*Ø* Blogmanac December 4 | Feast day of Saint Barbara
St Barbara was a beautiful maiden from Asia Minor; her father Dioscorus imprisoned her in a high tower, where she was tutored by philosophers, orators and poets, and Origen and Valentinian converted her to Christianity. In folklore, her imprisonment has led to her association with towers, then the construction and maintenance of them, then to their military uses.
Dioscorus brought many suitors of his choosing but by then Barbara had lost all interest in marriage. Once, when she refused one of his unfair requests, he grew enraged and she turned a flock of sheep into a plague of locusts.
During many years in the tower, Barbara obtained her food and laundry by way of a basket on a rope. One day, a stranger put a book in the basket from which Barbara learned about the new religion. Barbara so longed to know more about Christianity that she grew ill and her father sent for a doctor but the doctor turned out to be, in fact, a priest, and Barbara was baptised ...
St Barbara’s weather
In Germany on St Barbara’s Day, it is the custom to cut Barbara twigs from fruit or nut trees and to place them in a warm place. Weather prophecies are made depending on the date and extent of the blossoms that come. Every member of the family puts his or her Barbara twig into water so that it will have blossoms on Christmas day. The child whose branch has the most blossoms on Christmas is supposed to be Mary's favourite. The vase or glass containing the St Barbara twigs may be placed on the family altar.
The hoped for date of blooming is Christmas, according to a tenth century legend that said that all the trees blossomed and bore fruit on the day Jesus was born.
St Barbara’s Day, Lebanon
Christmas season is said to begin with the feast day of Barbara, and wheat is today’s symbol. A special dish of kahmie is served. The head of the household will tell the legend of St Barbara as the wheat is being prepared. Blackburn and Holford-Strevens (Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press, 1999) tell us that in southern France, especially in Provence, wheat grains are soaked in water, placed in dishes and allowed to germinate from this day. The wheat is carefully tended, because if it grows quickly, it is an omen that crops will prosper in the coming year. Also on this day, cherry branches are brought into the house and placed in water, prognosticating good luck in the coming year if they bloom by Yule (December’s Winter Solstice).
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Barbara, Babel, barbarians and confusion
In the symbolism of Barbara, we have lightning or fire, and a tower side by side. From the very earliest printed Tarot cards, one card shows a tower struck by lightning, with human beings falling from it. Its title is ‘The Tower’, although early on it was often called ‘Fire’, ‘Lightning’, ‘Thunderbolt’ or ‘The House of the Devil’, or sometimes ‘Hell’.
Psychologist Carl Jung attached importance to the Tarot, regarding its cards as representing archetypes, fundamental types of person or situation embedded in the subconscious of all human beings. The similarity of the Barbara legend and the symbolism of The Tower card (lightning juxtaposed with a tower) is striking and seems to indicate more than fortuitous association. Among numerous interpretations, The Tower stands for catastrophic and irreversible change, and the whole scene, including the falling bodies, suggests confusion and even panic.
Twin Towers
If the tower, fire from the sky, and falling people are indeed strong archetypes in the collective unconscious, little wonder it is that the September 11, 2001 tragedy at the Twin Towers in New York resonated so deeply with people around the world. Many people have wondered why Americans reacted so strongly to that event (far larger numbers of people are dying around the world each day in situations as dramatic and tragic), and it might be that the answer to this puzzle is not simply that Americans value the lives of Americans more than those of other peoples (often seen as ‘barbarians’), and it is possible that we might look further than the cynical uses to which ‘America’s Reichstag Fire’ was put by the US Administration and media. The ‘tower-fire-people falling’ image’s power might go much deeper than this.
The card’s fire or lightning shooting down from the heavens, indicates divine punishment, bringing to mind thoughts of the Tower of Babel and its destruction by God. According to a story in Genesis Chapter 11, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity in order to reach the heavens. To prevent the project from succeeding, God confused their languages so that each spoke a different one and the work could not proceed. After that time, people moved away to different parts of the earth. The myth was used to explain the existence of many different languages and races. Babel has become a potent symbol of overambitious projects destined to end in confusion. The word Babel has several meanings. It is the name of a city, which translates to ‘the gate to god’, and in Hebrew there is a similar sounding word, which means confusion. In English, the word 'babble' is obviously similar.
