Protective Strategies and Emotions Invested in Early Modern Danish Christening Garments

Abstract

In 2006–2007, Den Gamle By, National Open Air Museum of Urban History and Culture in Denmark staged a large exhibition of christening garments dating from the eighteenth century until the present. It was called “Christian Clothing and Baptismal Robes over 300 years.” More than 100 objects were exhibited. Garments for babies remind us of the vulnerability of the newborn and in this way they are emotional objects for us today and probably also in the past. Elements of vulnerability are especially obvious for modern viewers when the garments originate from earlier periods with much higher infant mortality rates than today. Parents in earlier centuries used various strategies to protect their small pagans from exposure to evil before baptism. In this way emotions were invested in the garments, but it is a challenge to access and analyze these emotions because the garments themselves do not constitute a language in the same way as written texts. The article will deal with three different material elements which might be considered protective strategies for babies. The first and longest part of the article presents the color red as a means of protection. The next section considers the use of metal as protection against evil and coins as vehicles of good fortune. The third and shortest section discusses the reuse of ritual garments in new ceremonial contexts. When their provenance is known, it is striking that several baptismal garments represent a reuse of garments from weddings or other rites de passage, as termed by Arnold van Gennep.

Keywords:

• christening
• color
• red
• coins
• metal
• ritual garments
• emotions
• protection

Notes

1. http://www.sdu.dk/efter_videreuddannelse/master/boerne_ungdomskultur

2. BIN-Norden: Nordic Child Culture Research, http://bin-norden.org/english/

3. The latest off-shoot of this project is an Erasmus + grant for the evaluation and development of reminiscence programs like these in five European open air museums: Beamish in England, Maihaugen in Norway, Jämtli in Sweden, Skanzen in Hungary and Den Gamle By, with the University of Aarhus, University of Newcastle and Linnaeus University as evaluators.

4. In Den Gamle By, the curator Erna Lorenzen was the first to collect information systematically. See Lorenzen’s biography by Kjær (2003): http://www.kvinfo.dk/side/597/bio/1908/origin/170/.

5. Description of the altarpiece can be found at http://www.tho-pastorat.dk//?s=altertavle and http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/praestoe/holme-olstrup-kirke/

6. The information about christening garments can be accessed at: https://www.kulturarv.dk/mussam/Forside.action;jsessionid=25050AF57BB399D3635007BDC5EC657E; not every Danish museum taking part in this joint publication of collections provides specific information about garments such as their color.

7. It is noteworthy that Styles also mentions ribbons tied as cockades on babies’ caps as a gendered marker for little boys.

8. The entire epitaph in Borup Church with all children including 11-year-old Margrete can be seen at: http://www.livinghistory.dk/ and a full description of the furniture and epitaphs of the church at: http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/uploads/tx_tcchurchsearch/kob_amt_1177-1194.pdf.

9. Engelsk. www.textilnet.dk, Digital dictionary of historic Danish terms for dress and textiles.

10. A full description of the furniture and epitaphs of the Købelev Church is available at: http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/uploads/tx_tcchurchsearch/Maribo_0498-0514.pdf.

11. Description of the epitaph can be found at: http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/uploads/tx_tcchurchsearch/Aarhus_5653-6060.pdf.

12. I want to thank Inge Christiansen for a fruitful discussion about this point.

13. http://mothsordbog.dk/ordbog?query=n%C3%A2 l; author’s translation

14. This information differs somewhat from information given from the donator in 1937. According to this family research site Ane was baptized in 1815 and the family lived in another village, Vejlby, closer to Aarhus.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen

Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen is a social anthropologist working as curator of historical dress and textiles, gardens and the history of housing at Den Gamle By, National Open Air Museum of Urban History and Culture in Denmark. Since 2004 she has been project leader of the Danish textile terminology project textilnet.dk. From 2010‒2013 she was an associated partner of the HERA project, Fashioning the Early Modern—Creativity and Innovation in Europe 1500‒1800. She has curated six large special exhibitions about historical dress and fashion and a series of permanent exhibitions of homes and gardens from eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth-century Danish towns. She is a member of ICOM Costume Committee and CIETA.

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