Category: Heritage

Posted on

The Raven, the Palladium and the White Hill of London February 18th

Shows a photo of a missing Raven at the Tower of London
The Independent January 2021 The Raven the Palladium of Britain

The Raven – the Palladium of Britain

Corvus corax is hatching. An early nesting bird, the Raven is the biggest of the Corvids. They were pushed to the west and north by farmers and game keepers but are making a comeback. Ravens are finding towns convenient for their scavenging habits. So they, again, cover most of the UK except the eastern areas. The Raven is one of the Palladiums of Britain.

A Palladium is something that keeps a city or country safe, They are named after a wooden statue of Pallas Athene, which protected Troy. Perceiving this, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium from Troy shortly before the Trojan Horse episode. Troy fell and the palladium went to Italy (I’m guessing with Diomedes who is said to have founded several cities in Italy). It ended up in Rome.

The Romans claimed to be descendants of Trojan exiles led by Aeneas. So it was back with its rightful owners. It protected Rome until it was transferred to the new Roman capital at Constantinople. It then disappeared, presumably allowing the Ottoman Turks to conquer the City of Caesar? To read of London Stone as a Palladium see my post here.

The Raven, Aneirin & Arthur

The Ravens habits (it is said they know where the battlefields are before they are fought) and their black plumage have made them harbingers of death. In poetry, Ravens glut on blood like the warriors whose emblem they are. Here is a very famous quotation from Y Gododdin, a medieval poem but thought to derive from a poem by the great poet Aneirin from the 7th Century.

‘He glutted black ravens on the rampart of the stronghold, though he was no Arthur.’

This is one of the much argued-about references to King Arthur in the ‘Was he a real person’ trope. The point being, it doesn’t make sense to mention Arthur if King Arthur wasn’t a real person. The story at the Tower of London is that the Ravens kept in the Tower, with clipped wings, keep Britain safe from Invasion. (But see below).

Bran’s Head – the original Palladium of Britain?

A raven landing with a brown background
By Sonny Mauricio from Unsplash

The Raven was also the symbol of the God-King Bran. Bran was one of the legendary Kings of Britain. His sister, Branwen, was married to the King of Ireland. To cut a long story short, Branwen was exiled by her Irish husband to the scullery. She trained a starling to smuggle a message to her brother, to tell of her abuse.

So Bran took an army over the Irish Sea to restore her to her rightful state. But the ships were becalmed. Mighty Bran blew the boats across the sea – he was that much a hero. Bran was mortality wounded in the fighting that followed. This was a problem because he had previously given away his cauldron of immortality.  He gave it to the Irish King in recompense for the insults given to the Irish by Bran’s brother, who hated anyone not British.

Bran’s Head Returns to London

So, the dying Bran, told his companions to cut off his own head and take it back to the White Hill in London. His head was as good a companion on the way back as it was on the way out, and the journey home took 90 years.

At last, they got to London, where Bran told his men to bury his head on the White Hill. As long as it stays here, he said, Britain would be safe from foreign invasion. The White Hill is said to be Tower Hill with its summit at Trinity Gardens, although Primrose Hill is sometimes offered as an alternative.

This was one of the Three Fortunate Concealments and is found in ‘the Triads of the Island of Britain.’ The Triads are from medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of folklore, mythology and history. They are grouped in groups of three.

Arthur and Bran’s Head

But many years later, King Arthur saw no need for anybody or anything other than himself to protect the realm. So he had the head dug up. Calamity followed in the shapes of Sir Lancelot and Mordred which led to the end of the golden age of Camelot and conquest of Britain by the Saxons. This was one of the Three Unfortunate Disclosures.

If we want a rational explanation for the story, there is evidence that Celtic cultures venerated the skull, and palladiums play a part in Celtic Tales.

So what was Arthur doing destroying the palladium that kept Britain safe? Vanity is the answer the story gives. But, perhaps, it’s a memory of Christian rites taking over from pagan rituals? God, Arthur might have thought, would prefer to protect his people himself rather than Christians having to rely on a pagan cult object.

Ravens in the Tower of London

The story of Bran’s head is inevitably linked to the Ravens in the Tower who, it is still said, keep us safe from invasion.  As you can see from the photo at the top we still get in a tizz when one goes missing.

Sadly, and I am probably sadder about this than most, the link between the Tower, Bran, and the Ravens cannot be substantiated. Geoffrey Parnell, who is a friend of mine, told me that while working at the Tower of London he searched the records assiduously for the story of the ravens.  He found no evidence of the Raven myth & the Tower before the 19th Century, and concluded that it was most likely a Victorian invention. IanVisits has a 2025 story about the Ravens, and also concurs that the Ravens are a recent myth.

The Welsh Triads give a total of two palladiums for Britain, a couple of nationalistic fighting dragons.

Three Fortunate Concealments of the Island of Britain

The Head of Bran the Blessed, son of Llyr, which was concealed in the White Hill in London, with its face towards France. And as long as it was in the position in which it was put there, no Saxon Oppression would ever come to this Island;
The second Fortunate Concealment: the Dragons in Dinas Emrys, which llud son of Beli concealed;
And the third: the Bones of Gwerthefyr the Blessed, in the Chief Ports of this Island. And as long as they remained in that concealment, no Saxon Oppression would ever come to this Island.

All good but then came:

The Three Unfortunate Disclosures:

And there were the Three Unfortunate Disclosures when these were disclosed.
And Gwrtheyrn the Thin disclosed the bones of Gwerthefyr the Blessed for the love of a woman: that was Ronnwen the pagan woman;
And it was he who disclosed the Dragons;
And Arthur disclosed the head of Bran the Blessed from the White Hill, because it did not seem right to him that this Island should be defended by the strength of anyone, but by his own.

Gwrtheyrn is Vortigen, the leader of the Britons after the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain, one or two leaders before Arthur. Vortigern, which means something like strong leader in Welsh was a real person in so far as he, unlike Arthur, is mentioned by Gildas a near contemporary source.

