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Yesterday was Assumption Day, a feast day (a Holy Day of Obligation, actually, so it appears to be fairly major) in the Roman Catholic church.

On the market in Mainz, you’ll find bunches of medicinal herbs that you can take to church to be blessed on the occasion, the church being a cathedral and right next door.

Mrs jb reckons these ones are pretty poor efforts compared to the traditional self-gathered bunches from her youth.

It’s sort of like Grüner Sosse, the traditional herb sauce.

There’s a right way. And there’s a wrong way.

This is the right way:

There have to be at least 7, an ancient holy number although there are regional variations with 9 and 15

The 8 that Mrs jb used to gather (and her mother – 87 – still gathers) in dialect:

Jode Wermut – Artemisia absinthium
Schlächte Wermut – Artemisia vulgaris
Böndeknöpp
Osterzeih
Donderkrock
Donderkörnche
Blitzkrock – Epilobium angustifolium

Wornkrock – Chrysanthemum vulgare

16 Aug This entry was published on 16 August, 2008 at 11:00. It’s filed under Culture, Mainz and tagged Botanics. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.