More info. on kyrkotagning in 19th century Sweden?

[Larry Danielson]

I have gathered some information on kyrkotagning in Swedish church life--the purification of the new mother forty days after giving birth and the unusual rituals associated with it in the distant past.  I'm curious what it involved in the 1860s, however, in Småland.  Thanks and happy new year!

[Ingela Martenius]

I have very little idea what happened at the churching ceremony when Sweden was still a Catholic country (1527/1593) but at the meeting at Uppsala (1593) churching was given some new rules. Before 1593 it seems that the mother had to present herself holding candles and bringing a sacrifice of some sort - both the candles and the sacrifice was given to the vicar,
 
The Swedish Lutheran church has always regarded churching as an act of gratitude and welcoming back to the church and its clergy has (officially) never regarded churching as an act of purification. However, since the ritual originated within the Jewish faith and there was regarded as a purification - and the Virgin Mary was received and purified at the Temple 40 days after giving birth to Christ (celebrated as Candlemas - Kyndelsmäss in Swedish) - less educated people (which meant at least 90% of the Swedish population) continued to regard churching as a purifying rite.
The ritual was as follows:
Before the regular church service, the woman about to be churched kneeled before the altar and the vicar read a short prayer expressing gratitude that the new mother was able to return to church healthy and with regained strength. The woman rose and the vicar shook her hand, at the same time saying The Lord guide you in His truth and fear, now and unto eternity. Amen. The woman then returned to her pew.
If the woman was unwed, a slightly different prayer was said, and the vicar did not shake her hand. Usually she was also made to kneel on the bare floor - or at least on an uncovered stool - while the married woman kneeled on a very plush and finely decorated stool. Until the mid 19th century an unwed mother also had to publicly show her penitence and ask the congregation for forgiveness for her transgression.
 
In the beginning the ceremony was not performed before the altar but at the church door. This was however changed during Protestant times, among other things because it was not thought to be good for the newly delivered mother to stand around outside if it was cold, windy or wet (which it so often is in Sweden). Having the churching ouside the church would of course also have strengthened the superstitious idea the Lutheran church wished to get rid off, namely that it was a purification.
 
Churching was originally performed six weeks after the birth (to conform to the precedence set by the Virgin Mary) but was in 1866 officially moved to four weeks after the birth. Long before this it was however in many places performed on the fourth Sunday after the birth. The reason was economic: the woman was not allowed to work - or even stir outside the room where she had given birth - until she was churched since this accoding to popular superstition would endanger not only herself but also the farm and all who lived there, both humans and animals.
This of course also meant that a mother could not be present at the baptism of her child (which had to take place within eight days of the birth), which explains why it was considered such an honour to carry the child to its christening - the primary godmother represented the mother in a very real sense. But in 1866 the churching was moved forward at the same time as the baptism was allowed to be performed later (within six weeks of the birth) - and it became the fashion to have the churching and the christening performed at the same time.
 
I believe that churching was performed in much the same way within all Protestant churches. In Sweden it was still in the Book of Prayers until 1986, but was seldom performed - and then mainly on request from the mother - after WW II. The province preserving churching the longest was of course Bohuslän (the province on the coast just north of Göteborg), the most conservative province when it comes to church matters.
 
Ingela