From: Mystic Musk Ox (MAB@SAVAX750.RUTHERFORD.AC.UK)
Date: Wed 06 Oct 1993 - 11:42:00 EET
I saw a theatre production by the Talking Birds company last night,
"Talking Birds and Tree Monsters". It was good stuff, very mythic/folkloric
based. One of the themes was that of a Sin-Eater. The idea is that a village
has a carnival each year. For the carnival, food is prepared which contains
the sins of the villagers. Someone (preferably an outsider) then eats the
food, thus ridding the village of the sins. In the production, the food
is poisoned such that the eater dies and takes the sins to the land of the
dead. The sins seemed to be got into the food by each of the villagers
chewing something, which was then spat into a bucket and then included
in the meal.
Does anyone know if this is a real ritual (presumably apart from the
poisoning) which takes place in the real world? It sounds very Catholic
to me.
For RQ, would this seem to fit in as a Yelmalion ritual? I can imagine the need for carnival (or equivalent) each year, and the removal of sins by passing them on to outsiders seems appropriate.
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