon Church, there was a custom called ‘locking the Alleluia.’ The Church stopped using the word Alleluia from 70 days before Easter. Alleluia represented the return from exile in Babylon. So, with the approach of the death of Christ it was not felt appropriate to be celebratory.
The sombre nature of this block of time was highlighted by Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955 – c. 1010).
Now a pure and holy time draws near, in which we should atone for our neglect. Every Christian, therefore, should come to his confession and confess his hidden sins, and make amends according to the guidance of his teachers; and let everyone encourage each other to do good by good example.
Ælfric, Catholic Homilies Text Ed. Peter Clemoes quoted in ‘Winters in the World’ Eleanor Parker
Time for Football!
Shrove Tuesday was the traditional time for football games in the days before football had any rules to speak of. It was a wild game. Teams tried to get a bladder from one end of town to the other, or one side of a field to the other. In Chester, the Shrove Tuesday football game was held on the Roodee island. It was so rowdy that the Mayor created the Chester Races specifically to provide a more sedate alterative to the violence of the ‘beautiful game.’
Here is a youtube video of Shrovetide Football.
Royal Asbourne Shrove Tueday Football
In London, Henry Fitzstephen who was a biographer of Thomas Becket and is writing about Shrove Tuesday Games inLondon in the late 12th Century:
‘Every year also at Shrove Tuesday, that we may begin with children’s sport, seeing we all have been children, the school boys do bring cocks of the game to their master, and all the forenoon they delight themselves in cockfighting. After dinner all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The scholars of every school have their ball, or baston in their hands. The ancient and wealthy men of the City come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men and to take part of the pleasure in beholding their agility.’
Pancake Race
I have just found a video of the pancake race at the Guildhall Yard in the City of London. It is an inter-livery company pancake race competition. The competitors, representing the medieval Guilds, have to run across the Guildhall while holding a frying pan and pancake. There is a zone where they have to toss the pancake. There is also a novelty costume race. Here is a youtube video of the 2023 race.
Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race
First published on February 21st, 2023 republished on February 13th 2024, and March 4th 2025
St Chad’s Church, Hackney. Statue of Bishop (possibly St Chad?!) Photo K Flude
St Chad
Today, is the Feast Day of St Chad who died on 2nd March 672. St Chad’s Church, Hackney is 400 yards from my house. It is a massive late 19th Century Church. Grade 1 listed built by James Brooks in 1869 in ‘his austere and muscular red-brick Gothic.’
photo of St Chad’s Church Haggerston, London. Photo K FludeSt Chad’s Vicarage, 1870 St Chad’s Church, Hackney. Photo K. Flude
Chad was possibly of Celtic origins but associated with the Anglian nobility in Northumberland. He was a pupil of St Aidan who set up the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. He spent time in Ireland, then became an Abbot, and then Bishop to the Northumbrians at York, and to the Mercians at Lichfield. His brother was St Cedd, who was important in early Christian Essex and Yorkshire.
Chad was very humble, refusing to ride around his diocese, preferring to walk, Whenever there was a violent storm, he would prostrate himself to pray to save his people. The weather, he believed, was one of the ways God communicated with his people. This might reflect his Celtic origins. Chad is the patron saint of medicinal springs according to one source. St. Chad’s Day (2 March) is said to be the best time to sow broad beans in England. You see a humble man.
March & Pisces
From the zodiac from kalendar of shepherds
Roman Weeks & (Months, hours, minutes and 24/7, 60/360)
I have been discussing the way the Roman Calendar used to work. Now it is our turn to look at the week. A week is a division of a month.
Oxford Languages says the:
Old English mōnath, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch maand and German Monat, also to Moon.
It derives from the Moon, and its length is roughly the length the moon takes to complete its cycle. So the obvious division of the month is into the phases of the Moon. The early Romans chose to keep the lunar associations with their division of the month. Their month is divided according to the Moon’s phases into the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides, as I describe in my Ides of March post here.
