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Updated: July 14, 2025
Here the straw figure, called "the great mondard" and placed on the oldest apple-tree in spring, represents the spirit of the tree, who, dead in winter, revives when the apple-blossoms appear on the boughs. Thus the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree and thereby receives the name of "the great mondard" must be regarded as a representative of the tree-spirit.
In Beauce, in the district of Orleans, on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of April they make a straw man called "the great mondard." For they say that the old mondard is now dead and it is necessary to make a new one. The straw man is carried in solemn procession up and down the village and at last is placed upon the oldest apple-tree.
There he remains till the apples are gathered, when he is taken down and thrown into the water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into water. But the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree succeeds to the title of "the great mondard."
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