Wednesday, August 30, 2006

reading about fertility rites

Did you think I'm doing it to improve my own fertility? Not likely.

During The Little Madam's afternoon nap today, I did my exercises (despite soreness from yesterday's) and still had a little time left over.

It's about time I read something that wasn't about parenting, so I pulled The New Golden Bough from my bookshelf and settled down on the couch for some mythology-anthropology.

Did you know that only around a hundred years ago, European villagers were getting their young and nubile to get jiggy amongst the crops, in order to ensure a good harvest? And I used to think that the penis-worshippers in The Wicker Man were a bit over-the-top...

4 comments:

Amanda said...

You put me to shame with the exercise. I really need to try and incorporate something like that into my routine too.

Violet said...

mtnw: save the shame for when I win a body-building contest (yeah right). It's only been 3 days; plenty of time for me to lose motivation...

Anonymous said...

You think they've stopped? (the ritual jiggy, I mean)

It's just an extension of that august (lower case 'a') Church of England festival known as Rogation Day, explained to me by an Anglican vicar as 'Dear God, let it rain a bit, and be sunshiny a bit, and please God let our crops grow.' Some would say the jiggy would be more effective :)

Any excuse...in fact that's something that ought to be on the list of 150 things to do before we die

Violet said...

cathi: well, I wouldn't be surprised if the young and nubile are still getting jiggy amongst the crops, but perhaps they aren't doing it for the harvest...

If it has anything to do with Rogation Day, then maybe it should be renamed Rogering Day.