New Moon's St Marcus Day - Is It Real?

in the film Twilight Saga: New Moon , Bella arrived in Volterra, Italy just in time to save Edward from revealing himself as a vampire in the crowd of mortals nadan 19th Festival of St. Marcus March Participants of the festival, dressed in a red, hooded robes, and March in the procession carrying the statue of St. Marcus to the church in the city center. In Twilight world, "Saint Marcus" celebrates the mortals they rid the city of vampires, when, in fact, a vampire himself. Volterra is home Volturri, lawgivers of the vampire world. Marcus is one of them. Some Twilight fans wear red 19th March to mark the holiday.

New Moon author Stephanie Meyer borrowed the fictional St. Marcus day in a real European celebration of St. Mark's day. It has changed the date: the 25th day of Markov of April. Since that date coincides with the ceremonies of Easter (movable feast, the date varies, but typically occurs in March or April), and a host of other Eurasian spring festival, it is thought that the Markov day is much older version of Christianity, Pagan rites. In the book Ostara, Edain McCoy writes, "As was done with a lot of Pagan festivals in Europe, the early church attempted to divert the symbolism of Ostara [Spring Festival of the Germanic pagans] nablagdan St. Mark's. Instead the festival of rebirth, St. Mark's paintings concentrated on death and martyrdom, by which Christian birth achieved ."

St. Mark is traditionally considered the author of the Gospel of Matthew in the Christian Bible. He believes that the companion of St. Paul, the great early Christian evangelist, that the Book of Acts refers to as "John Mark." Disciple of Paul, Mark is thought to have been used as the basis of Paul's preaching of the Gospel. He is also remembered as the founder of the Coptic Church. Coptic tradition holds that Mark appears in the Gospels as a young man who carried water to the house where the Last Supper of Jesus and his Apostles occurred, like the boy who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested, and to pour the water Jesus turned into a wine at the wedding feast at Cana.

Mark said he was martyred 25th April, 68 in Alexandria, Egiptu.Skupina local people resented his attempts to deter them from their traditional gods. They placed a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead. Its main shrine in Egypt and Italy. His Italian shrine of the Basilica de San Marco in Venice, which is traditionally said to be the place where Mark's remains were buried. So, he really has nothing to do with Italy, although not specifically for the city of Volterra.

Perhaps because of his martyrdom, many curious traditions grew up over the centuries about the celebration of the Feast of St. Mark. In the seventeenth through the nineteenth century England, especially in the north and west, folklore held that the ghosts of those who will die next year, made ​​a procession, with the aim of which will die, the graveyard and the church at midnight on St. Mark's Eve. Some said the parade will be the coffins or headless or rotting corpses. Another is the procession will be identified, the spirit is like ghosts, and to be able to sit and watch the parade, because the past and know who was going to die.

to see the ghosts, folklore claims, one had to be fasting. Another legend held that one must be present at the cemetery at St. Mark's Eve three years in a row, and only the third year would see a specter. Sometimes, you live audience saw their ghosts, and died shortly thereafter. Another superstition concerning St. Mark's Eve is that on this night, a witch who sold his soul to the devil (or written their names in the book of the devil), and want to keep their otherworldly powers had to walk three times around the church back, peek through the keyhole, and recite certain words, and their powers will be lost.

Another traditional Markov Eva activity was stirring the ashes of the hearth. If the ashes formed part of the shoe, someone who has lived in the household will die during the year.

St. Mark's Eve was one of the three nights was associated with mrtvima.Drugi the St. John's Eve and All Saints Eve. According to some legends, these three nights, those who have died can come back to earth as ghosts. This conviction of all Saints Eve (Halloween) is a Christian appropriation of the Celtic harvest festival Samhain, the point where the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, and halfway between the autumn and winter. Similarly, Mark's Eve marks the halfway between the spring and summer, and associated with the pagan festival of Ostara. St. John's Eve, traditionally celebrated on the 23rd June is associated with the pagan feast of Midsummer, or summer solstice.

Not all the legends associated with the Eva brand associated with death, ipak.Noć was also one where young women will try to divine where their future is going to be friends. There were several ways to accomplish this: by choosing twelve sage leaves at midnight, walking nine times around the haystack, while chanting, "Here is the cover, now where's the knife?" or baking dumb-cake, eat a piece of cake, and then walking back to bed without a word (hence the word "stupid"). If a woman is not any of these things, but especially if she prayed to St. Mark's, while working, it will see a shadow, or catch a fleeting insight, a man one day marry. However, if she went to bed without seeing a shadow and thought a new dug grave, that meant he would die unmarried.

These are mostly English traditions, though. In Italy, if Mark's Day is celebrated at all, it's a celebration, drink, and / or offer less bread sreće.Običaj wearing red and the procession seems that Stephanie Meyer invention.