Ribniška
Nekoč je neki Ribničan peljal svojo suho robo po svetu, pa pride do klanca, kjer ni mogel speljati. Tam pa je stala Marijina kapelica, pa je rekel Ribničan: »O, ljuba Mati Božja, pomagaj mi, pa ti bom daroval pol tovora v vbogajme!« Potem je konj zlahka speljal. Čez nekaj časa reče sin, ki je bil z očetom: »Oče, vi ste neumni, preveč ste obljubili!« Oče pa mu je odvrnil: »Šema, samo da sem speljal, pa je dobro, saj ne bom nič dal.« Šla sta naprej, očetu pa vendarle ni bilo čisto vseeno …
Tistega leta je bilo na veliki petek tako mraz, da je vse škripalo. Pa reče oče sinu, naj gre ‘kušnit Boga’ (poljubiti mrtvega Jezusa in njegove rane). Sin pa mu odvrne, naj gre kar sam, saj ima večje ustnice.
In je šel oče sam ‘kušnit Boga’. Bilo je strašno mraz, križ je bil železen, Ribničan pa je imel vlažne ustnice in so se mu na železo prilepile. Nikakor jih ni mogel z železnega križa odtrgati. In se je domislil, kaj je Mariji dolžan. Prepričan je bil, da ga je zdaj Bog kaznoval. In je začel spet hitro obljubljati, da bo že dal tistega pol tovora, če bo lahko odlepil ustnice s križa … pa je res spustilo.
Če je Ribničan v resnici kdaj dal tistega pol tovora v vbogajme, kot je obljubljal, ne vem, ker me ni bilo zraven, vprašal pa tudi nikoli nisem.
A Ribnica Tale
Once upon a time, a pack peddler from Ribnica was travelling far and wide, selling his woodenware. He got to the bottom of an uphill road, but his horse couldn’t go up. The man saw a Virgin Mary’s wayside shrine and said: “Oh dear Mary, Mother of God, help me and I’ll give you half of the load!” After that the horse had no problems going up the hill. After a while, the man’s son, who was accompanying his father, said, “Father, you’re stupid, you’ve promised her way too much!” And the father replied, “Silly boy, I only said it so we’d make it uphill, but don’t you worry, I’m not going to give anything.” They went on, but the father wasn’t quite as unconcerned as he seemed.
On Good Friday that year, it was so freezing cold everything seemed to creak. The father told his son to go and ʽgive God a kissʼ (to kiss the dead Jesus and his wounds). The son replied that the father was better off going himself as he had bigger lips.
And so the man went and ʽgave God a kissʼ himself. It was terribly cold and the cross was made of iron. The man’s wet lips got stuck to the iron and there was no way he could pull away from the iron cross. It crossed his mind that he hadn’t settled his debt to Mary. He was convinced that God was now punishing him. He wasted no time promising that he would finally give the promised half of the load if only he could peel his lips off the cross.
This actually did the trick and he was ʽfreeʼ.
I have no idea if the man actually kept his promise. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, and I never asked.