This is a break from the Muslim history series for the month of December, 2022.
Feast days were the points around which illiterate people organized their sense of time. In November, they had Martinmas (St. Martin of Tours) and Catterntide (St. Catherine of Alexandria). Martinmas came first, on November 11. It marked the beginning of winter, so it was a time for preserving meat. Salted beef was called “Martlemass beef.”
Martinmas was also the day of a famous fair that ran for 8 days in Nottingham. Based on the legend that St. Martin once cut his military cloak in half to share with a poor man, a folk custom began of carrying lanterns from door to door, asking for treats. It’s not clear to me when this started, though.
In some parts of England, it was also the time for paying rent or starting and ending contracts. The Scottish year was divided into four fiscal/legal terms, with Martinmas as one of the points (the others were Candlemas, Whitsunday and Lammas). I think the Advent fast began after Martinmas for some medieval Christians.
St. Catherine’s Day, called Catterntide in England, fell on November 25. While St. Martin of Tours lived a holy life, he didn’t die in an interesting way—-but St. Catherine did, and her feast day recalled it. She was beheaded at age 18 by the Roman Emperor Maxentius, but first he ordered her to be tortured on a breaking wheel. (I think this was just using a wheel, rather than a hammer, to smash people’s bones.) In the story, the wheel broke when it touched her, rather than the other way. Celebrations for St. Catherine recalled her unmarried state and the wheel.
In medieval Europe, women spun thread, and in later years they used a wheel (in early years, just a spindle and distaff). So Catherine’s Day was celebrated by spinners and lacemakers, and English celebrations often included a wheel with fireworks. There was also a traditional cake with caraway seeds. In France, it was a day for unmarried women to pray for husbands. Girls over 25 were “Catherinettes” and helped to make a special hat for her statue. In later years, they wore the hats themselves in a pilgrimage to her shrine. New Orleans’ French culture hosts a hat parade! In Estonia, it was a day for celebrating women and not shearing sheep.