They contrive so as not to use
fire on St. Laurence's day; by taking this precaution they think
themselves secure against fire for the rest of the year.
This prejudice of lucky and unlucky days has existed at all times and in
all nations; but if knowledge and civilization have not removed it, they
have at least diminished its influence. In Livonia, however, the people
are more than ever addicted to the most superstitious ideas on this
subject. In a Riga journal (_Rigaische Stadblatter_, No. 3657, anno
1822, edited by M. Sontag) there are several passages relative to a
letter from heaven, and which is no other than a catalogue of lucky and
unlucky days. This letter is in general circulation; every body carries
it about him, and though strictly forbidden by the police, the copies
are multiplied so profusely as to increase the evil all attempts to
destroy which have hitherto failed. Among the country people this idea
is equivalent to the doctrine of fatality; and if they commit faults or
even crimes, on the days which are marked as unlucky, they do not
consider themselves as guilty, because they were predestined.
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