medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Ann,
I know nothing directly about this custom, but ribbons were certainly a part of rural
pilgrimage customs at this time and probably much earlier. Ribbons would be
attached to statues -- and even trees -- associated with a saint, or would be touched
to a reliquary. They might be tied around the head, or buried, as well, I believe, in
relation to seeking miraculous cures associated with a particular saint. This is a
subject I've only just begun to touch on, so I can't go into detail, but I suspect that
your "ribbon" custom is part of a widespread rural, probably principally agricultural,
religious subculture that, so far as I've been able to gather, has not been very
systematically investigated. Most of the material I'm aware of comes from northern
France.
Cheers,
Jim
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