Flitch of bacon custom every leap year. The oath to be taken was very similar to the one at Whichnoure, that "neither of them in a year and a day, neither sleeping or waking, repented of their marriage". The couple are required to kneel on sharp stones in the churchyard while taking the oath and a verse was chanted; Following the taking of the oath, the couple are then paraded around the town with their bacon in a noisy ceremony, much as at Whichnoure. The historical Dunmow flitch is known to have been successfully claimed only a total of six times, although there may
What Is a Nation? French citizen has to have forgotten the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, or the massacre that took place in the South in the thirteenth century. While many nations, such as France, begin with a feudal regime such as a monarchy, others, such as the United States and Switzerland, are formed by acts of consensual aggregation. France and many others, however, survived their feudal roots while maintaining their identity. Renan inquires what is the organizing principle? It can't be race, because France is "Celt, Iberian, German...The most noble countries, England, France and Italy, are the ones where the blood is most mixed."