But keeping the phases of the moon coordinated with the movements of the sun as well as of the moon, is very difficult to do without very complicated arrangements.
Following Julius Caesar’s successful calendar reforms, Constantine the Great wanted to make his own contribution to the rationalisation of the calendar.
So, he got rid of the moon based Kalends, Ides and Nones, and established the week as the main subdivision of the month.
To please the Christians, he swopped the day of leisure from old man Saturn’s Day to the Son of God’s Day Sunday. This is the day Jesus ascended to heaven, but it was also the day for Mithras and the Unconquered Sun, so keeping some pagans happy. He then established the 7 day week. 7 was a sacred number and the number of the ‘planets’ in the Solar System (5 planets plus the sun and moon).
In Britain, we clung to some of our pagan names for the weeks. So Saturday, Sunday and Monday are Roman in origin while Tuesday – Friday are Anglo Saxon, named after the deities: Tiv, Woden,Thor, and Freya.
The Latin origins of the days of the week are obvious in the Romance languages, French, Spanish and Italian. Lundi from the moon, Mardi from Mars, Mecredi from Mercury, Jeudi from Jupiter, and Vendredi from Venus. Samedi came from Saturn. Dimanche from dies Dominica which means the lord’s day.
The order of the days comes from their position in the sky. Not in their position around the Sun but their position in the zodiac. Babylon created the scheme of a division of the sky into 24 hour long sections, a god presided over each division. It is too complicated to explain but there were 7 deities and 24 divisions, so the deities rotated and did more than one shift. Babylon used the numerical base of 60. So we have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 360 degrees in a circumference.
Other societies ignored hours until we had clocks to measure them. Anglo Saxons divided days by tides; morningtide, eventide and nighttide
As I have mentioned before, prophecy often sees a connection between the yearly calendar and future events. For example, if it rains on the fourth day of the twelve days of Christmas then it will rain during the fourth month (they say). The Kalendar of Shepherds illustrates this method giving a comparison between the ages of man and the months of the year. Twelve months in a year, Twelve ages of man in six year blocks. So March represents ages twelve to eighteen, as it says this is the ‘time to learn doctrine and science’.
Kalendar of Shepherds (translation from French 15th Century original)
First written in March 2023 revised on 2nd March 2024, St Chad added 2025
March from the Kalendar of Shepherds – French 15th Century
Spring & March
This is the beginning of Spring, meteorologically speaking. There is nothing magical about this day that makes it in any sense actually the start of Spring. It is a convenience determined by meteorologists. They divide the year up into 4 blocks of three months based on average temperature, and the convenience of keeping statistics to months. It could be that spring starts on 2nd March. 14th February. Or the 1st of February as the Celts favoured.
The Venerable Bede in his ‘The Reckoning of Time’, written in 725 AD, quotes more diversity of dates:
However, different people place the beginnings of the seasons at different times. Bishop Isidore the Spaniard said …, spring [starts] on the 8th kalends of March [22 February],…
But the Greeks and Romans, whose authority on these matters, rather than that of the Spaniards, it is generally preferable to follow, deem that spring [begins] on the 7th ides of February [7 February],…
Noting that summer and winter begin with the evening or morning rising and setting of the Pleiades, they place the commencement of spring and autumn when the Pleiades rise and set around the middle of the night.
There is nothing that says we have to have 4 seasons. Egypt had three seasons, the tropics have two. Celts divided the year into 8. Plants have been blooming, sprouting and budding since January, and some will wait until later in the year. Lambs have been born since January. But scientists and society find it easiest to keep statistics on a monthly basis so March 1st it is.
Astronomically, the seasons are more rationally divided by the movement of the Sun. So Spring begins on the spring equinox, 20th or 21st of March. For my Spring Equinox post go here.
Anglo-Saxon March
In Anglo-Saxon ‘Hrethamonath’ is the month of the Goddess Hretha. Bede gives no further information on who she was and nothing else is known about her. Her name is Latinised to Rheda. J R. R. Tolkein used the Anglo-Saxon calendar as the calendar for the Shire where the third month is called Rethe.