The story of the dragons is supposedly from the pre-Roman Iron Age.  Every May Day, the Dragons made a terrible noise, causing miscarriages and other misfortunes. So, King Ludd, whom legends says gave his name to London (Ludd’s Dun or Ludd’s walled City), drugged the dragons.  He had them buried in a cavern at Dinas Emrys in Eryri (Snowdonia). The Red Dragon represented the Britons (also called the Welsh) and White Dragons the Saxons.

Vortigern, Merlin and Vortimer

Hundreds of years later, (five hundred?) after the Romans had come and gone.  Vortigern was trying to build a castle in Eryri at Dinas Emrys.  But the walls keep falling down. ‘You need the blood of a boy born not of man’, his necromancers say.  They find a boy called Ambrosius aka Merlin whose mother had lain with an incubus.  Merlin accused the necromancers of ignorance and explains the wall collapse is caused by two dragons.  They find the cavern and let the dragons go.  The walls now stand undisturbed. But the Welsh Red Dragon and the Saxon White Dragon can not now be at peace, and the Britons are defeated by the Saxons.

Vortigern betrayed his own people for the lust of Rowena the daughter of Hengist, the Saxon. Hengist was given the province of Kent as his reward, and thus began the Anglo-Saxon take over.

Vortigern’s son is Gwerthefyr (or Vortimer). He was a better man than his dad and fought to keep the Saxons out. After Vortimer’s death his bones were buried at the chief ports on the South Coast. Here they acted as a palladian and they kept the country safe.  But they were moved to Billingsgate, in London and put in a Tower. The loss of the palladium allowed the Saxons to land safely on the Kent coast and consolidate their increasing hold over Britain and turning it into England.

Birds in Love

Here is a lovely little medieval poem. It was found in 1931 in the end leaf of a manuscript where someone had been testing their goose quill and scribbled these three lines:

All the birds have begun their nests

Except for me and you

What are we waiting for now?

This is from Dr Florence H.R.Scott’s lovely medieval substack here:

Wet Weather

Why it is so wet in the UK at the moment (February 18th)? The answer seems to be that there is a block of cold weather over the States that is moving the Jet Stream south, bringing lots of wet weather. But there is also another block of cold weather over Scandinavia. This means that the low pressures being driven by the Jet Stream, have no where to go and are stopping and dumping their rain all over the UK.

To hear the Observer’s explanation listen here.

On This Day

3102 BC – the death of Krishna starts Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism.

1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, traitor to his Brother, Edward IV, was executed in private at the Tower of London. It is said he was drowned in a vat of Malmsey Wine.

1678 – First Part of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan published.

1991 – The IRA plant bombs at Paddington station and Victoria station in London. The IRA gave warnings, and the Victoria bomb went off at 4.20am and caused no casualties. At or just before 7am, the IRA warned that all London Stations were to be bombed in 45 minutes time. The Authorities were slow to clear the stations and at Paddington a bomb went off at 7:40am. 1 person was killed and 38 people were injured. 11 days earlier, the IRA attacked Downing St with a mortar bomb attack.

Written on February 21 revised in February 18th 23, 24, 25, Birds in Love, Wet Weather and On This Day added in 2026

Posted on

Shrove Tuesday – Pancake Day – Mardi Gras – End of the Carnival

Les_Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry February (Detail) The people inside are warming their legs and their hands in front of a roaring fire.
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry February (Detail) The people inside are warming their legs and their hands in front of a roaring fire.

Shrove Tuesday & Carnival

This year, February 17th 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 

www.etymonline.com

Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday

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 our 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 was more normally a week. In most other places it is one to three days. In Anglo-Saxon times there was ‘Cheese Week’, ‘Butter Week’, ‘Cheesefare Sunday’ and ‘Collop Monday’, preceding 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 at Royal Asbourne in Derbyshire. You will notice it seems chaotic but if you look at the participants directed the action you can see how involved they are in it.

Royal Asbourne Shrove Tueday Football

In London, Henry Fitzstephen wrote about Shrove Tuesday Games in London 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.’

Fitzstephen was the first biographer of Thomas Becket.

Pancake Race

The City of London has an annual pancake race at the Guildhall Yard. It is an inter-livery company competition. The Livery Companies also known as medieval Guilds, have to run across the Guildhall while holding a frying pan and pancake. There is a zone marked out where they have to toss the pancake. 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, February 17th 2026

Posted on

British Recapture trenches near St Eloi February 15th 1915

The Prioress with her Rosary Beads from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript
The Prioress from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere manuscript. Her only oath is ‘By St Eloi’

When I read a reference to a Battle at St Eloi, it struck a chord as he is mentioned in the Canterbury Tales. It is an oath sworn by the delicate Prioress:

There was also a nun, a prioress,
Who, in her smiling, modest was and coy;
Her greatest oath was but “By Saint Eloy!”
And she was known as Madam Eglantine.
Full well she sang the services divine(5)
Intoning through her nose, becomingly;
And fair she spoke her French, and fluently.
At table she had been well taught withal,
And never from her lips let morsels fall,
Nor dipped her fingers deep in sauce, but ate(10)
With so much care the food upon her plate
That never driblet fell upon her breast.

General Prologue Canterbury Tales. Full Text here.

The reason is sticks in my mind is that the Prioress is shown as a cultured, well-mannered, delicate woman. And yet, she tells the most tremendously anti-Semitic tale. I hope that Chaucer meant this contrast. Someone who knows the forms of good behaviour without a clue in her hand that the most important of the Commandments is ‘Love Thy Neighbour like thyself.’ Another irony is that St Eloy was noted for refusing to swear an oath, and yet, the Prioress swears, by St Eloy.

St Eloi

Anyway, St Eloi was a very popular saint in the medieval period. According to legend, he was was having trouble shoeing a horse, which he thought was possessed. So he cut the horse’s leg off, re-shoed the amputated leg and then reattached the leg back on the horse. The horse trotted off, none the worse for the experience.

Properly called St. Eligius he is the patron saint of horses and cattle, farriers, blacksmiths, metalworkers, goldsmiths. The Saint was also responsible for converting Flanders to Christianity in the 7th Century. His Saint’s Day is 1 December. To look at the charge of rape against Chaucer look at my post here.

