![]() ![]() (Which is not to mention that one of the most famous levitators of legend was himself a Catholic saint, Saint Joseph of Cupertino-though Pepys probably didn’t know about him Saint Joe died in 1663 and wasn’t canonized until nearly a hundred years later, when everyone in this story was already dead.) I enquired of him whether they were Protestant or Catholic girls and he told me they were Protestant, which made it the more strange to me.” Catholics, of course, being somewhat more invested in miracles. “This is one of the strangest things I ever heard,” Pepys writes, “but he tells it me of his own knowledge, and I do heartily believe it to be true. Then the first began the second line, and so round quite through, and, putting each one finger only to a boy that lay flat upon his back on the ground, as if he was dead at the end of the words, they did with their four fingers raise this boy as high as they could reach.”īrisband reports that he figured it must be a trick, and challenged the girls in their magic, bidding the boy move aside for “the cook of the house, a very lusty fellow,” but much to his surprise, the little girls raised him up “in just the same manner.” ![]() Pepys writes: “ saw four little girls, very young ones, all kneeling, each of them, upon one knee and one begun the first line, whispering in the ear of the next, and the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and she to the first. Brisband, “a good scholar and sober man,” as the two were “speaking of enchantments and spells.” Brisband’s contribution to their collection was this incantation, which he encountered in Bourdeax: In his entry for July 31, 1665, Pepys (pronounced “peeps,” a true fact I will never get over) recounts a story told to him by one Mr. The earliest known recorded reference to it can be found in The Diary of Samuel Pepys, with which you are no doubt familiar if you ever had to take a class on the Restoration. In my experience, girls can easily feel creepy and sexy at the same time.) But where did this odd ritual actually come from?įolk historians aren’t certain of the origins, but they do know that it’s been around for hundreds of years. ![]() (Though one obviously doesn’t preclude the other. I shouldn’t have to explain to you why, for a certain kind of slumber partier, this is much preferable to calling boys and hanging up. This time, like magic, the “dead” girl rises off the floor. “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” is then repeated, over in over, in unison, as all the girls attempt the levitation again.Ħ. ( Light as a feather, stiff as a board.)”ĥ. ( She’s dead.) / Light as a feather, stiff as a board. ( She’s looking pale.) / She’s looking worse. The chants vary one style goes like this: “She’s looking pale. She begins some kind of ritual chant, often call and response. Everyone puts two fingers under the chosen one. The chosen one lies on the floor, her arms crossed over her chest. (Just normal girl stuff, you know?) The particulars of the game vary slightly depending on the house and the participants, but usually it goes like this:Ģ. If you need a refresher (you don’t), the object of the exercise is to ritually levitate one of your friends. I’ve heard there’s even a show on Hulu called Light as a Feather and produced by Kelsey Grammer (another 90s immortal), but it’s not supposed to be very good. The ritual is a ubiquitous classic of American slumber parties, particularly though not exclusively for girls, and forever immortalized in The Craft in the 90s (“What’s going on in here? Are you girls getting high?”), and often referenced as a stand-in for the half-spooky, half-silly machinations of adolescence. But levitation? Never.Įven so, I know exactly how to play “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.” If you’re reading this, you probably do too. Here’s one of mine: I have never ever actually played “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.” This despite being the type of eighth grader who shoplifted spell books from my local Barnes & Noble and then proceeded to cast spells-once or twice successfully, I swear-in my parents’ attic, with my two best friends. ![]() All the best slumber parties come complete with a confession or two. ![]()
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