One notes the similarity of ‘Babel’ to the name ‘Barbara’, she of the tower, and also the possible connection of both to the word ‘barbarian’ ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
St Barbara was a beautiful maiden from Asia Minor; her father Dioscorus imprisoned her in a high tower, where she was tutored by philosophers, orators and poets, and Origen and Valentinian converted her to Christianity. In folklore, her imprisonment has led to her association with towers, then the construction and maintenance of them, then to their military uses.
Dioscorus brought many suitors of his choosing but by then Barbara had lost all interest in marriage. Once, when she refused one of his unfair requests, he grew enraged and she turned a flock of sheep into a plague of locusts.
During many years in the tower, Barbara obtained her food and laundry by way of a basket on a rope. One day, a stranger put a book in the basket from which Barbara learned about the new religion. Barbara so longed to know more about Christianity that she grew ill and her father sent for a doctor but the doctor turned out to be, in fact, a priest, and Barbara was baptised ...
St Barbara’s weather
In Germany on St Barbara’s Day, it is the custom to cut Barbara twigs from fruit or nut trees and to place them in a warm place. Weather prophecies are made depending on the date and extent of the blossoms that come. Every member of the family puts his or her Barbara twig into water so that it will have blossoms on Christmas day. The child whose branch has the most blossoms on Christmas is supposed to be Mary's favourite. The vase or glass containing the St Barbara twigs may be placed on the family altar.
The hoped for date of blooming is Christmas, according to a tenth century legend that said that all the trees blossomed and bore fruit on the day Jesus was born.
St Barbara’s Day, Lebanon
Christmas season is said to begin with the feast day of Barbara, and wheat is today’s symbol. A special dish of kahmie is served. The head of the household will tell the legend of St Barbara as the wheat is being prepared. Blackburn and Holford-Strevens (Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press, 1999) tell us that in southern France, especially in Provence, wheat grains are soaked in water, placed in dishes and allowed to germinate from this day. The wheat is carefully tended, because if it grows quickly, it is an omen that crops will prosper in the coming year. Also on this day, cherry branches are brought into the house and placed in water, prognosticating good luck in the coming year if they bloom by Yule (December’s Winter Solstice).
Barbara, Babel, barbarians and confusion
In the symbolism of Barbara, we have lightning or fire, and a tower side by side. From the very earliest printed Tarot cards, one card shows a tower struck by lightning, with human beings falling from it. Its title is ‘The Tower’, although early on it was often called ‘Fire’, ‘Lightning’, ‘Thunderbolt’ or ‘The House of the Devil’, or sometimes ‘Hell’.
Psychologist Carl Jung attached importance to the Tarot, regarding its cards as representing archetypes, fundamental types of person or situation embedded in the subconscious of all human beings. The similarity of the Barbara legend and the symbolism of The Tower card (lightning juxtaposed with a tower) is striking and seems to indicate more than fortuitous association. Among numerous interpretations, The Tower stands for catastrophic and irreversible change, and the whole scene, including the falling bodies, suggests confusion and even panic.
Twin Towers
If the tower, fire from the sky, and falling people are indeed strong archetypes in the collective unconscious, little wonder it is that the September 11, 2001 tragedy at the Twin Towers in New York resonated so deeply with people around the world. Many people have wondered why Americans reacted so strongly to that event (far larger numbers of people are dying around the world each day in situations as dramatic and tragic), and it might be that the answer to this puzzle is not simply that Americans value the lives of Americans more than those of other peoples (often seen as ‘barbarians’), and it is possible that we might look further than the cynical uses to which ‘America’s Reichstag Fire’ was put by the US Administration and media. The ‘tower-fire-people falling’ image’s power might go much deeper than this.
The card’s fire or lightning shooting down from the heavens, indicates divine punishment, bringing to mind thoughts of the Tower of Babel and its destruction by God. According to a story in Genesis Chapter 11, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity in order to reach the heavens. To prevent the project from succeeding, God confused their languages so that each spoke a different one and the work could not proceed. After that time, people moved away to different parts of the earth. The myth was used to explain the existence of many different languages and races. Babel has become a potent symbol of overambitious projects destined to end in confusion. The word Babel has several meanings. It is the name of a city, which translates to ‘the gate to god’, and in Hebrew there is a similar sounding word, which means confusion. In English, the word 'babble' is obviously similar.
One notes the similarity of ‘Babel’ to the name ‘Barbara’, she of the tower, and also the possible connection of both to the word ‘barbarian’ ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 11:26 PM | Permalink
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