ADVENT.
Advent Bells.
—Advent bells are rung in many parishes throughout various parts of England during the month of December. A correspondent of N. & Q. (1st S. vol. i. p. 21) says that, in his neighbourhood—on the western borders of Berks—he has heard their merry peals break gladsomely upon the dark stillness of the cold evening from many a steeple round.
Isle of Man.
Train, in his History of the Isle of Man (1845, vol. ii. p. 127), says, that the fiddlers go round from house to house, in the latter part of the night for two or three weeks before Christmas, playing a tune called the Andisop. On their way they stop before particular houses, wish the inmates individually “good morning,” call the hour, then report the state of the weather, and after playing an air, move on to the next halting-place.
PICROUS DAY.
Cornwall.
The Second Thursday before Christmas Day is a festival observed by the tinners of the district of Blackmore, and known as “Picrous Day.” It is said to be the feast of the discovery of tin by a man named Picrous. It is not at present marked by any distinctive ceremonies, but it is the occasion of a merry-making, and the owner of the tin stream contributes a shilling a man towards it. Mr. T. Q. Couch says his first impression was that the day took its name from the circumstance of a pie forming the pièce de resistance of the supper; but this explanation is not allowed by tinners, nor sanctioned by the usages of the feast.—Hunt’s Romances of the West of England, 1871, p. 468.