St Eloy in London

I have just discovered that there is a Holy Well dedicated to St Eloy in Tottenham London! To find out more look at this page.

Trenches at St Eloi

The Ypres Salient. St Eloi is just behind the ‘line’ above HOLLEBEKE
. Downloaded from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15480 wikipedia

St Eloi is also the patron saint of mechanics in general (including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, (forerunners of whom fought at Ypres). This brings me to what happened on this day in 1915, the British retook trenches at St Eloi. St Eloi was just behind the Southern edge of the Ypres Salient, a bulge of allied territory surrounded on three sides by German forces and the site of the five battles of Ypres. St Eloi had a mound which provided a perfect position for machine-guns to dominate the area and so became the focus of fierce fighting from 1914 through into 1918 when the Germans were finally pushed out of the Salient.

World War I destruction in Ypres (wikipedia)

Bravery at St Eloi

Here is a citation from a medal for bravery:

´For gallant behaviour on the morning of the 15th February 1915 at St. Eloi. A party of six stretcher bearers carrying wounded men from the firing line came under a heavy and sustained rifle fire. The bearers left their stretchers and ran to cover leaving Private Wright, D.C.L.I. (shot through the knee) and Private A. Stevenson, D.C.L.I. (shot through stomach) lying in open under heavy fire.

7679 Lance Sergeant T. Spanton, 6170 Rifleman E. Largen, and 1126 Company Sergeant Major S.M. Clay [together with Captain Brady] rushed some 50 yards across the exposed fire zone and carried in to cover the stretcher bearing Private Wright, whilst under heavy rifle fire. Private Stevenson, who was lying beside Wright, was found to be dead, and so was not carried in until dark. Lance Sergeant Spanton, Company Sergeant Major Clay, and Rifleman Largen have on several occasions done noticeably good work, showing fearlessness, resource, and devotion to duty.´

For details of the medals follow this link.

Fighting continued here from 1914 through into 1918 when the Germans were finally pushed out of the Salient.

War in Winter

I wanted to find something about the winter as experienced in World War 1. Why? Because I watched a very moving film about World War 1 by Derek Jarman called ‘War Requiem’. It put images to the requiem by Benjamin Britten. I also listened to a radio piece on ‘Spring Offensives’ to give a long view on what was happening in Ukraine.

I found this war poem which vividly sets a winter war scene:

Searchlight
F. S. Flint

There has been no sound of guns,
No roar of exploding bombs;
But the darkness has an edge
That grits the nerves of the sleeper.

He awakens;
Nothing disturbs the stillness,
Save perhaps the light, slow flap,
Once only, of the curtain
Dim in the darkness.

Yet there is something else
That drags him from his bed;
And he stands in the darkness
With his feet cold against the floor
And the cold air round his ankles.
He does not know why,
But he goes to the window and sees
A beam of light, miles high,
Dividing the night into two before him,
Still, stark and throbbing.

The houses and gardens beneath
Lie under the snow
Quiet and tinged with purple.

There has been no sound of guns,
No roar of exploding bombs;
Only that watchfulness hidden among the snow-covered houses,
And that great beam thrusting back into heaven
The light taken from it.

Published 2025, Revised February 2026

Posted on

St Valentine’s Day & Magpies February 14th

Picture of a magpie in a field. Photo by Rossano D'Angelo on Unsplash
Magpie – A Bird for St Valentine’s Day? Photo by Rossano D’Angelo on Unsplash

St Valentine’s Day in a Poem by Chaucer

For this was on Seynt Valentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
Of every kinde, that men thynke may;
And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.
Parliament of Fowls, Geoffrey Chaucer

This is my ‘translation’

For this was St. Valentine’s Day
When every bird came there to chose their mate.
Of every type, that men think may
And that so huge a noise did they make
That earth and sea and tree and every lake
So full was, that hardly was there space
For to stand so full was the place.

St Valentine’s Patronage

This is the first reference to St Valentine’s as a romantic day. And some people charge Chaucer with making the whole thing up! St Valentine, is supposed to have been martyred in the 3rd Century (290AD) on the Via Flaminia on February 14. He refused to stop marrying people in the Christian rites. Therefore, he is the patron Saint of lovers. Valentine is also the patron Saint of epileptics, fainting and beekeepers. According to legend, he taught a young blind girl how to look after Bees, and, sometime later, her eyesight was restored. He also is said to have treated a young man of epilepsy. Epilepsy was sometimes called the Falling Sickness, and so he is also the Saint of Fainting.

But until Chaucer, there was no particular link with romance. In fact, there are at least three Saint Valentines who were martyred in the Roman period. Their relics are scattered around Europe (have a look at this National Geographic article for the full S.P.). These include bones in Glasgow and his heart in Dublin. There are in total 11 Saints called Valentine in the list of Catholic Saints.

Another theory is that St Valentine has taken over the aspect of the God Cupid, as a Christian attempt to create a holy festival to replace the Lupercalia. See my post on the Lupercalia here.

St Valentine’s Day and Birds

Chaucer’s poem suggests one possible route to the link with romance. Early February is about the time when birds pair off. If they want to have their chicks at the optimal time, then they need to get going before spring has really sprung.

When I think of love, I don’t think of birds. Maybe, this is because I live by a Canal. Outside my garden, I frequently see and hear a Coot chasing his pair across the water before violently mounting her. But then they are fiercely monogamous and defend their nest, fearlessly, against much bigger birds. And swans glide by in beautiful family groups. But Magpies are my favourite lovebird because you see one, and then look around, and you very often see the partner. I have adopted an old tradition that you are supposed to say:

‘Hello, Mr Magpie! Where’s Mrs Magpie?’

And look for the mate. It is good luck if you see her and bad luck if you don’t. (Please feel free to assign your own favourite gender!)

