In the agricultural calendar May is one of the quieter months. Crops are sown, cattle are grazing on summer pastures and sheep have no need to be sheared before the month of June. This was the perfect time for Rogationtide, an ancient church festival that began on the 6th Sunday of Easter and ended on the Wednesday before Ascension Day. These were known as the Rogation Days when Christians prayed and fasted in preparation for Christ’s ascension into heaven. Before the widespread use of maps and literacy, walking the parish boundaries at Rogationtide was an important part of this festival too. Local folk, especially young boys who had it drilled into them, had to know where the boundaries were and were reminded of this at least once a year. In Latin, Rogation means ‘to beseech’.
The 2000 year old tradition of Beating the Bounds (boundaries) was originally a ritual for awakening the dormant earth after a long winter. In later centuries, the church incorporated it with another ancient tradition which called on the old gods to bless and protect the ‘fruits’ of the land and sea. Pre-Christian Romans had similar festivals which were called Ambarvailia (29th May) and Robigalia (25th April). Another Roman festival called Terminalia (23rd February) involved sacrifices and feasts at boundary stones to honour the god Terminus. An amalgamation of these traditions reached England in the 7th century with many of these processions taking place on Ascension Day.
Banners and crosses, depicting images of saints and scenes from Christ’s life, led the processions around the parish boundaries with all obstacles such as ponds and hedges having to be navigated. Boys were given white rods to beat the boundaries with so that they would permanently remember where the lines were. Certain trees and landmarks such as stone crosses were used as boundary markers and helped to avoid boundary disputes. These markers were given names such as the Gospel Oak or Luke’s Stone as it was here that the priest would stop a while en route to bless the crops, pray or read bible verses. During the walk, alms were given out to the poor and parishioners supplied food to the weary walkers. From what I understand this custom only concerned men and boys as there is no mention of women being involved. Those who did not participate in this custom were seen in an unfavourable light. Afterwards, boys were rewarded with a ribbon which they pinned or tied to their clothes and everyone was given some dried fruit, cake, nuts, bread, ale or money.
After the restoration of the monarchy in May 1660, royalists began celebrating a tradition called Royal Oak Day which commemorated King Charles II's escape from his enemies. King Charles is said to have hidden from his pursuers in an oak tree after the battle of Worcester in 1651. Depending on the region, the day was also known as Shik-Shak Day, Shig-Shag Day (between Herefordshire and Hampshire) and Yak Bob Day. These are all slang for apple. Up until the 1920s it was the custom for many people to wear oak twigs or leaves in their buttonholes and hats. Children who wore these had ‘the right’ to torment those children who were not wearing oak leaves by pinching their bottoms, kicking them, pelting them with birds’ eggs, throwing dirt or hitting them with stinging nettles. Unsurprisingly, the day was also known as Nettle Day or Pinch Bum Day. The ‘privilege’ of tormenting non-wearers lasted until midday and quite often ash leaves replaced the oak leaves in the afternoon. Church towers, flag poles, porches, doors and windows of homes were decorated with oak branches and in Herefordshire horse harnesses were decorated with greenery. Towards the end of the 19th century, trains and signal boxes were decorated with oak branches on King Charles’ birthday. This day absorbed many of the old May Day customs such as maypole dancing. Other festivities included beer and plum puddings, bonfires, bell ringing and the gifting of trinkets. Before this time, the oak tree played no prominent role in May customs, as previously it had always been the ash, birch, rowan and hawthorn trees.
In Abbotsbury, Dorset on the 13th of May, there was a one thousand year old custom of blessing the fishing boats at the opening of mackerel season. Children walked in procession around the village with their flower garlands mounted on poles, calling at houses and collecting money for showing off their handiwork. The children would then attend a special service at church, after which they put the flowers on the fishing boats that took them out to sea. The flowers were thrown onto the water with a prayer and a hymn. This originates from an ancient ritual to appease the old gods.
At Castleton in Derbyshire, there is a survival of an ancient May Day custom that now takes place on the 29th of May and is known as Garland Day. The Garland King wears a three foot high bell shaped garland with two eye holes to see through and a posy placed on the top called ‘the queen’. The garland is bound in straw and tied over with knots of wild flowers and weighs six stone. Each year it is made by a different local pub. The king is accompanied by a queen who rides a side saddle and who was originally veiled.
