St Clement's Day
| St. Clement’s Day | |
|---|---|
Statue of Saint Clement
|
|
| Also called | Old Clem’s Night |
| Observed by | Christian cultures |
| Type | Christian |
| Significance | special holiday for metalworkers and blacksmiths |
| Observances | clementing for apples and pears; processions and effigies associated with “Old Clem”; the firing of the anvil |
| Date | November 23 |
| Next time | 23 November 2017 |
| Frequency | annual |
Saint Clement's Day was traditionally, and in some places still is, celebrated on the 23 November, a welcome festival between Halloween and Christmas. Pope Clement I is the patron saint of metalworkers and blacksmiths, and so these workers traditionally enjoyed a holiday on his feast day.
"Old Clem’s Night" started literally with a bang and showers of sparks during the ritual "firing of the anvil." The smith packed gunpowder into a small hole in an anvil, and then struck it soundly with a hammer, causing a small explosion. Anvil firing was also a test of the anvil’s durability: weak anvils would break under pressure, and had to be re forged.
The smith, or apprentice, dressed up in wig, mask and cloak to represent ‘Old Clem’ led a procession of smiths through the streets, stopping at taverns along the way. Boisterous singing was followed by demands for free beer or money for the ‘Clem feast’. Traditional toasts included ‘True hearts and sound bottoms, check shirts and leather aprons’; and ‘Here's to old Vulcan, as bold as a lion, A large shop and no iron, A big hearth and no coal, And a large pair of bellowses full of holes.’
In the nineteenth century at Bramber in West Sussex an effigy of Old Clem was propped up in the public bar while the smiths enjoyed their dinner. This was rounded off with the blacksmith's anthem, 'Twanky Dillo':
Who works at his anvil while the boy blows the bellows!
Such celebrations were not restricted to rural areas. Ironworkers’ apprentices at Woolwich Dockyard disguised one of their fellows to play the part of Old Clem. Wielding a hammer and tongs, the tools of his trade, he was carried aloft by his comrades through the town. In the streets and taverns apprentices shouted and sang the praises of Old Clem and repeatedly toasted his name: ‘To the memory of Old Clem, and prosperity to all his descendants!’ Again, the allegedly generous cash donations received paid for the apprentices’ holiday dinner.
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Wikipedia