But be the weather good or bad,
Sow thy seed in the true March.”[64]
Others say, “though you cannot send a pebble against the north wind” (ged nach cuireadh tu dòirneag an aghaidh na gaoth tuath) you are to sow.
“A night in March is swifter than two in harvest” (Is luaithe oidhche sa Mhàrt na dhà san fhogharadh).
Inid, SHROVETIDE.
The Gaelic name is from Lat. Initium, this being the beginning of Lent. It was always reckoned as “The first Tuesday of the Spring Light” (chiad Di-màirt de’n t-solus Earraich), i.e. of the new moon in spring. It is a moveable feast, and this is a simple way of calculating it. The plan adopted by the English Church is more complicated—Shrovetide is always the seventh Tuesday before Easter, and Easter is “the first Sunday after the first full moon, which happens on or after the 21st March; but if the full moon is on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday following.”
Shrovetide was called “an Inid bheadaidh” (shameless Shrovetide), because the day of the festival was held to precede the night, while, in the case of all the other festivals, the night or vigil was held to precede the day. A good reason for this will be found in a natural aversion to begin the austerities of Lent.
It has been already told[65] (art. Diabolus) how Michael Scott, or, according to Skye tradition, Parson Sir Andro of Rigg, near Storr in that island, went to Rome, riding on the devil, and first ascertained from the Pope the rule for calculating the day.
In schools it was the day for cock-fighting, and giving gratuities to the schoolmaster. The latter custom was observed with more correctness on the first Monday of the year, being the day allotted for presents. The practice of cock-fighting is extinct in the Highlands, but presents to the schoolmaster are universally practised. The boy and girl who give the largest donation (and it seldom exceeds a shilling) are declared King and Queen of the school, and have the privilege of asking “a play” (i.e. a holiday) for the school.