Churching stool from Pudasjärvi

When a woman had given birth to a child, the pastor blessed, or churched, the woman at the child’s christening. During the blessing, the woman kneeled on the churching stool. Before the churching, the new mother had to keep away from other people for six weeks. The churching rituals varied depending on the status of the woman. If a woman gave birth to an illegitimate child, the churching included, among other things, public reprimand. Pregnancy and childbirth were commonly associated with feelings of shame and beliefs about the uncleanness of a woman who gave birth. In general, churching was considered to be some sort of purification rite, in which the mother was readmitted into the church. The church wanted to address this belief in 1868, and the law was amended such that churching meant a prayer to thank the mother who had given birth. After that, the law no longer referred to readmission into the church.

The practice of churching a woman who had given birth was common in Finland since the Middle Ages. The custom dates back to the Old Testament and became a Christian custom as a result of the Virgin Mary’s visit to the temple as recounted in the Bible. Churching was compulsory from 1686 to 1963. However, attitudes towards it varied in different parts of Finland. The attitudes varied depending on social status. Among ordinary people, churching was taken seriously, but the nobility, for example, shunned the practice. During the 19th century, the clergy also gradually started to turn against the tradition and, in the 1930s, churching ceased altogether even in the last parishes that had still continued it. The practice of churching gradually stopped as medicine developed and knowledge of childbirth increased. Churching was replaced by a general prayer of thanksgiving read from the pulpit for women who had given birth.

K8142:1. Photo: Timo Ahola, 2020.