"Except wind stands as it never stood,
It is an ill wind turns none to good."
"What is the origin of the counting out rhyme "eenie-meenie-miny-mo" and is it medieval?" -- HL Livia Montgomery.
I get the most interesting questions in this job. There are numerous counting-out games based on the "nonsense rhyme" "eenie-meenie-miny-mo", the most common in the US being some variation of:
"Eeny meeny miny mo
Catch a tiger by the
toe
If he hollers let him
go
Eeny meeny miny mo"
If this is not how you learned it, I wouldn't worry a lot about being wrong, since there are quite literally thousands of variations of these rhymes. After all, they are transmitted by children. Some of the most interesting variations are in the identity of the victim leading to grabbing babies, rabbits, black cats, your neighbor, roosters, and the well known people of African decent.
According to some sources, these sorts of counting-out rhymes started
with the Druids, as a way to figure out sacrifices, but since they appear
in far more countries than the Druids, and the earliest documentation for
them only goes back to about the time of the American Revolution it seems
that
they are either far more recent, or far older. So the answer
is I don't know, but it doesn't seem that it's Medieval.
Some suggested readings:
Abrahams, Roger D. and Lois Rankin. Counting-Out Rhymes, a Dictionary
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.
Opie, Iona, and Peter Iona. Children's Games in Street and Playground.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.
"What are movable Feasts and what are immovable Feasts?" -- M. Dunstana Talona.
Oh, that's easy. A movable feast is dinner on wheels. Seriously, an immovable Feast is a religious holiday that takes place on the same day ever year, like Christmas, Samhain, or Jul. A movable feast takes place on a different day every year, such as Easter, or the Battle between Lugh and Crom Dubh (which I'm told took place on the last Sunday before Lughnasadh), or Ðorsblot (again, I am told that this was the first full moon in January). I suppose we should wonder if Passover is a movable or an immovable feast, since it takes place on 14-15 Nisan every year, which falls on a different day on the solar calender.
During the Middle Ages, nearly all of the moveable feasts observed by most of the population hinged on what day Easter (or Pascha) was going to take place on, which may explain why it was such a sticking point at the Synod of Whitby. Easter is figured to take place on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Vernal Equinox. The moveable feast days are Shrove Tuesday (6 weeks and 5 days before Easter and was the last big party before Lent); Ash Wednesday (6 weeks and 4 days before Easter and the first day of Lent); Palm Sunday (1 week before Easter); Shere Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter, Hock Monday (or Rope Monday); Hock Tuesday (or Hockday); HockWednesday; Rogation Sunday (5 weeks after Easter); Rogation days (the Days between Rogation and Ascension Day); Ascension Day (Thurday after Rogation); Whitsunday (or Pentacost; the Sunday 10 days after Ascension Day and 7 weeks after Easter); Trinity Sunday (1 week after Whitsunday); and Corpus Christi Day (the Thursday after Trinity). Corpus Christi Day was a big party day. The four Sundays in Advent were also moveable feasts since they were not tied to a specific date being the four Sundays before Christmas.
If you have any questions about things that interest you, please send them to me directly, or by way of Chronicler.