Forlong - Rivers of Life

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Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
the Spiritual Light,” and this some Ritualists evidently still think, but see not that
in such symbolism—esthetic though this ritual be—they mix up the religion
of the ascetic and holy-minded Galilean with purely Phallic rites and worship.
Valentine’s tide—as one devoted to Husbandry, in both senses. of the word—should
hold a high place in all fetes which mark the worship of Fertility; for Nature’s
command is given at this time to all bird and animal life to seek out mates, and such
“tides” are never passed over by priests. It would seem as if the Church had then
boldly stepped forward, and under cover of one of her saint’s names, permitted, if not
encouragd the youthful—who could not otherwise overcome natural modesty—to
make overtures to the opposite sex by covert gifts, casting of lots, and lettres cachées,
full of double entendres, which Saint Valentine, as postman, took care of, and so
sanctified, or rather rendered decorous.
Shrove-tide is really “the awakening of the Sun;” hence the Roman Fornacalia,
and all the ado with ploughs, games with balls, sword-dances, and cock-fighting. There
was need, truly, for the new faith to proclaim that all must now begin “shriving,
shrifting, and confessing” their numerous sins, and try to be friends; for at this time,
too, it was taught that all were to forgive one another their faults. The physical man
was to be cooled down by suitable diet. Oxford called the previous Saturday “Fest.
Ovorum,” and on Shrove-Monday, only permitted eggs and slices of dried and salted
meats called Collops or Colabs; on Tuesday pancakes might be eaten, but on Wednesday
a long and severe Lenten fast began when penitents bewailed and confessed
of sins, clothed in sackcloth and ashes; all carnival (flesh-eating) now ceased, and
old and young besought the mercy of God upon their past sins. The real origin of all
this was probably to recruit exhausted nature, it being found that dissipation
cannot be continued long with impunity. We are told by Dean Stanley that Lent
used only to be forty hours in duration, or from Friday to Saturday preceding Easter.
It was then a bona fide fast, like the Moslem Ramadan. Later on, Lent was made into
a partial fast of forty days, from some hazy connection which priests tried to make out
that it bore to Christ’s supposed forty days in the wilderness. The old Romans began
it after “Fool Ploughday,”—the 18th of February, and they too, dedicated a day towards
the end of the month for the very necessary consideration of the consequences.
All the gods of seed-time had been too genially worshipped, so on the 21st of February
the dead must now be fed in what was called the Feralia, but that day, too, must be
sacred also to Priapic Mutunus, and the next day to the Hermi and Terminalia, when
Hindoos throw about the sacred crimson fluid, and rejoice in their festival of the Dole
Jatra. The Roman then seriously considered his probable paternal duties, and opened
March by celebrating the Matronalia. It was at the seed-time festival that the Greeks
and Romans most delighted in the cruel sport of cock-fighting. because the poor creatures
were then most fierce. With the Greeks, says one writer, “cock-fighting became an
institution, partly religious and partly political, and was conducted as a science in