[ [110] In County Louth, Ireland, boys used to carry about a thorn-bush decked with streamers of coloured paper and with a wren tied to one of the branches.[{47}]
[ [111] Dancing is, as everyone knows, a common and indeed a central feature of primitive festivals; and such dancing is wont to take a dramatic form, to be mimetic, whether re-enacting some past event or pre-doing something with magical intent to produce it.[{10}] The Greek tragedy itself probably sprang from a primitive dance of a dramatic and magical character, centred in a death and re-birth.[{11}]
[ [112] In Thessaly and Macedonia at Carnival time folk-plays of a somewhat similar character are performed, including a quarrel, a death, and a miraculous restoration to life—evidently originating in magical ritual intended to promote the fertility of vegetation.[{12}] Parallels can be found in the Carnival customs of other countries.
[ [113] A remarkably clear instance of the transference of customs from Hollantide Eve (Hallowe'en) to the modern New Year is given by Sir John Rhys. Certain methods of prognostication described by him are practised by some people in the Isle of Man on the one day and by some on the other, and the Roman date is gaining ground.[{1}]
[ [115] “Ope thy purse, and shut it then.”
[ [116] It is probable that some customs practised at the Epiphany belong in reality to Christmas Day, Old Style.
[ [117] Pasqua is there used for great festivals in general, not only for Easter.
[ [118] The custom of “burning the bush,” still surviving here and there in Herefordshire, shows a certain resemblance to this. The “bush,” a globe made of hawthorn, hangs throughout the year in the farmhouse kitchen, with the mistletoe. Early on New Year's Day it “is carried to the earliest sown wheat field, where a large fire is lighted, of straw and bushes, in which it is burnt. While it is burning, a new one is made; in making it, the ends of the branches are scorched in the fire.” Burning straw is carried over twelve ridges of the field, and then follow cider-drinking and cheering. (See Leather, “Folk-Lore of Herefordshire,” 91 f.)