Saint Clement’s
Day was traditionally celebrated on the 23rd
November (and in some places still is). It was a festival held 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. A Feast Day is usually a Christian
celebration and is the day of the year that is dedicated to honouring a
particular saint – this is usually the day of the saint’s death (the day the
saint entered heaven). Feast Days are celebrations that are held annually.
Legends and Customs
Ancient
legends surrounding Saint Clement suggest that he was the first man to refine
iron from ore and to shoe a horse. Clementine customs may originate from
earlier pagan rituals as there has allegedly been some confusion of Saint
Clement with the early Saxon – Wayland - also known as Wayland the Smith -
a fabled metalworker. Wayland the Smith shares this feast day - which marks the
beginning of winter – with Saint Clement. Also Saint Clement
was a martyr as he was tied to an anchor and tossed into the sea.
Rural Festivities
“Old
Clem’s Night” literally started with a bang and a shower
of sparks during the ritual called “firing of the anvil”. A blacksmith
packed gunpowder into a small hole in an anvil and then struck it severely
with a hammer thus causing a small explosion. Anvil firing was twofold as it
also tested the anvil’s durability whereas weak anvils would break under the
pressure and therefore had to be melted down and recast. The blacksmith or the
apprentice would dress up in wig / mask and cloak to represent “Old Clem” and lead
a procession of blacksmiths (singing) through the streets - stopping at taverns
along the way. The more taverns the blacksmiths stopped at – the more boisterous
the singing became and they also demanded 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 bellows full of holes.
“Vulcan”:
In ancient Roman religion Vulcan is the God of beneficial and hindering fire –
including the fire of volcanoes. Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmith’s
hammer.
In the
nineteenth century in the village of Bramber in West Sussex an effigy of “Old
Clem” would be propped up in the public bar while the blacksmiths enjoyed their
dinner. The evening would then be rounded off with the Blacksmith’s anthem - “Twanky
Dillo”:
Health to the jolly blacksmith the best
of all fellows
Who works at his anvil while the boy
blows the bellows!
In some
rural areas blacksmiths visited homes to beg for beer or wine. To encourage generosity
- sometimes an iron pot was passed around: St Clement’s Day was represented on
old calendars with the figure of a cauldron. This custom stretched into the
visiting custom of “clementing” or “clemening” – this is when children called
door-to-door asking for apples / pears and other sweet treats in exchange for
singing traditional songs associated with the night. They sang verses such as:
Clementsing,
clementsing
Apples
and pears
or
Clemany
clemany clemany mine
A
roasted apple and some good red wine!
Urban
Festivities
Celebrating
Saint Clements Day was not restricted to just rural areas. Ironworkers’
apprentices at Woolwich Dockyard would disguise one of their fellow workers to
play the part of Old Clem. Wielding a hammer and tongs which were the tools of
his trade he would be carried in the air by his comrades through the town.
Through streets and taverns the apprentices would shout and sing the praises of
Old Clem and repeatedly toast his name: “To the memory of Old Clem and
prosperity to all his descendants!” As with their “rural cousins” the generous
cash donations received would pay for the apprentices’ holiday dinner.
There was
one old begging song in particular that referred to the combination (St
Clements Day & St Catherine’s Day) with the “catterning” custom two
days later on St Catherine’s Day (25th November):
Cattern
and Clemen
Be here
be here!
Some of
your apples and some of your beer!
One for
Peter, Two for Paul,
Three
for Him who made us all,
Clemen’
was a good man,
Cattern’
was his mother,
Give us
your best. And not your worst,
And God
will give your soul good rest.
Again
children sang for fruit / nuts or money. This continued until 1541 when Henry
VIII passed a law forbidding children to beg in this way within the London
churches of Saints Clement / St Catherine and St Nicholas. This rule did not
apply outside the church buildings where the custom cheerfully continued.
Modern Day Customs
During
the 20th century clementing had more or less died out however St
Clement’s Day is still celebrated in a few rural parishes with donations going
to various charities nowadays.
Burwash – East Sussex
An
effigy of Old Clem is still mounted above the door of a tavern (pub) for the
annual Clem Feast every 23rd November.
Mayfield – East Sussex
Old
Clem and Saint Dunstan - another blacksmith saint who was said to have
pulled off the devil’s nose with hot tongs meet together on the same day where
a local blacksmith plays Old Clem for the day. He is pulled around in a cart
collecting money and firing off his anvil.
Okehampton - Devon
Ironworkers
gather from all over the Britain to celebrate St Clement’s Day at Finch Foundry
located near Okehampton. Blacksmiths demonstrate their art and display
decorative ironware as part of a national competition. The blacksmiths and the
public can enjoy Morris Dancing / mince pies and mulled wine.
For
more information about Finch Foundry follow the link:
So whatever you’re doing on St Clement’s
Day – have a great time :D
