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Pommerol suggests, no other than
the ancient Celtic god Grannus, whom the Romans identified with
Apollo, and whose worship is attested by inscriptions found not only
in France but in Scotland and on the Danube.
The custom of carrying lighted torches of straw (_brandons_) about
the orchards and fields to fertilise them on the first Sunday of
Lent seems to have been common in France, whether it was accompanied
with the practice of kindling bonfires or not. Thus in the province
of Picardy "on the first Sunday of Lent people carried torches
through the fields, exorcising the field-mice, the darnel, and the
smut. They imagined that they did much good to the gardens and
caused the onions to grow large. Children ran about the fields,
torch in hand, to make the land more fertile." At Verges, a village
between the Jura and the Combe d'Ain, the torches at this season
were kindled on the top of a mountain, and the bearers went to every
house in the village, demanding roasted peas and obliging all
couples who had been married within the year to dance.


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