For the Anglo-Saxon, spring was looked forward to with great joy after the bleakness of winter. Christian Anglo-Saxons also saw this as the pivotal month in the year. It was in March that the world was created, and the Messiah conceived, revealed, executed, and ascended to heaven. See my post:
In Welsh the month is called Mawrth, (derived it is thought from the Latin Martius). Gaelic Mart or Earrach Geamraidth – which means the ‘winter spring’.
Medieval/Early Modern March
The illustration (above), from the Kalendar of Shepherds, shows that in Pisces and early Ares preparation was still the main order of the farming day, clearing out the moats, and preparing the fruit trees. Lambing is also increasing in number. And the early modern text below from the Kalendar gives a fine description of the joys of spring.
Kalendary of Shepherds- Description of March.March in the Kalendar of Shepherds.
March the 1st was the beginning of the Roman year in Rome’s early days. The Month was named after Mars, the God of War, as Mars was the patron God of the Rome. March was also the beginning of the campaign season, and the army was prepared, and ceremonies held to Mars. The Salii, twelve youths dressed in archaic fighting costumes led a procession singing the Carmen Saliare. Ovid reports in his poem Fasti (3.259–392).
Ovid & March
Ovid says the year started on the Kalends of March. Here is what Britannica says about their strange system of dividing months:
‘In a 31-day month such as March, the Kalends was day 1, with days 2–6 being counted as simply “before the Nones.” The Nones fell on day 7, with days 8–14 “before the Ides” and the 15th as the Ides. After this the days were counted as “before the Kalends” of the next month’.
More about this if you read my post on the Ides of March and Julius Caesar.
At the beginning of this book, Ovid provides the story of Rome’s foundation. Mars took Silvia the Vestal while she slept. She later gave birth to Romulus and Remus. He also gives details of how Rome was organised. In the piece of the long text I have chosen below he discusses Romulus’ arrangement of the year. It is a year that began on the 1st March, and had only 10 months. 10 is the number of digits we have and the length of pregnancy (so Ovid says).
Ovid wrote in his almanac poem the Fasti:
So, untaught and lacking in science, each five-year lustre That they calculated was short by two whole months. A year was when the moon returned to full for the tenth time: And that was a number that was held in high honour: Because it’s the number of fingers we usually count with, Or because a woman produces in ten months, Or because the numerals ascend from one to ten, And from that point we begin a fresh interval. So Romulus divided the hundred Senators into ten groups, And instituted ten companies of men with spears, And as many front-rank and javelin men, And also those who officially merited horses. He even divided the tribes the same way, the Titienses, The Ramnes, as they are called, and the Luceres. And so he reserved the same number for his year, Itís the time for which the sad widow mourns her man. If you doubt that the Kalends of March began the year, You can refer to the following evidence. The priest’s laurel branch that remained all year, Was removed then, and fresh leaves honoured. Then the king’s door is green with Phoebus’ bough, Set there, and at your doors too, ancient wards. And the withered laurel is taken from the Trojan hearth, So Vesta may be brightly dressed with new leaves. Also, it’s said, a new fire is lit at her secret shrine, And the rekindled flame acquires new strength. And to me it’s no less a sign that past years began so, That in this month worship of Anna Perenna begins. Then too it’s recorded public offices commenced, Until the time of your wars, faithless Carthaginian. Lastly Quintilis is the fifth (TXLQWXV) month from March, And begins those that take their names from numerals. Numa Pompilius, led to Rome from the lands of olives, Was the first to realise the year lacked two months, Learning it from Pythagoras of Samos, who believed We could be reborn, or was taught it by his own Egeria. But the calendar was still erratic down to the time When Caesar took it, and many other things, in hand. That god, the founder of a mighty house, did not Regard the matter as beneath his attention, And wished to have prescience of those heavens Promised him, not be an unknown god entering a strange house. He is said to have drawn up an exact table Of the periods in which the sun returns to its previous signs. He added sixty-five days to three hundred, And then added a fifth part of a whole day. That’s the measure of the year: one day The sum of the five part-days is added to each lustre.
