Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1920 — NEEDFIRE OLD FOLK CUSTOM [ARTICLE]

NEEDFIRE OLD FOLK CUSTOM

Part of the Ritual of Purification That Ha» Survived In Scotland Until—i Recently. In folk custom, needflre Is fire kindled by fricti6n of two sticks of wood or of a rope on a wooden stake to ward off demons of disease. Among the many customs and Reliefs connected with fire one of the most important is that of ritual purification. The new fire is supposed to regenerate, as fire sacrifice is designed to sustain, the invisible beings. Needflre is a practice, usually, of shepherd peoples to ward off disease from the flocks. In historic times the sparks for kindling the needflre were obtained by twirling a wooden peg around a wooden post. As in the case of new fire, the needflre was almost always accompanied with the extinguishing of the fires of the locality, and the neighbors also rekindled their fires from it as in the new fire ceremony. In practice, the people passed, or the herds were driven through or between the flames of the needfire for purification. The needflre custom survived in the highlands of Scotlanl until recent date, and probably traces of this superstition still exist in parts of Europe.