may choose to consider its origin, the thing is beyond all question, as the following instance will show, and hundreds might be given were it at all requisite:-" I happened to reside last year near Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, and there for the first time heard of Mothering Sunday. My enquiries into the origin and meaning of it were fruitless; but the practice thereabouts was for all servants and apprentices on Mid-Lent Sunday to visit their parents and make them a present of money, a trinket, or some nice eatable; and they are all anxious not to fail in this custom."* It had the title of Refreshment Sunday or Dominica de Panibus, because the miracle of the five loaves in the holy gospel was then explained in the Roman Church.† The name of Rose Sunday, or Dominica de Rosa, was also given to this day-an appellation it received from the Pope's carrying a golden rose in his hand, which he exhibited to the people in the streets as he went to celebrate the Eucharist, and at his return. If we may believe Durandus this rose had a twofold signification, according as it was explained, after the letter, or in the spirit. Taken in its literal meaning it signified that the faithful, who might be supposed worn out by the long fast, were now to indulge themselves, for it was a season which the church allowed and wished to be one of general enjoyment. Three things, therefore, belong to this day; charity after fasting; joy after sorrow; and satiety after hunger; all of which are typified in the qualities of the rose; charity in its colour; joy in its perfume; and satiety in its flavour; for the rose above all flowers delights by its colour, refreshes by its perfume, and comforts by its * Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1784 + Festa Romanorum, p. 36. London, 1677. Shepherd's Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Vol. 2, P. 100, flavour. In addition to this the rose in the hand of the Roman Pontiff signifies the joy of the Israelites when by the grace of Christ they were permitted to return from their Babylonish captivity. And many other reasons there are, equally metaphysical and equally cogent, as to the literal meaning of the ceremony. Next as to its spiritual import. The rose is that flower, which says of itself in the Psalms, "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valley." It is the flower of flowers, i. e. the holy of holies, all its qualities having a symbolical reference to the superiority of the Church, which they who wish to understand will do well to consult Durandus.* Latare Sunday was derived from the first word of the Introit," Lætare Jerusalem, et conventum facite omnes, qui diligitis eam; gaudete cum lætitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exultetis et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestræ." Rejoice, O Jerusalem, &c. Care or Carl Sunday was one of the most general appellations given to this day, and is that which has occasioned the greatest trouble to antiquarians, who, when they had found the truth, could not keep fast hold of it, but preferred exhausting their ingenuity in a parcel of vain conjectures. In the first place it should be remembered that rites more peculiarly appropriate to Good Friday were used by the Roman Catholics on this day, from which they also called it Passion Sunday; and, taking this for our guide, we shall have no difficulty in understanding what follows. Amongst the Germans, Good Friday had not unfrequently the name Karr or Carrfreitag, as Passion Week had that of Carwoche, meaning the penalty of a crime, or rather the satisfying of * Rationale Divin. Officia, p. 207. 4to. Venetiis, 1609. + Shepherd's Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, vol. 2, p. 101. G an imposed penalty ;* and it might therefore allude either to man's redemption by the Passion of Christ, or to the peculiar fasts and penances which all Christians endured more particularly at this solemn season, to obtain the Church's remission of their sins. The meaning of the word rests upon too good authority to be doubted. Hospinian, De Origine Fest. Christ. (fol. 54) says "Germani hanc septimanam-i. e. hebdomadam Passionis-vocant die Karrwochen a vetusto illo Germanico vocabulo, Karr, quo mulctam, seu pœnam pro delicto, vel potius satisfactionem pro pœnâ et mulctâ nominarunt. Quando enim in foro judiciali reus, pro mulctâ a judice sibi impositâ, læso pro injuriâ damnove satisfacit, dicimus, “er hat ihm ein abtrag, karr, oder aberwandel gethan." Ab hoc civili usu postea sacrificuli mulctas, quas pœnitentibus pro satisfactione delictorum imposuerunt, etiam in Latinâ linguâ Germanico vocabulo nominârunt Carrinas. Alii tamen scribunt Carenam, et a carendo derivant. Est hujus vocabuli frequens usus apud Burckhardum, Uvormaciæ episcopum circa annum Domini, 1020, lib. 9. et in vetustis indulgentiarum bullis. Fuit igitur carena apud veteres in ecclesiâ jejunium aliquot dierum in solo pane et aquâ. Vocârunt ergò hebdomadam hanc Germani die Karrwochen, quòd in eâ pœnitentiam, hominibus a sacerdote impositam, communiter omnes agerent jejuniis, vigiliis, &c., pro peccatis admissis, quâ se Deo satisfacere posse falsò persuasum habebant. Potest tamen pio sensu sic vocari septimana hæc; in eâ siquidem pro mulctâ, à justo Deo humano generi impositâ, filius Dei in cruce morte suâ satisfecit, eosque ab æternâ damnatione liberavit. Ob easdem causas quoque dies Dominicæ passionis, der Karrfreitag appellatur." Hospinian DE ORIG. FEST. CHRIST. p. 54. Fol. Tiguri. 