For much more about the Roman Year (and leap years) look at my post here.
St David’s Day
It is also the Feast of St David, the patron saint of Wales, who lived in the sixth century AD. Little that is known about him that is contemporary but he was an abbot-bishop. He is important for the independence of the Welsh Christian tradition.
Victorian lampoon on Socialist Values ‘Yes Gentlemen, these is my principles, no King, no Lords, No Parsons, No Police, No Taxes, No Transportation, no No’thing.’
Walk of Socialists at St. Paul’s 28th February 1887
My French friend went yesterday to St. Paul’s and saw a large procession of socialists. It is a strange move of the socialists to visit all the Churches. The Archdeacon of London preached to them from: “the rich and poor meet together, and the Lord is the maker of them all.” A noble sermon, they behaved fairly well.
Helen G. McKenney, Diary, 1887 (source: A London Year. Compiled by Travis Eldborough and Nick Bennison)
The quotation is from the Bible, Proverbs 22, where it sits with a number of other wise sayings. Perhaps, number 16:
‘One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty‘
is most likely to stir a Socialist. I imagine the Archdeacon was also making a point that the Lord made the Rich and the Poor. So there is nothing wrong with being Rich, as long as you are generous to the Poor. Equally, nothing wrong with being Poor.
Bloody Sunday
It’s rather lovely to imagine the Walk of Socialists walking around Wren’s masterpieces in the City of London. However, later in 1887, things turned much worse. The Social Democratic Federation and the Irish National League organised a march against Unemployment and the Irish Coercion Acts. The Police had been trying to prevent the ever-increasing use of Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park as protest venues. So, on November 13th, Bloody Sunday, the Police Commissioner, Charles Warren, ordered a massive police presence. He backed this up with 400 Soldiers. He aimed to prevent the entry to Hyde Park. Among the 10 to 30 thousand citizens presence were William Morris, Annie Besant , George Bernard Shaw and Eleanor Marx.
By the end of the day there were 2 people dead, 100 seriously injured, and 45 arrests. There were 75 accusations of police brutality but also many Police Casualties. Warren was acting as a caretaker until a new Commissioner was in place. He had already resigned following criticism of the failure to find Jack the Ripper.
Engraving from The Graphic (published 19 November 1887). Wikipedia describes it as ‘depicting a policeman being clubbed by a demonstrator as he wrests a banner from “a Socialist woman leader, one Mrs. Taylor”, while other people are covering their heads to protect themselves from raised police batons.’ Pubic Domain
Progressive Politics
Before the Foundation of the Labour Party, progressive politics were in the lukewarm hands of the Liberal Party. This developed from the Restoration period Whig Party. The Liberal Party had a radical wing, but it had a reluctance to put forward working-class candidates. In the early 19th Century, much of the agitation was led by a movement called the Chartists. But as their goals became adopted by the main two parties, progressive politics was led by various reform, radical, socialist, marxist and anarchic groups.
I have not been able to find out who led the 1887 Walk of Socialists around the City Churches. However, William Morris’ presence suggests the Socialist League? In 1885, the Socialist League was an offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation. But it was not a harmonious group. Its most famous members were William Morris, and Eleanor Marx. It included Fabians, Christian Socialists and Anarchists. By 1887 it was split ideologically into three main factions, Anarchists, parliamentary orientated Socialists, and anti-parliamentary Socialists. William Morris was the editor of their newspaper, ‘the Commonweal’ but he was sacked and replaced by Frank Kitz as the Anarchists took over the organisation.