‘One for Sorrow’ is a well-known nursery rhyme found in many variations, and is an example of ‘ornithomancy superstition’ whereby the number of Magpies you see determines some aspect of your future. Magpies normally mate for life, and are not gregarious during the nesting season, but thereafter, they ‘join together in large wintering flocks of more than 20 or so birds.‘. So, perhaps we need at least another seven lines for the rhyme? So, far I have never seen a flock of them. If you have a photo of a flock, please send it to me!

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss,
Eleven for health,
Twelve for wealth,
Thirteen beware it’s the devil himself.

As to the likelihood of seeing thirteen magpies together – well I have seen them often in pairs, occasionally in threes and often alone.

Here is another, more dangerous version of the rhyme (you are more likely to see the Devil)

One for sorrow,
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral,
Four for birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the devil, his own self

For details of the history of versions of this poem, click here:

Bad Birds

Magpies don’t have a good reputation, traditionally being regarded as thieves and scavengers with untidy nests and eating habits. They are supposed to be attracted to shiny things, but Exeter University did some research which found that they have the normal Corvid’s curiosity for objects. But they are as happy to snatch a dull object as a shiny one. So, we can see they are very intelligent as well as faithful lovers. For me, a good-omened bird (as long as I see the two of them).

More on Chaucer in my post for April 18th. For my post on Blackbirds see here.

On This Day

44BC – Julius Caesar was appointed dictator in perpetuum. Or perpetual dictator of the Roman Republic. Coins were issued with the phrase DICT PERPETVO.

1400 -Richard II died shortly after Epiphany Rising, a failed plot to restore him to the throne. Some think he was starved to death in captivity in Pontefract Castle. Or he starved himself. His body was taken to London and put on display in St Paul’s Cathedral on 17 February. His remains were taken to one of his favourite palaces at King’s Langley Priory on 6 March. Henry V had his remains ‘translated’ to Westminster Abbey. King’s Langley was a Royal Palace lived in by Eleanor of Aquitaine and Edward II, as well as Richard II. It is near Slough.

Jan-Marie Knights author of The Plantagenet Socialite lists possible scenarios:

‘The accepted tale of the king’s death is that in despair and grief at the death of his friends, King Richard refused to eat or drink, although a few say he was purposely starved to ensure he died as if from a natural death. Another rumour is that when an esquire mentioned the words ‘King Henry’ while he was eating dinner, Richard struck him with the knife he was using. Guards charged in and the king, pushing the table away, took a bill out of one man’s hand and managed to slay four of them but one leapt onto the chair he had vacated and felled him with a stroke of his poleaxe.’

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone

1895 – The Importance of Being Earnest, first produced at the St James’s Theatre, London

1918 – Russia finally adopts the Gregorian calendar. see my post here.

First Published in February 2023, revised and updated in February 2024, 2025 On This Day added 2026

Posted on

Friday the Thirteenth

Photo by Polina M on Unsplash illustrating Friday the Thirteenth

On the other hand, ‘Thank God It’s Friday!’. In fact, the belief that Friday the Thirteenth is a very bad luck days is not that old. Researchers can only trace it back to the 19th Century in France. Have a look at this BBC site for details. However, 13 has long been an ill-omened number. Judas Iscariot was the 13th to arrive at the Last Supper, And that didn’t turn out well. 13 was an unlucky day for the Romans too.

Copy of the Last Supper at the Royal Academy
Copy of the Last Supper at the Royal Academy showing 13 participlants

Baldur and Loki

In Norse Mythology, Baldur, the son of Odin who was a bright and cheerful God, was having premonitions of doom. Odin sought the advice of a dead seer who told him, Baldur was doomed. Baldur’s mother, the Goddess Frigg, was determined to save him. So got every entity in the cosmos live or dead to swear they would not harm Baldur.

Thereafter, the Gods enjoyed themselves at banquets by throwing missiles at Baldur who was now immune to all threats. The mischievous God, Loki, saw an opportunity for his evil skills. He spoke, in disguise, to Frigg asking if she had really got every single entity to swear? She said yes except the Mistletoe as it was so innocuous. So, ofcourse, Loki went to make a spear out of the mistletoe.

With the weapon, Loki attended a Banquet of twelve gods to which he was not invited, being therefore the 13th. When the Gods began their now customary game of throwing things at Baldur, Loki asked the slayer God Hodr to throw the mistletoe spear. It killed Baldur, and despite many attempts the Gods could not get Baldur out of Hell, Much of the joy of the world died with him. For more detail see norse-mythology.org.

By Jakob Sigurðsson[2] – SÁM 66, 75v. Digitized version available from http://sagnanet.is/saganet/?MIval=/SinglePage&Manuscript=1109&Page=150&language=english. Image processing (crop, rotate, color-levels) by Skadinaujo (talk · contribs)ou Jakob Sigurðsson. The Death of Baldr. From: Reykjavik: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum. SÁM 66. 1765. 75v. Hand copied paper manuscript. MyNDIR: My Norse Digital Image Repository. Ed. P. A. Baer. 2023. Edition 2.5.1. Victoria, B. C.: Humanities Computing and Media Centre, University of Victoria. 2023., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6029049

Unlucky Friday?

Friday was often an unlucky day in the Bible. In particular, it was the day Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge. Below you can see the human-headed snake beguiling Eve who hands the fruit of knowledge to Adam.

Detail from The Creation and Fall of Man by Mariotto Albertinelli Courtauld Institute photo by KFlude
Detail from The Creation and Fall of Man by Mariotto Albertinelli Courtauld Institute photo by KFlude

It was the day when Noah’s premonition was proven correct. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer writes that “And on a Friday fell all this mischance. O Venus, sweet goddess of love’s chance”. (Nun’s Priest’s Tale). And Friday was the normal Hangman’s Day in England.

But no one seems to have put the two together until the 19th Century. In 1834 a French play had a line

“I was born on a Friday, December 13th, 1813 from which come all of my misfortunes.”

There is one Friday 13th a year, and often three. They insist on appearing only in a month that starts on a Sunday. The compound word for fear of Friday 13th is paraskevidekatriaphobia.

