[931] Müller, 236; Dyer, 430; Ashton, 54; Rigollot, 173; Records of Aberdeen (Spalding Club), ii. 39, 45, 66. In Belgium the household keys are entrusted to the youngest child on Innocents’ day (Durr, 73).
[932] Saupe, 9; Tille, Y. and C. 118; Duchesne, 267. A custom of feasting on the tombs of the dead on the day of St. Peter de Cathedra (Feb. 22) is condemned by the Council of Tours (567), c. 23 (Maassen, i. 133) ‘sunt etiam qui in festivitate cathedrae domui Petri apostoli cibos mortuis offerunt, et post missas redeuntes ad domos proprias, ad gentilium revertuntur errores, et post corpus Domini, sacratas daemoni escas accipiunt.’ I do not doubt that the Germano-Keltic tribes had their spring Todtenfest, but the date Feb. 22 seems determined by the Roman Parentalia extending from Feb. 13 to either Feb. 21 (Feralia) or Feb. 22 (Cara Cognatio): cf. Fowler, 306. The ‘cibi’ mentioned by the council of Tours seem to have been offered in the house, like the winter offerings described below; but there is also evidence for similar Germano-Keltic offerings on the tomb or howe itself; and these were often accompanied by dadsisas or dirges; cf. Saupe, Indiculus, 5-9. Saupe considers the spurcalia in Februario, explained above (p. 114) as a ploughing rite, to be funereal.
[933] Pfannenschmidt, 123, 165, 435; Saupe, 9; Golther, 586; C. P. B. i. 43; Jahn, 251. The chronicler Widukind, Res gestae Sax. (Pertz, Mon. SS. iii. 423), describes a Saxon three-days’ feast in honour of a victory over the Thuringi in 534. He adds ‘acta sunt autem haec omnia, ut maiorum memoria prodit, die Kal. Octobris, qui dies erroris, religiosorum sanctione virorum mutati sunt in ieiunia et orationes, oblationes quoque omnium nos praecedentium christianorum.’ This is probably a myth to account for the harvest Todtenfest, which may more naturally be thought of as transferred with the agricultural rites from November. For the mediaeval Gemeinwoche, beginning on the Sunday after Michaelmas, was common to Germany, and not confined to Saxony. Michaelmas, the feast of angels, known at Rome in the sixth century, and in Germany by the ninth, also adapts itself to the notion of a Todtenfest.
[934] Pfannenschmidt, 168, 443.
[935] Mogk, in Paul, iii. 260; Tille, Y. and C. 107.
[936] Cf. p. 231.
[937] Appendix N, Nos. xii, xvii, xxvii, xxxiii, xxxv, xxxix.
[938] Appendix N, No. xlii.
[939] Martin of Amberg, Gewissensspiegel (thirteenth century, quoted Jahn, 282), the food and drink are left for ‘Percht mit der eisnen nasen.’
[940] Thes. Paup. s. v. Superstitio (fifteenth century, quoted Jahn, 282) ‘multi credunt sacris noctibus inter natalem diem Christi et noctem Epiphaniae evenire ad domos suas quasdam mulieres, quibus praeest domina Perchta ... multi in domibus in noctibus praedictis post coenam dimittunt panem et caseum, lac, carnes, ova, vinum, et aquam et huiusmodi super mensas et coclearea, discos, ciphos, cultellos et similia propter visitationem Perhtae cum cohorte sua, ut eis complaceant ... ut inde sint eis propitii ad prosperitatem domus et negotiorum rerum temporalium.’