Primroses  – Heralds of Spring

Perhaps, with Spring being a little late and frosts still about, a reminder to look back to the three borrowing days of March, 29th – 31st, is not quite so relevant. The three days are generally regarded as being on loan to March, weatherwise, from April to extend any bad weather encountered in March;

“Wind or wet – snow or sleet
Or cold to freeze the birds’ nebs to the trees.”

If the borrowed days contain the bad weather so that it doesn’t spill over into April, there is still March 31st alone that should be considered, and its predictions of a Blackthorn winter. On that day, if the Blackthorn trees produce lots of blossom - before greenery – beware the blackthorn winter. – It is a sure sign that a late cold spell is coming.

Again, in the circumstances, perhaps looking for signs of the Blackthorn Winter should be delayed.

What is quite certain is that the beginning of April brings memories with it of the Roman celebrations of Hilaria, so it doesn’t take too much to guess where All Fools day originated.  The eight-day festival, starting with Japery, also witnessed the end of winter.
If this proves to be the case this year, then Easter will be celebrated with fine weather, unless the Blackthorn foretells something different. Look to the hedgerows.

With Good Friday heralding a feasting period a gentle reminder that Hot X buns baked that day are said to ensure happiness, health and prosperity and that mince pies, saved from Christmas, bring luck.
- Never mind, save some next Christmas!

For those into baking on a festive scale, this is the time for Easter cake, where personal preferences can be applied as long as the cake is made along the plum bread or fruitcake lines.
Then there’s the traditional Fig Sue; a mixture of dried fruit, bread, ale, and nutmeg boiled into a thick soup. Especially welcome should the Blackthorn winter appear.
The long winter has delayed some of the flowers, or perhaps we’ve just become used to winters that are milder than those our ancestors experienced.
One of the special days they celebrated was Primrose Day, on April 19th, and we were recently asked about the background to this almost forgotten day of seasonal celebration.

Primrose Day – April 19th.
            On the evening of April 19th in 1824, George Gordon died. Better known as Lord Byron, he died of malaria in Missolonghi, Greece, where he’d been summoning troops to help the Greeks fight for independence. Byron, 6th Baron, was the last of the family line.
His diaries did not survive, but much has been written by others about the club-footed poet.   The passing years have seen him transformed by them from a writer and poet to an almost legendary being, spurred chiefly by people's lurid interest in his alleged homosexual and incestuous relationships. It is now impossible to separate fact from myth. His executor wrote: 'The whole Memoirs were fit only for a brothel, and would damn Lord Byron to-lasting infamy if published'.
The memoirs were burned and Byron’s followers took to wearing the primrose on the anniversary of the poet’s death.

 Primrose Day and St Alphege
Alphege was Archbishop of Canterbury, and is buried in the Cathedral. His tomb was a favourite goal for pilgrims for 150 years until he was overshadowed by Thomas Beckett.   Alphege ended his days in 1012, the captive Vikings who held him captive for ransom, at Greenwich. He refused to let the payment be made so the Vikings bludgeoned him to death and refused to release his body for Christian burial until a miracle was shown them.
A dead stick upon which Alphege’s blood had been spilled was pushed into the ground and a day later it was in full bloom and the ground nearby to where Alphege’s body lay was covered in primroses.
It is claimed that primroses are still to be found outside Canterbury Cathedral each year, growing in ground and even between paving stones as close as possible to the tomb of St Alphege.

Primroses and their values
The medicinal uses of plants still provides a 'home industry' with work as well as big business but for budding scientists, when aged about twelve years and past the age when flowers were interesting, the discovery of the secret contained by Primrose was a landmark in many a career.
Boys, who learned little from litmus paper, when learning that Primrose roots could be dried and crushed to a fine powder, were not slow to realise that a very effective 'sneezing powder' could be obtained at very little cost.

With considerable and increasing interest, young boys welcomed the season of the primrose; and teachers and parents wondered why.
From personal experience it is known that primrose powder added to mild snuff has a surprising affect upon old men and that the powder, if kept dry, retains its valued properties throughout a whole year, if stocks last that long. 

Primroses do have medicinal values. The flowers and leaves, boiled in best lard, produces a cream for healing cuts and chapped hands. The roots have long been used as a sternutatory to the head, with the juice of the roots extracted and snuffed up the nose.
A dram and a half of the dried roots, taken in the autumn, was considered to be a strong but safe emetic.
This was a use of the root far less favoured by boys.

Calendar changes isolated Primrose Day
Present day understanding of celebrations such as Mothering Sunday, Easter, or All Fool’s Day appear to have little connection with Primrose day but changes in the calendar used over the past 2000 years must first be recognised before the origins of customs of the quite recent past can be more clearly seen.  

Easter remains a moon-fixed date to this day, despite it being a major event in the Christian calendar. Easter Day is the Sunday after the first full moon following the Vernal Equinox on March 21st and has been recognised as such by the Christian church since 525.

Lent, Whitsun, Hocktide, Rogation and Ascension Day are all determined by the date set for Easter and the later they are, as this year, the closer they coincide with Roman and Celtic festivals from which many of our traditions originated.
      
Wherever, Mothering Sunday is appointed to fall during this early awakening of the year, there are still two other events that add to the 'motherly' connotations of springtime.

Lady Day, 25th March, was the day on which, until 1752, the New Year began.  It was, and remains, a significant day in the legal calendar and the refusal by bankers and many others to accept the ‘lose’ of eleven days and the placing of New Year to January 1st explains why we still have our tax year related to April 5th.

Romans similarly respected the day that marked the spring equinox, when their goddess, Hilaria, was reunited with her lover.

For the Celts, and any whose astronomical observations were so accurate for thousands of years before this Christian era dawned, the spring Equinox brought that time when the light of day begins to triumph over the darkness of night. The goddess, Brigit was celebrated by them as she brought new life to the earth, suckling seeds into growth, livestock for food, and giving birth to spring.
 
Celtic and Roman celebrations were extended over a period, and we are almost repeating this with Christmas and New Year becoming an extended festive season.

The extended festivities for Hilaria have not only provided us with a basis for All Fool’s Day but also by calendar adjustments with an end to festivities close to April 19th.

The custom of maidens taking primroses and threading them into a ‘ball’ has its origins in the distant times when lover’s were reunited, or chosen.
The floral ball when thrown from one maiden to one another became disentangled and the catcher became responsible for preserving the flowers, and dropped out play to do so. The maiden left with no one to throw the remnants of the flower ball to, could look forward to the reward of seeing her true love soon.

The primrose was one of the earliest flowers to be found when springtime was returning to the world.

The earlier snowdrop was heralding the end of winter in association with festivals celebrated in the February – March period.

Whichever one is preferred, the customs associated with the primrose all combine to highlight April 19th as Primrose Day. It is a long time since the calendar changes seem to have isolated the day from any present day festivities but a walk around our local lanes will reveal the dainty herald of Spring in all her glory.

That is both worth seeing and celebrating; on any day.

© Roy & Ursula Radford