following form of prayer on this occasion: O LORD JESU, I beseech thee, that thou wouldst bless this thy CREATURE OF WAX, and grant it thy heavenly benediction, by the power of thy holy cross; that as it was a gift to man, by which the darkness might be driven away, so now it may be endowed with such virtue, by the sign of the HOLY CROSS, that, wheresoever it is lighted and placed, the evil spirit may tremble, and, with his servants, be in such terror and confusion, as to fly away from that habitation, and no more vex and disturb thy servants.' This day is called Christ's Presentation,' the holiday of Saint Simeon,' and, in the north of England, the Wives' Feast Day.' At Rippon, on the Sunday before Candlemas Day, the Collegiate Church is still one continued blaze of light all the afternoon, an immense number of candles being burnt before it. The following stanzas, descriptive of the ceremonies formerly observed on Candlemas, and the eve of that day, are taken from Herrick's Hesperides :— FOR CANDLEMASSE EVE. Down with the rosemary and bayes, Down with the misletoe; Instead of holly, now upraise The greener box (for show). The holly hitherto did sway, Or Easter's Eve appear. Then youthful box, which now hath grace Unto the crisped ycw. When yew is out, then birch comes in, Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne, To honour Whitsontide. Green rushes then, and sweetest bents With cooler oken boughs, Come in for comely ornaments, Thus times do shift, each thing its turn does hold; FOR CANDLEMASSE DAY. Kindle the Christmas brand, and then, Part must be kept wherewith to teend End now the white loafe and the pye, 3. SAINT BLASE. He was Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, and suffered martyrdom in 316, under the persecution of Licinius, by command of Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia and the Lesser Armenia. Blase is the principal patron of Ragusa, and also of the woolcombers, who still keep a solemn guild at Norwich in memory of their tutelar saint. 5.-SAINT AGATHA, The cities of Palermo and Catana dispute the honour of her birth: but they do much better, who, by copying her virtues, strive to become her fellow citizens in heaven.' (Butler.) She suffered martyrdom under Decius in the year 251. Agatha was honourably descended, and very beautiful. Her personal charms soon attracted the notice of Quintianus, prætor or governor of the province, who, being unable to accomplish his base designs, ordered her to be scourged, and then imprisoned, for not worshipping the Pagan deities. After which, still persisting in the faith, she was put to the rack, burnt with hot irons, and had her breasts cut off. Being remanded back to prison, Agatha had several divine comforts afforded her; but the prætor sending for her again, almost exhausted by her tortures and wounds, she prayed to God to receive her soul; with which petition she immediately expired. 6. SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY. The institution of this and the two following Sundays cannot be traced higher than the beginning of the sixth or the close of the fifth century. When the words Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinqua gesima (seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth), were first applied to denote these three Sundays, the season of Lent had generally been extended to a fast of six weeks, that is, thirty-six days, not reckoning the Sundays, which were always celebrated as festivals. At this time, also, the Sunday which we call the first Sunday in Lent was styled simply Quadragesima, or the fortieth, meaning, no doubt, the fortieth day before Easter. Quadragesima was also the name given to the season of Lent, and denoted the quadragesimal or forty days' fast. When the three weeks before Quadragesima ceased to be considered as weeks after the Theophany (or Epiphany), and were appointed to be observed as a time of preparation for Lent, it was perfectly conformable to the ordinary mode of computation to reckon backwards, and, for the sake of even and round numbers, to count by decades.' (Shepherd.) 13.-SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. See SEPTUAGĖSIMA. 14. SAINT VALENTINE. Valentine was an antient presbyter of the church: he suffered martyrdom in the persecution under Claudius II, at Rome. Being delivered into the custody of a man named Asterius, one of whose daughters was afflicted with blindness, he restored the use of her sight; and, by this miracle, converted the whole family to Christianity. They afterwards suffered martyrdom. Valentine, after a year's imprisonment at Rome, was beaten with clubs, and then beheaded, in the Via Flaminia, about the year 270. 'The custom of choosing Valentines is of very long standing, and, like many others of a popular nature, is no more than a corruption of something similar that had prevailed in the times of Paganism. At the celebration of the Roman Lupercalia, amidst a variety of ceremonies, it was the custom to put the names of several young women into a box, from which they were drawn by the men, as chance directed. The pastors of the early Christian church, who endeavoured to eradicate the vestiges of Pagan superstition, substituted, in the present instance, the names of particular saints, instead of those of the women; and, as the festival of the Lupercalia had commenced about the middle of February, they appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for celebrating the new feast. Another opinion on the origin of choosing Valentines, is formed on a tradition among the common people, that, at this season of the year, birds choose their mates, a circumstance that is frequently alluded to by our poets; yet this seems to be a mere poetical idea, borrowed, in all probability, from the practice in question. 'Madame Royale, the daughter of Henry IV, of France, built a palace near Turin, which was called the Valentine, on account of the great veneration in which the saint was held in that country. At the first entertainment given there by the princess, who was naturally of a gallant disposition, she directed that the ladies should choose their lovers for the year, by lots. The only difference with respect to herself was, that she should be at liberty to fix on her own partner. At every ball during the year, each lady received from her gallant a nosegay; and at every tournament, the lady furnished his horse's trappings, the prize obtained being her's.'-(Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii, p. 252.) In the Connoisseur, No. 56, there is a curious notice of some Valentinian ceremonies: a female correspondent of Mr. Town's says, 'I got five bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow, and the fifth to the middle; and, then, if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. But to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk, and filled it up with salt; and when I went to bed, eat it shell and all, without speaking or drinking after it, and this was to have the same effect with the bay-leaves. We also wrote our lovers' names upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay, and put them into water; and the first that rose up was to be our Valentine"/ Some rural ceremonies on the morning of this day are thus described by Gay in his fourth Pastoral: 1 Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind The following elegant jeu d'esprit is copied, by Mr. Brand, from Satyrs of Boileau Imitated, &c.' 8vo. Lond. 1696. TO DORINDA, ON VALENTINE'S DAY. Look how, my dear, the feathered kind, Bill, and seem to teach us two, What we to love and custom owe. Shall only you and I forbear To meet and make a happy pair? Yet since the solemn time allows |