Ever since I have been living in Finland, every year there has been some confusion over which day the witches were going to come. Now I think I've got it figured out. It started out as two different (but I guess related) traditions, the eastern (influenced by the Russian Orthodox) and western (influenced by Sweden). The eastern tradition originally didn't involve dressing up like witches, but just used pussy willow branches, which were linked with palm branches. So, it makes sense that Palm Sunday is the day for this activity. That's when the children go around here. Then, if I understand it correctly, the other tradition was more about the witches flying about during the time when Jesus was in the grave. The people who follow that tradition (mainly Swedish-speaking areas) go on the Saturday before Easter. (But somebody correct me if I'm wrong!)
Anyway, this past Sunday, we had our share of witches and such come by, and I was prepared with chocolate. We were paid with what made up a lovely bouquet of decorated branches, which is now sitting next to our Easter grass.
Mama
2 comments:
Mama's got her medley of Finnish tradition right! Just had to confirm this as a folklore researcher. ;) When I and my brothers went wishing health and happiness to our neighbors on Palms Sunday back in the 1970's, we never dressed up like witches. On the contrary, we were in our Sunday best. It is a relatively common Eastern European tradition that the twigs get blessed at church first and then children (and others) go around spreading the blessing. And, as Finland is in the crossroads of Eastern and Western European traditions, the twigs were typically a Carelian custom. (Although I think only the Orthodox had the twigs blessed at church) I mean, before the 1980's when these two traditions merged.
to be honest I still don't get :(
But today we celebrate that He is Risen and put all the witches, hexing and other stuff behind us!
Be blessed :)
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