So, without going into a long history of Socialism in London, what happened was that the Socialist groups made very little impact until the Independent Labour Party was set up in Bradford 1893. And in 1900, Keir Hardie, who was already an independent MP in Parliament, set up the Labour Representation Committee in 1900. This was was soon renamed the Labour Party. The Independent Labour Party joined, and Labour began to take over control of the working-class vote. It fought for this with the Liberal Party. It was not until after World War 1, with the decline of the Liberal Vote that it was able to secure minority Governments. It was only after World War 2 that it replaced the Liberals as one of the two Political Parties which could win a majority in Parliament.
London was one of the places where the Party experimented with left wing policies. The East End areas of Poplar, Limehouse and Bermondsey were particularly important. These led to the National Health Service,
My Grandma who was born in Hoxton in 1902, voted for Labour all her life. I’m pretty sure it was out of class loyalty because I always thought her opinions were more traditional than progressive. For more on Hoxton and revolution you may be interested in my post on Hoxton and the Gunpowder plot.
This post commemorates the death of John Evelyn. It should have been published yesterday, but I had to publish my post on Fat Thursday. Being a moveable feast, it moved to February 27th this year. You will find more about Evelyn below. But first, I must report back on my success or failure of the Lardy Cake I cooked to celebrate Gioverdi Grasso.
lardy cake being madeLady Cake overcooked!Slice of Lardy Cake
Ok, so my first error was to forget to put the sugar in! Secondly, I was distracted so did not put the timer on, so it was a little overcooked, but not disastrously. I also used Wholemeal flour rather than Strong White flour, which Paul Hollywood suggested. I’ve had about 4 slices, last night and this morning. Verdict: Quite Good. But buy it from a shop next time. Don’t apply to appear on Bake-off. Its ok, if you sprinkle a little sugar on. Next slice I might try some jam. It is more like a fruit bread than a lardy cake. I have now washed the utensils 4 times, and they are still covered in lard! But at least it’s less fat ingested.
Back to John Evelyn
27th February, 1661. Ash Wednesday. Preached before the King the Bishop of London (Dr. Sheldon) on Matthew xviii. 25, concerning charity and forgiveness.
John Evelyn is, with Pepys and Wren, one of the great figures of 17th Century London. Unlike Pepys he was an avowed Royalist who hated Oliver Cromwell and all he stood for. He went into exile with his King and gives a great description of Paris (see below). Dr Sheldon, the Bishop of London mentioned above, went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a friend of Wren’s Father, and commissioned Wren to build the Sheldonian Theatre, in Oxford.
Like Pepys, John Evelyn was a diarist and a writer. And they, like Wren, were alumni of the Royal Society, one of the great scientific societies. John Evelyn was a founding fellow. It was innovative in that it employed an experimenter. He was Robert Hooke – one of the great early Scientists, who also worked with Wren rebuilding London after the Great Fire. The Royal Society encouraged scientists to experiment, write up, and submit their theories to for peer review. This is the foundation of Western Science, and a bedrock of the Enlightenment.
Frontispiece of ‘the History of the Royal-Society of London by Thomas Sprat. John Evelyn was a founder member
Evelyn the Writer.
Evelyn has a place in my history because, in the 1980’s I worked. with Paul Herbert, on a project to create an interactive history of London. It was financed by Warner Brothers, and in cooperation with the short-lived ‘BBC Interactive TV Unit’. One part of it was a Literary Tour of London. And this is where I came across John Evelyn using several of the quotations on this page.
Evelyn was a prolific traveller and a polymath. He wrote on the need to improve London’s architecture and air in Fumifugium (or The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated).
Here is an extract from his Furmifugium.
‘That this Glorious and Antient City, which from Wood might be rendred Brick, and (like another Rome) from Brick made Stone and Marble; which commands the Proud Ocean to the Indies, and reaches to the farthest Antipodes, should wrap her stately head in Clowds of Smoake and Sulphur, so full of Stink and Darknesse, I deplore with just Indignation.
