1. ST.
ANDREW’S
DAY 2012 - Poland
usual fate but this related to marriage.
St. Andrew’s Day is
celebrated on November
29th, it is a traditional
fortune-telling evening.
That evening divination
ruled the fate, not the
St. Andrew predictions were common throughout Christian Europe. Saint
Andrew is considered the patron saint of brides who want to quickly change
their marital status. He was to help the girls in discovering the future.
They wanted to find out when they marry, to know the name and character
of the future husband. St. Andrew’s Day is a special opportunity to organize
the last revelry before the beginning of Advent.

2. Some St. Andrew divination and magic procedures:
Drawing objects with symbolic meaning for example a leaf meant
spinsterhood, ring or ribbon with cap - close to the wedding, the
rosary - priesthood.
Pouring wax into cold water (often through the eye of a key), and
predicting the shape of the solidified mass or shadow cast by her
future lover profiles, accessories related to his profession.
Setting one shoe of all the people one by one from the wall to the
threshold. The shoe which is the first to reach the threshold was the
first to marry.
Home of the barking dog was supposed to be the one that comes with
the future bridegroom.
Participants wrote names on two pages: the names of girls on one
side and boys on the other. Then each girl took a needle and pierced
a clean piece of paper with the names of the boys but could not look.
The girl was supposed to marry the boy whose name was pierced. The
boys did the same with the girls’ names.
This year our students who belong to Comenius project together with the
school student council representatives organized the St. Andrew’s Day. We

3. made posters informing the
whole school community
about the event and placed
them on the school
corridors, created invitations
for each class to encourage
as many students as possible. Our group also prepared funny divinations and
traditional games. The
event was connected with
the disco which took place
in the school assembly hall
in the evening of 29th
October 2012. All the
participants had to pay a
small amount of money which was collected for the needs of the school
annual action helping the poorest students and families before Christmas. It
was great fun!