1612. It may be thus translated—“The Germans called this week Karrwoche, from that ancient German word, Karr, by which they signified the mulct or penalty for an offence, or rather the satisfaction of the mulct or penalty. For when in our courts of law, the condemned acquits himself to the injured party of the fine imposed upon him by the judge for the wrong done, we say that he has made amends, or given Karr, i. e. satisfaction. From this judicial use of the word, they afterwards called by the name of Carrinas the penance imposed by the priestlings on their penitents in satisfaction of their sins, the German phrase passing even into the Latin language. Others, however, write carenam, and derive it from carendo. The use of this word is common with Burckhard, It was customary on this day to give a dole of beans to the poor, under the name of carlings, a word formed from carr just as dearling is the diminutive of dear; and even when the nature of the dole was changed, still it preserved the same appellation. Beans, peas, furmety, and whatever was the peculiar gift of the season, all were called carlings. Some, however, would derive carl, and care or carr, from two different roots, and would persuade us the day is called Carl Sunday because the gifts then made are to the carl or ceorl, i. e. husbandman. But this is too absurd to need refutation. In some parts the word carling would seem to have been corrupted into Whirlin or Whirling. Thus a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1789, p. 491, observes, that "in several villages in the vicinity of Wisbech, in the Isle of Ely, the fifth"-qy. fourth?" Sunday in Lent has been for time immemorial commemorated by the name of Whirlin Sunday, when cakes are made by almost every family, and are called from the day whirlin cakes.* the Bishop of Worms, about 1020, and also in the old Indulgences. Carena, therefore, was amongst the old ecclesiastics a fast of some days upon mere bread and water. Hence the Germans called this week, Care-week, because all men performed in it the penance, imposed by the priests for their acknowledged sins, with fasts, vigils, &c., by which they falsely persuaded themselves they might satisfy God. This week, however, may be so called in a pious sense; inasmuch as the Son of God by his death upon the cross satisfied the penalty imposed by the Divine Judge upon the human race, and freed them from eternal damnation. For the same reasons the day of our Lord's Passion is called Car-Friday." * Brand and his faithful Sancho Panza have fallen here into a strange error. They quote as an instance of whirling cakes, or at least of something to be eaten under the name of whirlin, the following passage from the Annalia Dubrensia, or Cotswold Games; "The country wakes and whirlings have appear'd Of late like foreign pastimes." * Originally beans were amongst the doles given at funerals, which will account tolerably well for their use upon a day sacred to the passion of Christ. But the custom has, beyond doubt, been borrowed from the ancients, who had some strange notions respecting this kind of pulse. They fancied that in the blossom of the bean they could read the word luctus, or grief, and held that they belonged to the dead, whose soul resided in them. There were, however, many religious uses of beans amongst the Romans. Ovid, when speaking of the offerings made at certain periods to the dead, says, the sacrificer rises with naked feet, and having washed his hands, flings black beans over his shoulder, exclaiming at the same time, "with these beans I redeem myself and mine." This is repeated nine times without looking behind him, in which case the ghost follows and picks them up, though what he does with them the poet has forgotten to tell us.‡ Surely a cake cannot be called a pastime, however amusing may be the eating of it. Any one but Sir Henry Ellis must at once see that this is an allusion to the Northern game of curling. * "Fabis Romani sæpius in sacrificiis funeralibus operati sunt, nec est ea consuetudo abolita alicubi inter Christianos, ubi in eleemosynam pro mortuis fabæ distribuuntur."-Moresini Papatus, in voce. Terque manus puras fontanâ perluit undâ ; + Vertitur, et nigras accipit ante fabas, Aversusque jacit; sed dum jacit, "hæc ego mitto; Colligere, et nullo terga vidente sequi. Fastorum, Lib. v. V. 435, et seq. Skelton in his Colin Clout gives another example of this custom : "Men call you therefore profanes, Ye pick no shrympes nor planes; |