In my current novel the heroine needed a patron saint, and she ended up thinking about Saint Waltruda, whose feast day is April 9. This is also the heroine’s birthday and, though it is a Very Important Day in my own family, it was chosen in the book because I was following the liturgical calendar for 2017, and needed something to happen on that day. In 2017, April 9 was Palm Sunday. If I ever publish, and anyone ever reads, Jessamyn, there’s no way to tell what happened then. But so it was.
There is also a Saint Casilda with a feast on April 9. She was a Muslim princess in the 900’s in Spain. She became ill and was cured at the shrine of Saint Vincent in northern Spain, converted to Christianity, and lived the life of a hermit after that, till she died at the age of 100. Saint Waltruda worked better for my purposes.
I wrote about Saint Waltruda briefly in an earlier post, including the fact that she can be mixed up with Saint Walburga if you aren’t careful. I have no idea why this reference came out the way it did… !
Saint Walburga gave her name, but nothing else, to a secular deal called Walpurgisnacht which involves stuff that is similar to Hallowe’en. Devils flying around, bad night to be out, etcetera. Figuring out how she got associated with such an anti-Christian deal took a bit of digging. One side doesn’t talk about saints or want to admit that it has a history that they affected, and the other side doesn’t want to associate a saint with a horrid celebration of non-saintliness.
The association is actually quite simple. Saint Walburga’s feast day used to be celebrated on May 1, because her remains had been moved from one place to another around the year 870 and the “translation” (meaning the moving) of her remains occurred on May 1. There were some miracles associated with this “translation” so that’s when her feast was celebrated. She was also supposed to be a great defender against devils and pagan problems in general.
May 1 was a pagan celebration marking the beginning of summer just as November 1 is supposed to be some pagan winter celebration. Hence in each case the night before can be used a wild pagan moment. Or … not.
How about a gentle celebration of autumn squash and candy? And a chance for small children to wander around outside in the dark, while it’s not yet freezing cold? The sun has moved almost half way down the sky to its solstice position. The nights in February that would correspond to this amount of darkness are much colder.
Saint Walburga’s feast day was moved to February 25, I’m guessing during the reform of the saint calendar in the 1970’s, but I don’t know. In keeping with modern ideas, the feast was moved to the day she died.
More general news. Georgia Candy Roaster Squash (see previous post called ‘Mission creep’) is totally unsuitable for making Jack-O-Lanterns or carving in general. These squash are long and thin, so hollowing out and deseeding would be interesting, not to say impossible. However, they do make a really good “pumpkin” puree, though you should put it through the blender to be perfectly certain you get the lumps out. If you failed on this important point you can rescue your lumpy pie by tossing the second half (yes, crust included) into the blender or cuisinart, with a quarter cup or more of cream cheese, and a tablespoon of sugar. Blend. If the result is too stiff add a bit a milk or cream. The result is a lovely pumpkin mousse that can be eaten straight up, or spread on a piece of toast, or used as a cookie dip. And you can pretend you meant it all along.
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