That the Buildings should be compos’d of such a Congestion of mishapen and extravagant Houses; That the Streets should be so narrow and incommodious in the very Center, and busiest places of Intercourse: That there should be so ill and uneasie a form of Paving under foot, so troublesome and malicious a disposure of the Spouts and Gutters overhead, are particulars worthy of Reproof and Reformation; because it is hereby rendred a Labyrinth in its principal passages, and a continual Wet-day after the Storm is over. ‘
And he was an expert on trees. Author of: Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees (1664). He lived at Sayes Court in Depford near Greenwich, which he ill-advisedly rented to Peter the Great of Russia. Letting to Peter was a lot-like inviting a 1960s Rock Band to trash your mansion.
John Evelyn the Exile
Here is a taste of Evelyn’s time as an Exile. It is a short extract from a long entry on the splendid Palaces in and around Paris.
27th February, 1644. Accompanied with some English gentlemen, we took horse to see St. Germains-en-Laye, a stately country house of the King, some five leagues from Paris. By the way, we alighted at St. Cloud, where, on an eminence near the river, the Archbishop of Paris has a garden, for the house is not very considerable, rarely watered and furnished with fountains, statues,[and groves; the walks are very fair; the fountain of Laocoon is in a large square pool, throwing the water near forty feet high, and having about it a multitude of statues and basins, and is a surprising object. But nothing is more esteemed than the cascade falling from the great steps into the lowest and longest walk from the Mount Parnassus, which consists of a grotto, or shell-house, on the summit of the hill, wherein are divers waterworks and contrivances to wet the spectators; this is covered with a fair cupola, the walls painted with the Muses, and statues placed thick about it, whereof some are antique and good. In the upper walks are two perspectives, seeming to enlarge the alleys, and in this garden are many other ingenious contrivances.
When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, this was Evelyn’s reaction:
May 29th 1660:
This day came in his Majestie Charles the 2d to London after a sad, and long exile… this was also his birthday, and with a Triumph of above 20,000 horse and foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with unexpressable joy; the wayes strawed with flowers, the bells ringing, the streets hung with Tapisry, fountains running with wine: ‘
‘The mayor, Aldermen, all the companies in their liveries, chaines of gold, banners, Lords and nobles, cloth of Silver, gold and velvet every body clad in, the windows and balconies all set with Ladys, Trumpetes, Musik, and myriads of people … All this without one drop of bloud …it was the Lords doing…
A plate of Polish pączki for tłusty czwartek (Fat Thursday)
Fat Thursday
Today is El Jueves Lardero in Spain, Giovedì grasso in Italy, Weiberfastnach in the Rhineland, Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) in Poland and Tsiknopempti in Greece.
Please read out that sentence loud, attempting the accents because it’s very therapeutic!
Before, I continue, I am celebrating yesterday’s 500th Post! I’m going to bake a cake to celebrate!
Fat Thursday is the first day of the Carnival season. It reaches a climax on Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday. This is the day before Ash Wednesday, when the 40 days of fasting before Lent begins.
In Poland, the tradition is to eat pączki which we call doughnuts and the Germans call Berliners. I remember when President Kennedy made a famous speech in Berlin and said ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. He was cheered to the echo but was actually saying ‘I am a doughnut). Doughnuts traditionally should be made with red jam. But now people can use cream, or almost any sort of sugary nonsense.
Spain is more savoury on Greasy Thursday, where tortilla are eaten. They also eat sausages, bacon, and pork. In Catalonia, they eat tortilla with butifarra.(which are sausages in the Roman tradition). Here is a recipe for butifarra.
In Italy giovedì grasso (Fat Thursday) is when:
“the fooling and the mumming, the dancing, shrieking, and screaming would be at its height.”
There are indications that the week before Shrove Tuesday, in the Anglo Saxon period, was one of merriment and feasting. Eating the things that were not allowed in Lent. So in Old English this week is Cheese Week or Butter Week, and there was a Cheesefare Sunday. (‘Winters in the World’ by Eleanor Parker).
