On Good Friday it is considered impious to dig or plough.
On Good Friday rist thi pleeaf;
Start nowt, end nowt, that’s eneeaf.
Perhaps one of the oldest customs is that in connexion with St. Mark’s Eve. The belief is still held that those who watch the church porch at the hour of midnight on that eve, will see pass in front of them and enter the church the spirits of all those friends who will die during the coming year. With some it is held to be a sine qua non that the watcher must sit within the porch; whilst others hold four cross roads to be equally efficacious, always provided that the body of one who had committed suicide, with the orthodox stake driven through the chest, had been buried there, that being the end of suicides in the good old days.
It should be borne in mind that there are two slight penalties attached to this porch or cross-road watching.
Firstly, should the watcher fall asleep, there is every probability of its being the sleep of death. Should he, however, manage to awaken from such a lethargic slumber, it doesn’t amount to much, as he will assuredly die within the next twelve months. Secondly, whoever tries this game once must continue to do so ever afterwards. There is no escape; the spell upon them is said to be too strong to withstand.
Said an old fellow at Carthorpe, ‘Ah nivver watched mysen, bud one James Haw used ti watch t’ deead gan in an’ cum oot o’ Bon’iston Chetch ivvery St. Mark Eve ez it cam roond. He ’ed teea; he war forced tul’t, he c’u’dn’t help hissen; he’d deean it yance, an’ ‘ed ti gan on wi’ ‘t. Aye, an’ he seed t’ sperrits ov all them ’at war gahin ti dee that year, all on ’em dhrissed i’ ther natt’ral cleeas, or else hoo mud he ’a’e kenn’d whau tha war? They all passed cleease tiv him, bud neean on ’em ivver gav’ him a nod, na nowt o’ that soart. Bud,’ added he, almost in a whisper, ‘them ’at duz it yance awlus ’ev ti deea’t; tha cann’t ho’d thersens back, they’re forced ti gan ivvery tahm St. Mark’s Eve cums roond. Mun! it’s a despert thing ti ’a’e ti deea, ’coz ya ’a’e ti gan, whahl at t’ last end ya see yersen pass yersen, an’ then ya knaw ’at yer tahm’s cum’d an’ ‘at ya’ll be laid i’ t’ cau’d grund afoor that daay cum twelve-month.’
There was another method of divination very commonly resorted to, known by the name of ’caff riddling’ (chaff riddling). The rite was carried out as follows:—At midnight, with the barn doors thrown wide open, a quantity of chaff had to be riddled, those taking part in the ceremony riddling in turn; should a coffin pass the door whilst any one was working the sieve, that person would die within the year. A story is still current in Malton of a woman who tried the above divination. It would seem, some little time after she had commenced to riddle, two men passed the open doors carrying a coffin, and on those who were with her rushing outside to see where they went, neither men nor coffin were anywhere to be seen. Only the woman saw the coffin. It is on record that she died within the year. The occurrence took place about forty years ago.
Perhaps we are a trifle more superstitious than some other counties, but it must be borne in mind that a wealth of folklore adds great respectability to a genealogy which dates back to times so far remote, that the rites and ceremonies of the religion from which it sprang must now be sought for in the myth-history of other lands.
In connexion with Royal Oak Day took place the locking out of the schoolmaster by the scholars, loudly singing, whilst they held the fortress—