Note 273 — Chapter IV
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Footnote 273
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Charles Beauquier, Les mois en Franche-Comté (Paris, 1900), pp. 33 sq. In Bresse the custom was similar. See La Bresse Louhannaise, Bulletin Mensuel, Organe de la Société d'Agriculture et d'Horticulture de l'Arrondissement de Louhans, Mars, 1906, pp. 111 sq.; E. Cortet, op. cit. p. 100. The usual name for the bonfires is chevannes or schvannes; but in some places they are called foulères, foualères, failles, or bourdifailles (Ch. Beauquier, op. cit. p. 34). But the Sunday is called the Sunday of the brandons, bures, bordes, or boidès, according to the place. The brandons are the torches which are carried about the streets and the fields; the bonfires, as we have seen, bear another name. A curious custom, observed on the same Sunday in Franche-Comté, requires that couples married within the year should distribute boiled peas to all the young folks of both sexes who demand them at the door. The lads and lasses go about from house to house, making the customary request; in some places they wear masks or are otherwise disguised. See Ch. Beauquier, op. cit. pp. 31-33.