Calendar Stick
Each side of these sticks is divided into 26 sections with seven notches representing the seven days in a week. The winter side begins with October 14th and the summer side with April 14th. Both faces are incised with numerous symbols representing three layers of cultural identity -- pagan, Christian, and secular agricultural.
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Norwegian calendar stick (primstav), 1773-1799
Gift of Anna Dyreson (1972.153)
Ole Knutson Dyrland brought this calendar stick to Wisconsin from Seljord, Telemark, Norway in 1843. By that time printed almanacs had replaced this type of object, but Dyrland treasured the stick as a family keepsake. A memento of his old home, it kept the company of a treasured Bible, a hymnbook, and his wife's spinning wheel. |
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Norwegian replica calendar stick (primstav), c. 1890
Gift of Adolph Bredeson (1955.248)
Intrigued by the Dyrland calendar stick, Thorbjorn Vick of Stoughton, Wisconsin created an exact replica around 1890, long after calendar sticks had gone out of use. This image shows the winter side of the calendar stick. |
Key to some of the primstav's many symbols
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October 14 = Winter nights
The mitten represents the beginning of winter, a pagan fall festival. Good weather on this day forecasted the same for the upcoming winter. |
November 23 = St. Clement
The anchor symbolizes Clement, the fourth Bishop of Rome, who was drowned with an anchor around his neck in the Black Sea by persecutors in 101 AD. All ships had to remain anchored in harbor on this day.
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March 21 = The hoe
This symbol represents the hoe that people used to dig up soil and spread it on top of the snow so that the snow would melt faster and speed the arrival of spring.
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