St. Thomas's Eve: an onion under the pillow
St. Thomas's Day, December 21, sits at the darkest point of the year. An old English rhyme calls it "the longest night and the shortest day." In many villages the poor went "a-gooding" on this day, asking better-off neighbors for a little grain or money for Christmas. The night before belonged to young people in love. With a simple charm, young women hoped to see a future husband in a dream.
Charms for a dream
The St. Thomas's onion
A little book of love charms from 1685, "Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open," gave this advice to young women. A girl was to peel an onion, wrap it in a clean handkerchief and lay it under her pillow. Then she put on a clean nightgown, lay on her back with her arms spread wide, said a rhyme to St. Thomas and went to sleep as soon as she could. In her first sleep, the book said, her future husband would appear in a dream and offer her a kiss.
The rhyme
The verse that went with the onion asked St. Thomas to "bring my love to me this night, that I may look him in the face, and in my arms may him embrace." In plain words, she asked to see her love's face that very night and hold him close. The charm was later reprinted in John Brand's "Popular Antiquities" (1849 edition), which kept it alive for new readers.
A golden apple on Guernsey
On Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, a girl pushed two pins crosswise through a golden pippin apple and put it under her pillow. She took off her left stocking and wrapped the apple in it, then got into bed backwards. Three times she said a verse in French, asking St. Thomas to show her the man she would marry, where he lived and what work he did. After that she didn't say another word. If everything was done right, the answer was expected to come in a dream.
The start of the Christmas season
St. Thomas's Day was seen as the doorway to the Christmas season. The next big night for dream charms in English folklore came a month later.
St. Agnes' Eve (January 20)
Fasting, a row of pins and a silent "dumb cake": the best-known dream night of the English year.
Today
Today, December 20 is mostly a busy evening before the holidays. If you'd like a small ritual of your own, put a notebook by the bed that night and write down whatever you dream. A dream can't tell you whom you'll love, but it can show what you're hoping for as the year turns.
Related symbols
Sources
- "Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open" (chapbook, 1685), ed. G. L. Gomme, 1885 (Project Gutenberg)
- J. Brand, "Observations on Popular Antiquities of Great Britain", ed. H. Ellis, vol. 1, London 1849
- R. Chambers (ed.), "The Book of Days", 1864, vol. 2, December 21 (online transcription)
- Priaulx Library, Guernsey, "21 December: A Love-Spell for St Thomas' Eve" (from E. MacCulloch, "Guernsey Folk Lore", 1903)
Dream interpretations are for entertainment.