On This Day (Friday 13th)

1307 – On Friday 13 October, King Philip IV of France arrested leading members of the Knight’s Templars. One of the most powerful monastic orders in Europe to whom many of the leading Knights belonged. They had basically become the bankers to the Royalty of Europe, But they had become too powerful, and were destroyed very violently.

First Published on Friday the 13th of February 2026

Posted on

The Great Freeze February 12th 1895

The Greeat Freeze. ‘Skating on the Serpentine’ by Lucien Davis
Antique wood-engraved print. Illustrated London News double page from 2 March 1895 (print owned by K Flude)

The Great Freeze

London, February 12, (1895). There is no abatement of the abnormally cold weather which has prevailed in northern Europe for the last week. The Upper Thames is frozen over, and huge blocks of ice breaking away from the mass are floating down the river, causing much damage to the smaller shipping craft. Water traffic is consequently at a complete standstill.

Many cases of death from cold and exposure are reported, the privation and distress in the East End of the city being particularly severe. The cold is so intense that birds are found frozen to death on the branches of the trees, and thousands are perishing. The severe weather has also directly caused considerable mortality, a number of deaths from exposure having been reported among postmen, omnibus drivers, cabmen, and labourers.

Contemporary Newspaper quotation on February 12th 1895 quoted by Isle of Dogs Life blog

Winter of 1895 Limehouse to left, Tower of London to right. Images from Isle of Dogs blog.

The year 1895 was the culmination of a decade of particularly cold winters (and for some the end of the so-called Little Ice Age). On the 11th February, the coldest day in British History was recorded at Braemar at −27.2 °C. February 1895 was the second coldest on record, with the lowest minimum temperatures on record. Shipping in the biggest port in the world was stopped. Therefore, many workers were laid off, and had to resort to what were then called ‘soup kitchens’ and now ‘food banks’. Winter death rates were said to be doubled, with people dying in the street and in unheated homes.

Record minima were set for these dates in February 1895:

  • 7th: −21.7 °C or −7.1 °F
  • 8th: −25.0 °C or −13.0 °F
  • 9th: −23.9 °C or −11.0 °F
  • 10th: −25.6 °C or −14.1 °F
  • 11th: −27.2 °C or −17.0 °F
  • 12th: −20.6 °C or −5.1 °F
  • 13th: −21.9 °C or −7.4 °F
  • 14th: −21.7 °C or −7.1 °F
  • 16th: −23.9 °C or −11.0 °F
  • 17th: −23.9 °C or −11.0 °F
  • 18th: −23.9 °C or −11.0 °F
  • 19th: −22.2 °C or −8.0 °F

Source Wikipedia.

On the flip side people resorted to ponds around London particularly the Serpentine which had 6 inches of ice and 50,000 skaters, with speed skating competitions.

For more details and contemporary newspaper accounts of the Great Freeze, read the Isle of Dogs blog. See also my post on the Cold Winter January 28th 1776. The next coldest winter was January 23rd 1940, when the Thames froze over for the first time since 1880. Lovely photo here of skaters on the Serpentine.

On This Day

1554 – Lady Jane Grey was executed after a trial at the Guildhall. Her husband was executed on the same day. Her adoption as heir to the throne was ordered by her cousin Edward VI. His minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, (and Jane’s Father-in-Law) arranged for the Privy Council to accept Jane as the next monarch. They were trying to prevent Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter, Mary taking the throne. Jane was Queen for 9 Days. The Privy Council swapped sides as support for Jane collapsed. Jane was the Great-granddaughter of Henry VII and cousins to Mary, Elizabeth and Edward VI.

1993 – The South African Government agrees with the African National Congress to form an elected interim government comprised of both black and white members.

Published February 12th 2024, and republished 2025, 2026

Posted on

St Apollonia Day. A Day to Cure the Toothache February 9th

Saint Apollonia. Woodcut. Saint of Toothache Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. She is shown with forceps, extracted tooth and the martyr’s palm.

The 9th of February is the Feast of St Apollonia. She was martyred at Alexandria in 249 AD during the persecution of Emperor Decius. (see also my post on St Agatha) She was attacked during an anti-Christian riot and struck around the face knocking her teeth out. Then, she was taken to a bonfire and told they would throw her in if she did not renounce her faith. So, without waiting, she spoke a prayer and walked into the fire. This information is recorded in a near-contemporary letter from St Dionysius of Alexandria. This is rare well documented martyrdom. Because her teeth were knocked out she is, therefore, Saint of Toothache.

Suicide or Martyrdom?

St Augustine of Hippo touches on this spat of martyrs, often young women, killing themselves rather than losing their virginity, or like St Apollonia embracing death in the face of violent persecution. His answer is that like Samson, they are commanded by God to take their own lives, which is ok. Elsewhere, he condemns suicide as it is against the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’. He explains that God did not add ‘thy neighbour’ to it so it also forbids killing oneself. By contrast, it was added to ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour’. The rest of St Augustine’s argument comes from Plato’s Phaedo. The introduction to the book on the Project Gutenberg web site sums up the arguments:

According to one explanation, because man is a prisoner, who must not open the door of his prison and run away—this is the truth in a ‘mystery.’ Or (2) rather, because he is not his own property, but a possession of the gods, and has no right to make away with that which does not belong to him. 

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Phaedo, by Plato translated by  Benjamin Jowett

Cloves for Toothache

I can remember my Grandmother prescribing cloves for me when I had toothache. And this was, and is, a common remedy. In my case, we would keep a clove or two in the mouth close to the site of the pain. According to Natural Ways to Sooth an Toothache cloves contain

‘Eugenol, a natural form of anaesthetic and antiseptic that helps get rid of germs. Eugenol is still used in dental materials today’

Dr John Hall, Shakespeare’s son-in-law, tended to use a pill to soothe sore gums. He also used an oil from a wood called ‘Ol. Lig. Heraclei’ which may be oil from the Bay Tree. (‘John Hall and his Patients’ by Joan Lane). Most of his tooth cases seem to be sore gums. This suggests to me Dr John Hall did not generally do dental work.

