Chapter 43 The corn-spirit transformed into an animal: The corn-spirit transformed into a boar or a sow

The last animal figure in which the corn-spirit is imagined is that of a pig (boar or sow).In Thuringia it is often said that "the boar ran in the corn" when the corn was shaken by the wind.The Estonians on the island of Auxerre [near the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea] call the last sheaf of wheat cut in the field a rye boar, and congratulate the person who gets it by saying, "Congratulations on your back." The rye boar!" The man sang in return.In it he prayed for a good harvest.Köllerwinkel near Augsburg [a city in Bavaria, Germany] At the end of the harvest the reapers take turns cutting the last sheaf of corn one by one, and whoever cuts the last sheaf gets the The sow was ridiculed by everyone.Other Swabian villages also say that whoever cuts the last ear of corn "got a sow" or "got a rye sow."At Bollingen near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf of wheat in the field is also called "rye sow" or "wheat sow", etc., according to the specific grain.In the village of Rorenbach in Baden the person who holds the last ear of corn for binding is called the maize sow or the oats sow.Friedingen of Swabia calls the one who threshes the last ear a sow, a barley sow, a corn sow, etc.In the district of Unstermettingen, whoever threshed the last threshing "had a sow," and was often tied to the last sheaf of ears and dragged across the field by a rope.Throughout Swabia the thresher who draws the last flail is commonly called a sow.If he can successfully pass on to a neighbor the straw rope that marks his status as a sow, he will be spared the pesky title.He took the straw rope to the door of a family, threw the straw rope into the house, and shouted: "Hey, I brought the sow." The whole family came out to chase him. Beat him, put him in a pigsty for several hours, and force him to take the "sow" away.In many parts of Upper Bavaria, the thresher who makes the last stroke must "take the pig", that is, take a pig tied with straw or a bundle of straw rope to the neighboring farm where the ears of corn have not yet been threshed, and throw it into the to the barn.If caught by the threshers there, he was given a good beating, his face was blackened, he was thrown into a pigsty, a sow was tied to his back, and so on.If she is a woman, cut off her hair.At the harvest dinner, the person who "takes the pig" eats one or more pastries shaped like pigs.When the maid brought this dessert, the people at the table shouted: "Suz, suz, suz!"-the cry they usually call the pigs to eat.Sometimes, after dinner, everyone would smear the face of the "pig-carrying" man and put them in a car to go around the village. Everyone followed the car and called "suz, suz, suz", as if it was real It's like calling a pig.After going around the village in this way, sometimes the person is thrown on the dunghill.

As at harvest, the corn-spirit appears in the form of a pig at the sowing season.In Nyöts in Courland [a region in western Latvia], when barley is sown for the first time every year, the farmer's wife sends a stew of pig backbones and tails to the fields for the sowers to eat.The sowers eat the meat and soup, leaving the pig's tail stuck in the ground.It is said that this will make the ear of grain grow as long as a pig's tail.In this custom the pig is the corn-spirit, whose prolific powers are said to lie especially in the pig's tail.The pig was put into the field at sowing as the corn-spirit, and reappeared in the ripe corn at harvest.Nearby Estonians call the last sheaf the rye boar.There is a similar custom in Germany.The Salza region near Meiningen calls a certain bone from a pig "the usurer on the dustpan".Shrove Day [Christian holiday, the day before Ash Wednesday. ] Boiled this bone that day, put it in ashes, and exchanged it with neighbors as a gift on St. Peter's Day (February 22), and then mixed it with grain seeds.In Hessen and other areas in Meiningen, Ash Wednesday [Christian holiday, the first day of Lent, held fourteen days before Easter (Wednesday), some people also translate it as "the first day of Lent", Also known as "Ash Wednesday" or "Ash Wednesday", the specific date of Easter is uncertain. According to the regulations of the Nicene Council, the first Sunday after the full moon of the vernal equinox every year (between March 21 and April 25) ) for Easter.The Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, so the specific date of Easter is usually two weeks later than that of Catholicism and Protestantism. Therefore, the specific dates of Ash Wednesday and Shrove Day are presumed according to the date of Easter. ] or Candlemas, people eat dried pork ribs, drink pea soup, collect the leftover ribs, hang them indoors, put them in the sown fields or mix them with flax seeds when planting next year.It is said that this can effectively control the beetles and mole crickets in the ground, and make the flax grow tall and good.

The notion that the corn-spirit takes the form of a pig is nowhere more evident than in the Scandinavian custom of the "Christmas boar."The custom during Christmas in Sweden and Denmark is always to bake pig-shaped bread, called "Christmas boar", and it is often made from the last sheaf of wheat ears in the field during threshing. Put it on the table, or even keep it until next spring's planting season.At this time, the "Christmas boar" is chopped up, part of it is mixed with the grain seeds, and the rest is eaten by people, horses or cattle who plow the fields, hoping to get a good harvest.In this custom the corn-spirit is hidden in the last sheaf, and reappears in mid-winter in the form of a boar of the last sheaf.Its power to hasten the growth of the corn is manifested by the mixing of the Christmas boar with the seed, and the eating of part of the Christmas boar by men and livestock.Likewise, we also see coyotes appearing in midwinter or just before spring.In the past, a real pig was sacrificed every Christmas, and apparently a human was used instead of the Christmas boar.This can at least be deduced from the still-prevailing Christmas customs in Sweden.Its method is that a person is dressed in pigskin, with a small bundle of grain grass in his mouth like a bristle, and an old woman, her face is smeared, holding a butcher knife, pretending to slaughter him as a sacrifice.

Some Estonian families on the island of Auxerre are used to baking a long wheat cake on Christmas Eve. The two ends of the cake are turned up, which is called Christmas boar. Livestock eat.In some parts of the island, the "Christmas boar" is not represented by making pig-shaped wheat cakes, but by using real pigs, which are piglets born in March every year. They are secretly raised by housewives, and often the whole family I don't know, but on Christmas Eve, I quietly slaughtered it, baked it on the stove, and put it on the table intact for several days in a row.In some parts of the island, although pig-shaped wheat cakes are not made, and there is no such name, the Christmas cakes are kept until the New Year. Half of the cakes are distributed to the whole family and livestock, and the other half is reserved for spring planting. , and so it was given to man and beast in the morning.In some areas of Estonia, the first batch of rye cut at the time of harvest is used as a Christmas boar. Offer it on the table with a candle next to it, and keep it until after the festival.On New Year's Day and Epiphany [January 6 is a festival for Christians to commemorate the apparition of Jesus], before sunrise on the two mornings, a small piece of the round cake is cut and broken to feed the animals.The rest is kept until the first time the animals are grazed in spring, and the herdsmen put them in their pockets and take them out, and share them with the animals when they come back at night, thinking that this will protect the animals from evil spirits.In some places, when the barley is planted, the Christmas pig is distributed to the hired labor and the livestock, and the purpose is also to obtain a better harvest.