Last time I told you about All Saints’ Day. Today let’s talk about a different holiday that is coming up soon in Poland.

For several hundred years now girls in Poland have foretold their future as regards to love and marriage on St. Andrew’s Eve. The ancient custom of girls’ divination night was described by the chronicler Marcin Bielski in his 16^th century play entitled Justyn and Konstancja, where it was called as it is still today ”andrzejki”.

The well  known Polish proverbs say:

“Noc Andrzeja Świętego przywiedzie narzeczonego” (St. Andrew’s night brings you a fiance)

„Na Świętego Andrzeja pannom z wróżby nadzieja” (What St. Andrew foretells: high hopes for girls)

St. Andrew’s divination has multiple forms. Dreams are very important too. A dream dreamt that night might show you beloved, especially if male garment was put under your sheet.

The night before andrzejki girls wrote lots of male names on pieces of paper and put them under their pillows. First thing in the morning they drew one to get to know their future husband’s name.

Various objects were used as divination accessories, for instance pickets in a fence, rungs of a ladder, steps of stairs or chips of wood brought to the house as fuel, etc. Girls counted them and if the number was even, they believed they would get married.

Left foot shoes taken off by all girls gathered at St. Andrew’s Night meeting were put one by one on the floor proceeding towards the door.  The owner of the one which first touched the threshold might expect to get married very soon (“Której but na progu stanie – pierwsza panna na wydanie”).

Animals were also a help in divinations. Girls made special treats for them, like bread, pieces of meat, sausage or handfuls of grain, which they placed at their own feet. Then a dog, cat or rooster were let in the room and everybody watched the order in which the treats were eaten by the animals. In that order the girls taking part in fortune telling would get married.

 The best known and most frequently performed form of divination was pouring molten wax or lead into cold water. When it solidified into a hard mass, the shape of it or its shadow cast on the wall was examined and interpreted together.

Image by Dawid Cedler CDCobra/flickr.com

Wax and lead have been used in divination and other magical practices for centuries. No wonder they were also adopted to girls’ fortune telling. Their imagination and strong desire to learn about their future made them see the wax shape as the figure of their beloved and some attributes of his profession.

Although they are not treated as serious these days as they were in the past, St. Andrew’s Night divinations have been preserved at a tradition turned into a funny game by girls and boys. In the past boys were not allowed to take part in girls’ meetings and St. Andrew’s Night. They had their own evening of fortune telling in matter of love and marriage on November 24^th, the Eve of St. Catherine’s Day (Wigilia Świętej Katarzyny). But this tradition disappeared in the early 20^th century.

I hope you enjoyed this post and don’t forget to try one of the above fortune – telling on November 29th!

Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)