Death by Toothache

To get a tooth drawn you could go to a Barber Surgeon, a Blacksmiths or specialist Tooth Drawer. It would be terrifyingly painful. Probably only done when the pain was unbearable. Just think what a premium you would pay for a really competent drawer? The drawers would not have any formal training, but the skills would be passed on by the drawer to his apprentice or assistant. ‘Teeth’ was a common cause of death – most likely from infection or an abscess.

A bill of mortality for London 1665, showing 11 deaths caused by 'teeth' (as opposed to 353 for 'feaver'
List of causes of death, London during the plague of 1665. Teeth killed 11 people

Magic and Toothache

John Aubrey, an erudite and educated 17th Century writer, reports on the use of Magick for tooth care. When he relates these unlikely cures he often provides information that the person who told him the story is worthy of belief. So he seems to give some credence to the efficacy of these magical ‘cures’. But, judge for yourself; this is what he wrote:

To Cure the Tooth-ach.

Take a new Nail, and make the Gum bleed with it, and then drive it into an Oak. This did Cure William Neal, Sir William Neal’s Son, a very stout Gentleman, when he was almost Mad with the Pain, and had a mind to have Pistoll’d himself.

To Cure the Tooth-ach, out of Mr. Ashmole’s Manuscript Writ with his own Hand.

Mars, hur, abursa, aburse.
Iesu Christ for Marys sake,
Take away this Tooth-ach.

Write the words, Three times; and as you say the Words, let the Party burn one Paper, then another, and then the last.

He says, he saw it experimented, and the Party immediately Cured

John Aubrey’s Miscellanies 1695

May, Williams and Bishop at the Old Bailey accused of murder in pursuit of bodysnatching

Teeth and the Body-Snatchers

In 1832, in London Bishop, Williams, and May were accused of body snatching. After killing the Italian Boy (wonderful book by Sarah Wise ‘The Italian Boy‘) they jemmied out his teeth. Then, took the teeth to a South London Dentist. with whom they bargained for a good price. (They used the term ‘cheapened’ – I cheap, you cheap, we are cheapening: meaning to barter). The dentist wanted to use the dead boy’s teeth for false teeth for his patients. If memory serves, he paid £1 for them.

The teeth were used as evidence in the trial of the murderers. When the trial was over and the accused punished, the dentist asked for the teeth back! Two of the murderers were hanged but the third freed for turning King’s Evidence. Thereafter, the teeth were released back to the Dentist. He promptly put them in the window of his surgery as an advert for his professional skills!

Earlier, one of the Borough Boys Resurrectionist gang (based in Southwark, London) toured the battlefields of the Peninsular Wars collecting teeth. He made a substantial sum selling them to dentists as false teeth. They became known as Waterloo Teeth.

When I first wrote this in I added ‘How things have changed!’ But in recent years there have been reports of people undertaking their own dental work, if they cannot get access to an NHS dentist. Effectively, it seems that the Conservative Government was allowing dentistry to slip out of the NHS just like it did with eye health. For a study in what has happened to Dentistry in the UK in recent years, please look at this report here.

On This Day

1907 – the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS or Suffragists) organised the so-called the Mud March. This was the ‘first large procession’ in support of votes for women. It was called the Mud March because of the downpour of rain on the day.

1916 – Conscription started in World War 1 with the call-up of unmarried men aged between 18 – 41.

1933 – The Oxford Union passed the resolution ‘the House will in no circumstances fight for King and Country.’

Bird of the Month The Blackbird. The common Blackbird is a true Thrush. The male is black with a yellow beak and the female is dark brown with a yellow beak. The Blackbird begins to sing as early as January, and is one of the birds who sing first early in the morning. British Blackbirds do not migrate, but Northern European Blackbirds often migrate to the UK in the winter for warmer weather. Viruses have put the species under some threat and they need help to get through the winter. ArkWildlife suggests this is what you should feed blackbirds:

For more bird advice see https://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/ from which the above feeding advice is taken.

Here is a blackbird song, royalty free, from https://creazilla.com/search/audio/blackbird.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds backed in a pie

Is an 18th Century nursery rhyme which refers to the medieval habit of baking a pie crust, and putting it over a bowlful of live birds. When it was opened all the birds, well sing the song to remind yourself what they do?

Sing a song of sixpence
A pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing
Wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house
Counting out his money
The queen was in the parlor
Eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose

Sing a song of sixpence
A pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing
Wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the king?

A stinging Cure for Lust

Another story told of the Blackbird is a similar tale I have told before about holymen and temptation. So St Benedict was pecked on the cheek by a Blackbird. Next day he finds himself assailed with lust. It was the Devil disguised as the Blackbird he decides that infected the Monk. Then Benedict did what a number of saints did in similar circumstances. He threw himself, naked, in a patch of nettles and brambles and rolled around, until his body was sore afflicted. But he had overcome his lust.

Then St Kevin held out his hand and a blackbird laid her eggs in it. So he stayed still for the two weeks it took the fledglings to hatch! (for more on St Kevin see my post here)

Icy Sedgwick has an excellent website on the folklore of Birds, containing a nice podcast, which for those who love a north-east accent will enjoy.

The Folklore of Garden Birds: Blackbirds, Sparrows, Wrens & Robins

For my post on Robins and Wrens look here.

First written February 2023, revised February 2024, 2025. On This Day, Bird of the Month were added 2026

Posted on

Day of the Moon Goddess Selene February 7th

Full Moon Photos by Natalie Tobert

The Goddess Book of Days’ has the 7th as the Day of Selene and other Moon Goddesses. Of course the Full Moon is the proper time to celebrate her.

Selene is one of the most beguiling of Goddesses as she is the epitome of the Moon (Romans knew her as Luna). She, who gives that silvery, ethereal light to dark days. And appears and disappears to a routine few of us really understand. Selen is therefore beautiful, beguiling, unknowable. The Goddess of Intuition. The bringer of tides and the monthly periods. A Goddess of power as well as fertility, pregnancy and so love, and mothers, and babies.