But I cannot find any references to traditions of a fat Thursday or a Lardy Thursday in the UK. But we do have the fabulous Lardy Cake. It is a cake that drips with sugar and lard (pig fat). It is one of my very favourite cakes. The main ingredients are rendered lard, flour, sugar, spices, currants and raisins. I was brought up on Lardy Cake, Chelsea Buns, Spotted Dick, and Sticky Willies (iced buns). Every day was Fat Thursday! I am surprised I wasn’t an overweight child!
It is by no means a countrywide cake. My own theory is that it was a delicacy of the West Saxons. And I fondly imagine King Alfred tending to the Lardy Cake when musing about defeating the Vikings. I have bought lardy cake in Woking and Guildford in Surrey. There is a great Lardy Cake to be eaten in the centre of Winchester (Alfred’s Capital). Along the Thames Valley in Reading, but best were sold in Cornmarket in Oxford, in the since closed Woolworths. These are all in areas controlled by Wessex in the 9th Century.
When lecturing at Worcester I found a variant of it which is called Worcester Dripping Cake. Worcester is in the Kingdom of Mercia. Dripping is melted fat, often from Beef. Many Londoners were brought up on Bread and Dripping.
Wikipedia says Lardy Cake is from: ‘southern counties of England, including Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire.’ But I have never found it myself around Stonehenge, or in Dorchester, nor in the Cotswolds. So I would say Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire are the lardy cake heartlands. It is said to have been originally for special occasions, so maybe there once was a Lardy Thursday tradition. It feels like there should be one!
And here, courtesy of the BBC and the handsome (but possibly, dare I say it, a little ‘lardy’) Paul Hollywood of Bake-off fame, is a recipe for Lardy Cake. Please make it and feel that wonderful English Pudding feeling of a lead weight in your stomach.
The recipe says ‘This recipe has a generous amount of dried fruit in a rich dough that’s lighter and less sweet than most shop-bought lardy cakes’. So, it’s not going to be entirely authentic!
I am going to make one today.
Following posting this page on Facebook, last year, Heike Herbert posted this response concerning ‘Women’s Fast Night on February 8th in Cologne or Koln:
Aristotelis Psitos emailed me to say that the Greek Orthodox ‘Fat Thursday’ is on a different date. This year it was 20th February.
Spring Chickens appear in Cheap and Good Husbandry by Gervaise Markham London 1664
Of Setting Hens (and Spring Chickens)
Gervase Markham who wrote a heap of farming and horticulture books in the 17th Century, wrote about Spring Chickens in ‘Cheap and Good Husbandry’. He starts by suggesting this is the time to impregnate them.
The best time to set Hens to have the best, largest, and most kindly Chickens;, is in February, in the increase of the Moon, so that they may hatch or disclose her Chickens; in the increase of the next new Moon, being in March; for one brood of March Chickens; is worth three broods of any other: You may set Hens from March; till October, and have good Chickens;, but not after by any means, for the Winter is a great enemy to their breeding….
The expression comes from the 17th Century when Spring/March Chickens were more profitable that old chickens that had gone through the winter. Commonly, it is used in the negative as in ‘Kevin ain’t no spring chicken.’
On this day
First £1 note of the Bank of England Museum 1797 Source Joy_of_Museums Public Domain (CC by sa 4.0)
February 26th 1797 First Pound Note:
The Bank of England issued it’s first ever one pound note (although some sources say March 1797). The Bank had been issuing paper notes since the late 17th Century, but this was the first £1 note. They still had to be signed by hand and allocated to a specific person. The hand signed white paper notes were withdrawn in 1820, and the pound note was, finally, withdrawn in 1988. The £1 in 1797 was worth the equivalent of £157.46 today, so quite a big note! (see here for the calculator.)
Pound note first published 2024, Spring Chicken February 26th 2025
![Chad is the patron saint of medicinal springs,[37] although other listings[38] do not mention this patronage.
St. Chad's Day (2 March) is traditionally considered the most propitious day to sow broad beans in England.](https://www.chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/haggerston_may_2020.jpg)
