from the Chronicle of Celtic Folk Customs by Brian Day....
These customs stem from pagan spring fertility rites. The Roman
blessing of the crops at Ambervailia and the beating of the bounds at
the May festival Terminalia, in honour of the god of boundaries,
Terminus, provide the two themes which have been incorporated into the
Church celebration of Rogationtide, starting five weeks after Easter.
Rogation means 'beseeching', and the Rogation Days proper are the
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Thursday.
CELTIC. On the Rogation Days the clergy and villagers visited fields,
ponds, meadows and coastal waters to ask for Divine blessing on all
growing things. After these devotions the clergy led a procession round
the parish boundaries and beat the boundary markers, a possible survival
of the pagan ritual to awaken the sleeping earth. In the past boys were
actually beaten with willow wands, or otherwise mistreated, to instill
in them where the boundaries were.
The blessing of material objects and the use of crosses as boundary
markers led the more strident anti-Catholic churches to condemn Rogation
processions as perverted and idolatrous. This caused their rapid demise
in Scotland and this and the changing use of the countryside, resiting
hedges and fences, and the provision of better maps, all conspired to
reduce the need for perambulation in Wales, the Isle of Man and
Cornwall. Records do not confirm the extent of the custom in Ireland.
Using Google found many links, here are a couple:
http://www.england-in-particular.info/rogation.html
http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk/magazine/1998/rogation.htm
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bbedingfield/thesis/rtide.html
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/pd49/morris/events/rogation/rogn...
--
Pat Connors, Sacramento CA
http://www.connorsgenealogy.com
Professional Genealogy Research
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