fbpx
The Tudor Society

  • April 24 – St Mark’s Eve and divination

    4 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    No comment yet
    The winged lion, the symbol of St Mark the Evangelist

    24th April is St Mark’s Eve, a night that was all about maidens divining their future husband.

    One way you can do this is to fast from sunset and then during the night bake a cake containing containing an eggshell full of salt, wheat meal, and barley meal. Once the cake is baked, you need to place it on the table to cool and open your front door. You then wait for a man to come in and turn the cake, he’s your future husband.

    Here’s a video I did on St Mark’s Eve that goes into more detail:

    [Read More...]

  • April 24 – Mary, Queen of Scots gets married, and time to divine your future love!

    1 year ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    No comment yet

    On this day in Tudor history, 24th April 1558, fifteen-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, got married for the first time. The groom was fourteen-year-old Francis, the Dauphin of France.

    Find out more about the bride and groom, their wedding and what happened to them…

    [Read More...]

  • 24 April – Divining your future love

    3 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    1 Comment

    Today, 24th April, is St Mark’s Eve, the day before the Feast of St Mark the Evangelist, one of Christ’s apostles and the man who is said to have written the Gospel of Mark. In medieval and Tudor times, St Mark’s Eve was the night to divine who you were going to marry.

    How did people go about divining their future partner?

    Find out in today’s talk and do let me know if you try any of these divination methods!

    [Read More...]

  • 24 April – St Mark’s Eve

    6 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    1 Comment

    St Mark’s Eve was all about divining the future, although what on earth that has to do with St Mark is anyone’s guess!

    In Folklore of Lincolnshire, Susanna O’Neill writes of how this was the night for young women to “divine who they were to marry”. Ladies in North Kelsey would visit the Maiden Well, “walking towards it backwards and then circling it three times, still backwards, whilst wishing to see their destined husbands. After the third circling, the girl would kneel and gaze into the spring, where she would supposedly see the face of her lover.”

    [Read More...]