Old Advent Custom

Posted by Elizabeth Yetter Nov 30, 2006

In Eure-et-Loire, Normandy it was once a custom for farmers to choose an Advent day to drive mice, moles, and caterpillars away from his farmland. To do this, he would hire the help of boys under the age of twelve to run through the coutryside, lighting small bundles of hay, and shouting:

Mice, caterpillars, and moles,

Get out, get out of my field;

I will burn your beard and bones:

Trees and shrubs

Give me bushels of apples.