Corn dollies are a form of straw work and one of the many harvest customs that come from the agrarian life of early Europeans. It was believed that the corn spirit lived amongst the crop and the harvest made it effectively homeless. People fashioned hollow shapes from the last sheaf of wheat or other grain. The corn spirit would then spend the winter in their homes until the "corn dolly" was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season, effectively returning the spirit to its home and the crops to life. (It's important to note that corn as we know it in the US is more universally referred to as "maize" and wasn't grown in Europe until relatively recently. The word "corn" generally applied to all of the ancient cereal crops.)

corn huskers dolly © 2002-2006 ear-parcel at deviantART

Modern Wiccans incorporate the corn dolly and its symbolism as part of our celebration of the turn of the Wheel of the Year. While most of us are no longer farming the land, the changing of the seasons and the ancient practices based on securing a successful Summer growing season, celebrating an abundant harvest in Autumn, providing food for the Winter, and ensuring the ability to grow new crops in the Spring take on a metaphoric place among our spiritual practice.

"Dolly" in this context is actually a corruption of the word "idol." While often the corn dolly is worked as an actual doll or straw figure of some sort, many traditions favored elaborate weavings that took many different shapes. The cornucopia that Americans associate with Thanksgiving was among the many corn dolly shapes. In Great Britain, where the practice of making corn dollies originated among ancient pagan peoples, there are very particular regional variations. Wikipedia has an interesting list of them.

Pagan Hearth Recipes has a great page on corn dollies that includes some regional folklore, a corn dolly poem, and instructions on how to make your own corn dolly. While it's more magickal if you make your own, I found a website for Maddy's Corn Dollies from which you can order a variety of beautiful dollies made in Wales.

Sir James Fraser discusses the Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden in Northern Europe and the harvest rituals that were being practiced at the beginning of the 20th century:

In the neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn makes them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman and is brought home on the last waggon. In some parts of Holstein the last sheaf is dressed in women's clothes and called the Corn-mother. It is carried home on the last waggon, and then thoroughly drenched with water. The drenching with water is doubtless a rain-charm. In the district of Bruck in Styria the last sheaf, called the Corn-mother, is made up into the shape of a woman by the oldest married woman in the village, of an age from 50 to 55 years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and made into a wreath, which, twined with flowers, is carried on her head by the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or squire, while the Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to keep off the mice. In other villages of the same district the Corn-mother, at the close of harvest, is carried by two lads at the top of a pole. They march behind the girl who wears the wreath to the squire's house, and while he receives the wreath and hangs it up in the hall, the Corn-mother is placed on the top of a pile of wood, where she is the centre of the harvest supper and dance.

The Golden Bough, Chapter 45

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 2:33 PM