Selene and the Parthenon

To my mind, far more powerful than Aphrodite, Selene seems much more independent. On the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum she is shown with her brother Helios, the Sun God; with Hercules – the epitome of male strength. Demeter and Persephone, representing the earth and underworld (or life and death). Athene and her father, Zeus; Iris, the messenger Goddess. Hestia, the Goddess of the home, and Dione with her daughter ,Aphrodite, representing love. At one end, Helios brings up the sun with his Chariot and Horse. While at the other, Selene’s horse sinks exhausted in Oceanus after a glorious night of moon shine. It’s a wonderful arrangement, which suggests the scheme was to show a balanced cosmos between female and male forces, framed by the Sun and the Moon.

cartoon of Elgin Marble, showing Selene's Horse at the right hand end
Cartoon of Elgin Marble, showing Selene’s Horse at the right hand end

I did a longer piece on this pediment of the Parthenon Marbles here

Photograph of the Moon against a black background byMike Petrucci -unsplash
Selene – Moon Goddess by Mike Petrucci -unsplash

I have used several of Natalie Tobert’s photos in my post which I pluck from Natalie’s face facebook feed which is a veritable visual feast. She worked, as an archaeologist, at the Museum of London at the same time as me. She is an excellent potter, photographer and artist. Natalie was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of Society of Designer Craftsmen. You can see more of her pictures here.

First published in 2022, and revised February 2024, 2026

Posted on

Winter’s End February 7th

Photo of the cover of Winter's in the World by Eleanor Parker
Winter’s End in ‘Winters in the World’ by Eleanor Parker

Eleanor Parker’s book, on the Anglo-Saxon Year, is a wonderful book. It has a poetry about it, that also provides an insight into how Anglo-Saxon thought the world works. For a non-Old-English speaker, it, also, really gives some understanding of the language. It reveals that for the Anglo-Saxons, Winter’s End was on the 7th February. We are now in the season of ‘lencten’. This probably comes from ‘lenghtening days’ or Spring as we call it. The word eventually got absorbed into the Christian calendar, giving us the name of the fasting season, which is ‘Lent’.

So Winter began, for the Anglo-Saxon, on 7th October and ended on the 7th February. January was called ‘Gēola‘ the month of Yule. February ‘Sol-mōnaþ‘ which is Mud month. The Venerable Bede in the 8th Century calls this the:

‘month of cakes which they offered to their gods in that month’.

manuscript drawing possibly of the Venerable Bede
Thought to be the Venerable Bede, the first historian of the English

Bede tells us that before conversion to Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons had two seasons – Winter and Summer. Winter began on the first full moon of October, which they called Winterfylleth. The summer was called ‘sumor’ or ‘gear’ which developed into our word ‘year’. As in: ‘he was a boy of 10 summers.’

Roman, Celtic and Saxon Winter’s End

There is some sense in Winter’s End on February 7th. Lambs are being born; buds and shoot are appearing on branches and poking up from the cold earth. So, their winter is essentially, the time when nothing is growing, while ours is more aligned to the coldest period.

The Roman author Marcus Terentius Varro divided the Roman Year into 8 phrases and his Winter/Spring divide is also on 7th February. This is when, in Italy, the west winds began to blow warmer weather. So farmers ‘purged’ the fields, readying them for planting. They would be cleared of old growth and debris. Then blessed, weeded, pruned with particular attention given to preparing the grain fields, the vineyards, olive trees and fruit trees.

The Celtic year began at Halloween, and the spring begins with Imbolc, a week earlier than the Saxon on the 1st of February.

Anglo-Saxon Winter

In the section on Winter, Eleanor Parker gives a poetic description of winter. What seems particularly interesting about it is that the harshness of winter is often paired with descriptions of the ruins of Roman Civilisation. So, the despair of winter, the barren soil, the fight for survival is made more melancholic by the comparison to failed civilisation. Nature battering away at the useless ruins, and the destruction of people’s dreams.

Here, is a flavour of the juxtaposition of the bleakness of winter and the sadness of lost society. It is from ‘The Wanderer’ an alliterative poem from the Exeter Book, dating from the late 10th century. I have presumed to change a couple of words to make it a little more accessible.

Who’s wise must see how ghostly it has been
when the world and its things stand wasted —
like you find, here and there, in this middle space now —
there walls totter, wailed around by winds,
gnashed by frost, the buildings snow-lapt.
The winehalls molder, their Lord lies
washed clean of joys, his people all perished,
proud by the wall. War ravaged a bunch
ferried along the forth-way, others a raptor ravished
over lofty seas, this one the hoary wolf
broke in its banes, the last a brother
graveled in the ground, tears as war-mask.

“That’s the way it goes—
the Shaper mills middle-earth to waste
until they stand empty, the giants’ work and ancient,
drained of the dreams and joys of its dwellers.”

Translation Dr. Aaron K. Hostetter.

Winter and Old Age

As I read this, I wonder if it is a tradition that began in the cold of Scandinavia? England, at least Southern England, can often have mild, rather than ferocious winters?

However, there is also an idea about the circularity of life and the interconnectedness of everything. There are 4 Seasons, 4 Ages of Man, and the cycle was from childhood to old age, from Spring to Winter. We start young, and become vigorous, and then we decline and eventually die. And so does the world of the Anglo-Saxons. The world of Adam was young, restored to vigour by the coming of Jesus. Now the World was in its old age awaiting the Apocalypse, before the Day of Judgement. So Winter was connected with Old Age and Death.

Bede’s Metaphor for Winter

Parker recounts a beautiful image of Bede’s. The King of Northumberland is thinking of taking his wife’s religion. He, therefore, invites the Christian evangelist, Paulinus to his court. Inclined to convert. He asks the opinion of one of his pagan advisers, who answers to the effect.

‘We are in the Great Hall, gathered warm with friends and family around the roaring fire, with Winter raging outside. A sparrow comes in from a hole in the end wall, flies through the warm of the Hall, and flies out through the other side. Such is life. The Hall is this world, we are the Sparrow, and as pagans we have no idea what happens before we enter the Hall, nor what happens after we leave. How much better it is to embrace a religion that can give us certainty as to what happens when we leave the hall.’

