On February 21, 22, 23 and 24, the calendar stated: ‘Shutter Day’, one for the men, one for the women, one for the boys and one for the girls.
What is the meaning of those four days?
Answer
Dear Karel
On Sluiterkensdag you can lock someone up and you can ask the locked up man, woman, boy or girl to do something in return. On DBNL you can read about the connection with the Christian annual calendar and folk festivals. A quote:
‘St. Thomas Day (Dec. 21) is considered the introduction to the Age of Twelve Nights. The ghosts are on their game, witchcraft and superstition are rampant. This day is a day of fate, suitable for contemplating the future. In Bohemia it is believed that Saint Thomas rides through the air in a chariot of fire—a special aspect of the popular belief in the Wild Hunt and its outrider. In Austria and Mecklenburg, shoe throwing is even more common on Thomas Evening (p. 149) than on Nicholas or Sylvester Evening.
It is the shortest day of the year and therefore it is a disgrace to sleep long on this day. Just as in Westphalia the last person to come to school that morning was called Domesesel (Thomasezel) by the children, so in Dutch Limburg the late sleeper is still called Thomas; analogous is the custom, according to which years ago in North Brabant the boy who came to school on the last day of the year, Saint Silvester, was called Pope Silvester. and k. The Gheldere, Dietsce Rime (Bruges 1896), p. 148 states: “He that this day (St. Silvester) is found to be the last in some thing, is called Silvester, and must pour.” It is a punishment for the long sleepers and late comers,
which also strikes the Luilak, who oversleeps the first day of May. The Pentecostal bride is also a long-sleeper, about which more. This custom has, of course, been associated with the Gospel account of St. Thomas, who “came too late” when the others had already gathered. In Rond den Heerd IV, p. 130 is still mentioned: ‘The Monday after Palm Sunday in Bruges is about old times Calf Day; who most recently came to school or home on Calf Day was calf, was reviled calf, and, in that capacity, teased and hurt.’ On Palm Sunday, the era of the actual Spring Festival begins.
The concept of “being late in the morning” came to the fore more and more; and so it is that nowadays father and mother are excluded here from the teacher. In Bruges this is called someone thomas. The party is called ‘Sluiterkensavond’, ‘Sluiterkensdag’, ‘Buitensluit’, etc. Being late is somehow bought off. Remarkable are the Sluitertjensdagen before Ash Wednesday (ie at the beginning of spring) in West Flanders. The first day the mother is excluded: it is Wijvekens Saturday; the second the father: it is Male Sunday; the third the daughters: it is Girls Monday; On the fourth the sons: it’s Knechtjesdijsendag. In Waasmunster, the women (Saturday), the girls (Tuesday) and the boys (Monday) are locked out on the Saturday before New Year and Monday and Tuesday after that. In Velthoven the master is excluded on the feast day of the Innocent Children, proving all the more that this custom has nothing to do with the day, and still less with the feast. See The Bo, West Flanders Idioticon; also see De Cock and Teirlinck, Kinderspel en Kinderlust VII, p. 152, 272; Folklore XIV, p. 111; v. Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, Calendrier beige II, p. 319 etc.
Finally, the relationship between Midwinter and Spring Festival is also apparent from this, among other things, that children are sent to Den Lichtenberg in Venloo on December 21st, to go and see ‘the female that spins gingerbread there’. The similarity here is in agreement with April 1st: ‘Shipping Day’, about which later.’
From: Dutch Folklore by Dr. Jos. shrines
Source: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/schr018nede01_01/schr018nede01_01_0004.htm
Title page: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/schr018nede01_01/index.htm
Answered by
Bert Deceuninck
Doorniksesteenweg 145 8500 Kortrijk
http://www.vives.be
.