{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/osc/osc11.htm","path":"neu/eng/osc/osc11.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/osc/osc11.htm","text":"On Good Fridays at St. Bartholomew's Church, Smithfield, there is a quaint ceremony conducted on a flat tombstone in the churchyard. A churchwarden places twenty-one new sixpences on the tombstone, and twenty-one widows come forward one by one, kneel, and pick up the coins. Afterwards each widow is presented with 2/6. The origin of this ceremony is said to be unknown, although it seems hardly likely that money should be paid out year by year without even a tradition as to its commencement. The surmise that the person who lies buried beneath the tombstone left money to be spent in this way--see Sir Benjamin Stone's remarks in his Pictures of National Life and History--only makes the absence of details all the more strange.","title":"The Origins of Popular Supersitions and Customs: Days and Seasons: (8) Picking Up Sixpences At Smithfield","type":"page"}