Monday's Child

The term originally referred to Sonntagskind a figure of European folklore and has a massive change in meaning - the " visionaries " to " Child of Fortune " - go through.

Originally would have the name " Saturday Child " loud, because it referred to people who were born on a Saturday and therefore had certain magical powers and abilities. On Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath that was celebrated until the early Middle Ages as the sacred day of the week, and the children born on that day were blessed in a special way. It was only in the 13th century, at the Council of Arles, the sacred day of the week was final and binding on the Jewish Sabbath laid in the sphere of influence of the Roman church on Sunday because of the difference between Judaism and Christianity should thus be clarified. The belief that children born on the holy day of the week were particularly gifted remained composed, and so the term " Sunday child " was born. Also they were originally able to recognize demonic beings and fight or to capture by their immanent forces in the grave. In the sphere of influence of the Orthodox Churches continue Saturday was sanctified and those are the " lucky ones " there still " Sabbatanios " (Greek ) or " subatnik " ( South Slavonic ).

The properties of the Sunday children did not belong, as suggested by the present-day parlance, the ability of other people to donate luck and be happy yourself. They were geistersichtig, ie they were a demonic fiend or an undead revenant who remained hidden from the mortals, see or smell. The British folklorist Abbott reported that a Macedonian " sabbatanios " protected against attacks from recurring dead, but his hand was able to destroy such a vampire. He writes that a Saturday child has captured such a revenant in a stable and pierced him there with a long iron nail. From different parts of Europe - mainly from the Balkans and the Anglo -Irish area - are reports of supplies that speak of the destructive effects of the body fluids of a Saturday or Sunday child. Here are especially saliva and urine to call that made decompose a revenant or vampire dust as soon as he came into contact with it. In the 19th century it was among the Southern Slavs common to get a " subatnik " if there was reason to fear that a recently deceased fellow man in the night, the grave leave to plague the living. The ghost-seer then went with a horse - especially a white horse - through the cemetery until the animal could no longer move in to go or afraid. Then the grave of the vampire was found, and the " subatnik " could either ram a long hawthorn stake into the ground or urinate on the ground on the suspect 's body, whereupon the vampire decay instantly or would crumble to dust. In German-speaking Sunday children were also sent with a horse through the cemetery, but on the well-known in popular belief Southeast Europe's ability to destroy the undead, they no longer possessed. At most, they could cause the undead by some, only fragmentary banish traditional measures in the grave or by prayers his salvation.

But under the influence of Christian teaching that denied the existence of ghosts and undead revenants, faith flattened to the magical powers of Sunday children over time. They could foresee the death of people at best even when they saw last about one for other invisible funeral procession outside a house in the neighborhood. When they saw that plow a funeral procession to the house, they knew that they themselves would die soon. In the Rhineland, the Sunday children often had a skull on the shoulders drag it to the Graveyard ( in dialect: "ne Duude pööze " ) and show him his future grave - probably a faint reminder of the times when it was believed that Saturday or Sunday child could permanently banish a potential revenants in his grave.

The costs associated with the existence of a Sunday child gifts were undesirable because they had the consequence that the person in question the death of friends, relatives and neighbors foresaw often enough his own end. The belief that the coming Sunday's child is often in contact with death, let the person in the village community often become the shunned outsider. A native of the Bergische Land saga, which was recorded in the late 19th century, tells of a geistersichtigen girl who has to draw on certain nights, accompanied by two large dogs in the fight against the evil spirits. All the people in her village, especially the children, are afraid of her, and the word narrator adds that this Sunday's child was granted a long life. Therefore, the suspicion arises that the frequently heard, other synonyms " Child of Fortune " was originally meant rather euphemistically and rather meant the opposite. Therefore, the parents tried in earlier times, to protect her at one of the magical Saturdays or Sundays born child from his fate, but that does not often helped because the fateful powers were stronger.

After the fading of the fighting of the Catholic Church and especially of the Protestant Church revenant belief in Western Europe the Sonntagskind other skills were attributed, such as the ability of healing by laying on of hands or administration of particular medicine. In the English-Scottish border country and in the rural areas of southern England practiced around 1870 miracle healer that tinctures anwandten, in which they had mixed their urine. The same was even reported in 1910 from the North Wales Betws -y -Coed. The final shrinkage phase of the original belief in the magical powers of the Sunday child represents the view that such a talented person bring happiness and for example the lottery numbers could predict or that you secure the happiness for yourself, if you touch a Sunday child.