Lovely image, although, the pagan adviser does seem to have made his mind up to try Christianity? . What I like about it is that it echoes feelings I have. We as a species worry about what happens after death. It seems to many so final, to others unknowable. But I think ‘I don’t worry about what happened before I was born, so why should I worry about what happens after I die?’ It’s the same state of non-being. It gives me some comfort that I’m going back where I came from.

For the Ancient Grecian Winter looked at my Post on Hesiod

For the Roman Festival of Winter look at my post on the Festival of Brumalia

On This Day

1812 – Dickens born in Portsmouth. His father was the son of a Butler and a clerk in the Royal Navy Pay Board. He has much in common with Mr Micawber. His mother, Elizabeth Dickens was a source for the character of Mrs Nickleby. Dickens told a friend that his mother came to him exasperated by the stupidity of Mrs Nickelby. Dickens said words to the effect: ‘Little did she know that Mrs Nickleby was based on her’. Here is a section of Nicholas Nickleby that makes the point.

Nicholas Nickelby From Chapter 1

‘Mr Nickleby looked about him for the means of repairing his capital, now sadly reduced by this increase in his family, and the expenses of their education.

`Speculate with it,’ said Mrs Nickleby.

`Spec—u—late, my dear?’ said Mr Nickleby, as though in doubt.

`Why not?’ asked Mrs Nickleby.

`Because, my dear, if we should lose it,’ rejoined Mr Nickleby, who was a slow and time-taking speaker, `if we should lose it, we shall no longer be able to live, my dear.’

`Fiddle,’ said Mrs Nickleby.

`I am not altogether sure of that, my dear,’ said Mr Nickleby.

`There’s Nicholas,’ pursued the lady, `quite a young man—it’s time he was in the way of doing something for himself; and Kate too, poor girl, without a penny in the world. Think of your brother! Would he be what he is, if he hadn’t speculated?’

`That’s true,’ replied Mr Nickleby. `Very good, my dear. Yes. I will speculate, my dear.’

Speculation is a round game; the players see little or nothing of their cards at first starting; gains may be great—and so may losses. The run of luck went against Mr Nickleby. A mania prevailed, a bubble burst, four stock-brokers took villa residences at Florence, four hundred nobodies were ruined, and among them Mr Nickleby.’

Mr Nickleby ends up dead having falling 202 ft from the top of the Monument. In 1810 Elizabeth’s father, Chief Conductor of Monies in the Navy Pay Office was found guilty of embezzling £5,689 3s 3d.

Full text of Nicholas Nickely here.

First published in February 2023, republished on 7th February 2024, 2025, On This Day addedd 2026

Posted on

New Irish Bank Holiday for St Bridget/Imbolc! Ist Monday in February

The celtic year shown as a circle
The Celtic Year showing Imbolc, the new Irish Bank Holiday

I just came across this which I published last in 2023. I should have republished it last weekend. But here it is. The Irish created a brand new Bank Holiday for St Bridget. The first one was Monday 6th February 2023. It followed a public holiday given in 2022 for Health Workers in March. The timing of the Bank Holiday is explained by the Irish Post:

St Brigid’s Day itself falls on February 1 each year but going forward the Imbolc/St Brigid’s Day public holiday will fall on the first Monday in February, unless February 1st falls on a Friday.

This means that Ireland now has a public holiday on the 4 Celtic festivals of Samain (Halloween), Imbolc (St Bridget’s Day), Beltane (May Day) and Lughnasa (Lammas Day). These festivals are quarter-days, which mean they fall halfway between the Solstices and Equinoxes.

The Independent wrote that ‘then-Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, said‘ ….“This will be the first Irish public holiday named after a woman.”  He also is quoted as saying:

“It marks the half-way point between the winter solstice and the equinox, the beginning of spring and the Celtic New Year.”

Extra Bank Holidays in the UK?

There are occasional calls for a new Bank Holiday in the UK. It’s often a Conservative MP calling for a National Day for the British. More often than not they suggest Trafalgar Day 21st October would be a suitable date. This commemorates the great Naval battle in 1805 in which Nelson was fatally wounded. It has several virtues in their eyes. Firstly, it is a day that confirmed Britain’s mastery of the Seas , an ideal day for celebrating patriotism. Secondly, it is the school half-term, and gives a much-needed day off between summer and Christmas. Thirdly, they can propose the day should be taken from the May Day Bank holiday. This coincides with the International Worker’s Day, which is obviously ‘a bad thing’.

Here is an example: the MP for Portsmouth MP’s supported a call for Trafalgar Day here: . The report says: ‘there are currently no bank holidays in the UK which celebrate battles or war victories’. (Portsmouth News 2016).

This, I think, leaves the rest of us thinking: ‘What planet do these people live on?’ Yes, Trafalgar Day would have been a great day for a Bank Holiday, if this were 1839. Maybe even 1939. But now Trafalgar is just not on any ordinary person’s radar. We don’t think so very much about the Napoleonic War or Nelson. Nor do we often sing ‘Heart of Oaks, are our Men’ any more. In short, it is a reminder how distant from the rest of us some MPs are. By contrast, how progressive Ireland seems.

Productivity

The Trade Union Congress proposed the need for more bank holidays. We only have the usual eight annual bank holidays for workers in England and Wales. Scotland has nine or ten; the average for the EU is ‘12.3 bank holidays a year. Finland and Romania get 15, while workers in Japan have 16 public holidays in total’.

A radio programme ‘The Bottom Line’ compared productivity in Britain and France. It revealed that Britain is now 20% less productive than France, (10% worse since Brexit). And how do we make up that productivity deficit? Yes, indeed, by working longer hours for lower wages. It appears that the French high tax, high workers’ protection regime, means they have to find ways of getting more out of their workers in their working hours. While we can just hire and fire, and are happy to make people work in a more inefficient way. Strange isn’t we are told that the French economy is a victim of socialism. Turns out Socialism is more productive.

Here is my recent post about St Bridget’s Day

Festival of Imbolc, St. Bridget’s Day February 1st

First Published February 2023, Republished 2026