Born at a Chime Hour (And Terminalia)
“To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”
—David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
I too, was born at midnight on a Friday night—on Terminalia, no less. The doctor allowed my mother to chose the day of my legal birth and she went with the Friday as that was the day she had labored. Though February 23 is my legal birthday, I consider the 24th something of a spiritual birthday.
“There was a belief in some parts of England that those born at certain hours could see ghosts. The crucial time was generally said to be midnight—a Friday midnight, according to Dickens (David Copperfield, chapter 1). But in Somerset and East Anglia people spoke of being ‘born in the chimehours’, a term alluding to the old monastic hours of night prayer, which some churches marked by bell-ringing even after the Reformation; at Blaxhall (Suffolk) these were 8 p.m., midnight, and 4 a.m. (Evans, 1956: 216–17). In Sussex, though the term ‘chime hours’ is not mentioned, the belief was that ‘those born at three, six, nine or twelve o'clock’ would be able ‘to see much that is hidden from others’ (Wales, 1979: 56); these are the daytime hours of monastic prayer. Ruth Tongue said that in Somerset it was the period from Friday midnight to cockcrow on Saturday; she claimed (incorrectly) to be a ‘Chime Child’ herself.”
—Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore by Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud
Though Ruth Tongue’s stories about chime children sound like delightful fun to me, as someone born at midnight on a Friday, her work has been shown to be absolute bullshit.
However—
There are quotes from other sources predating Ruth Tongue:
“The child born [in Sutherlandshire, Scotland] at midnight will grow up to ‘see things’ hidden from others — to have, in short, the gift of second sight.” Gun and Mackay, Sutherland (1897), 117
“Children who are born during the ‘chime hours’ of a parish church clock, that is, at the hours when musical tunes are chimed, have the power to see spirits.” Oldall Addy, Household Tales, 1895, 119
“Babies born during ‘chime hours’ have the faculty of seeing spirits and cannot be bewitched. The chime hours are three, six, nine, and twelve, though an old nurse of the writer’s acquaintance stated them as four, eight, and twelve.”Gurdon, County Folklore Suffolk, 1893 p. 11
Source (with additional quotes)
More from David Copperfield:
“In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared by the nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either gender, born towards the small hours on a Friday night.”
The Terminalia was celebrated on the last day of the old Roman year, whence some derive its name. We know that February was the last month of the Roman year, and that when the intercalary month Mercedonius was added, the last five days of February were added to the intercalary month, making the 23d of February the last day of the year.
The ancient Romans celebrated the Terminalia, a festival honoring Terminus, the god of boundaries and especially boundary markers, on this date, February 23. Families adorned with garlands the boundary markers between their property and that of their neighbors, and municipalities offered sacrifices at the borders of their community.
Lots more on Terminalia here.
And then there is my Saint’s Name Day.
Saint Melania is celebrated on my own culture’s last day of the year—December 31.
And, let’s not forget that I’m a Pisces—the last of the signs.
Synopsis: Midnight, New Year’s Eve (Terminalia and modern western), and Pisces are all liminal times, times of transition and in-betweenness.
Does it mean anything?
🤷♀️
But it sure is fascinating on a personal level.
Note: this year, the moon is also in a waning crescent
