Reading the Pentecost Flower
Reading Pentecostal flower is an old folk custom, especially known in the Netherlands and Flanders, that took place around the feast of Pentecost. It is a form of divination or oracle using the Pentecostal flower (Cardamine pratensis; also called field cress). The exact execution differs per region, but it is always about predicting the future, especially in the field of love.
A form of this Pentecostal flower read: A young unmarried person picks a blooming or still closed Pentecostal flower. Then the flower is tapped with the fingernail. To the rhythm of a verse, it is asked whether the beloved will be faithful, or when one will marry. For example, the last leaf is the verdict (variants; the last leaf that remains – or the first one that falls ...).
Example verse
Pentecostal flower, Pentecostal flower, tell me,
Does he(she) marry me, or does he(she) not marry?
(The verdict falls on the last leaf.)