At six o’clock in the evening the Garland King riding a cart horse leads the procession accompanied by Morris dancers, musicians and young girls dressed in white carrying flowers. The Garland King very much resembles the old English folklore character of Jack-in-the Green who was once a symbol of fertility and spring. The procession stops at each of the local pubs for a well deserved drink before finally stopping at the church three hours later. The garland is hoisted up to the church tower where it stays until the flowers have died. The young girls perform a local dance around the maypole and the posy is laid on the war memorial in the marketplace.
This custom, which is local to Castleton, grew out of the tradition of rush-bearing at the end of the 18th century. Originally there were just bell ringers, a garland and a rush cart with the procession stopping at all of the wealthy houses for food and drink. As the centuries passed, the rush cart disappeared and the procession was instead led by a man decorated in ribbons and another man dressed as a woman wearing a bonnet. Morris dancers eventually replaced the bell ringers. In the late 19th century, city folk began visiting Castleton and the rush bearing tradition became a quaint tourist attraction. The Morris dancers were replaced by school girls and the king and queen were given historical costumes from the Stuart period. In the mid 1950s, the gentleman who played the role of the ‘queen’ pulled out of the festivities and was replaced by an actual woman and it has been that way ever since.
In the village of Great Wishford in Wiltshire (once known as Wicheford, meaning a ford where wych elms grow) the tradition of the ‘right to gather wood’ in Grovely Forest took place at this time of year. The celebration had processions, a fete and a local dance performed by women. Villagers would rise just before dawn to walk to the forest as they sang and gathered oak branches. This is a likely relic of a much older ‘Maying’ tradition.
Pentecost Sunday, also known as Whit Sunday, comes seven weeks after Easter Sunday and lasts until the day before Trinity Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. No one knows exactly where the name ‘Whit’ originates from, but some believe it is associated with the white baptismal robes that babies wore (May was a popular month for baptisms). Whitsuntide used to be a jovial time with Morris dancing, cheese rolling, maypole dancing, games, sports, plays, fairs, pageants, horse parades and carnivals. Fairings, which were packets of sugared almonds or gingerbread etc were sold to young men to give to their sweethearts.
For the Irish, however, Whit Sunday was an extremely unlucky day during which every precaution had to be taken against accidents and bad luck. Water had to be avoided at all costs because the risk of drowning was far greater on this day. In Ireland, anything born today was known as a ‘cingciseach’ and was believed to be doomed to cause death or to die a violent death. To nullify this evil, the child or animal had to kill something. For example, a fly could be placed into a baby's hand and then crushed to save the child from its fate. People who were sick were believed to be more likely to die at this time, so to stop this from happening, a sod of earth was placed on their head to mimic a burial in the hope of keeping death at bay.
Up until 1829, Whit Monday was a day of obligation for Catholics and consequently was a popular day for pilgrimages to holy wells. In Glamorgan, Wales, people visited churchyards to decorate their loved ones’ graves with flowers. This was the season for feasting and popular foods enjoyed at this time were beef, mutton, roast veal, pikelets (from the Welsh ‘bara pyglyd’, a cross between a pancake and a crumpet) bread and tea with thick cream or rum, ham, meat pies, pickled onions, jellies, custards, fruit tarts, curd tarts, cheese and gooseberry pudding all washed down with some beer. On Whit Monday during the Middle Ages, city guilds would carry garlands and emblems of their trade in processions through the towns.
Well-dressing, a custom that is still popular during the month of May, is a relic of an old belief that the liminal space of water was the home of deities and nature spirits. Sacrificial rites were performed to guarantee that these watery beings remained appeased and that the source of the spring never dried up. During the ancient Roman festival of Fontinalia, garlands were thrown into springs and placed around the top of wells in honour of the god Fons and also to appease the water nymphs. With the arrival of Christianity, wells and springs were named after saints or the Virgin Mary and became baptismal fonts. Unsurprisingly, these sacred springs grew into pilgrimage sites attracting thousands of people in desperate need of a cure for their ailments. Wells and springs were decorated with beautiful garlands as well as frames and wooden figures covered in flowers.
The act of dressing a well can take up to a week to complete. Firstly, a wooden board is soaked in water, often in a nearby river for a few days, after which it is covered in clay and moss. The clay is then decorated with flower petals, buds, leaves and berries. The display can last up to a week before the clay cracks and the flowers die. The Church has kept this tradition alive with processions to holy wells still being made today and well water being blessed. The only time that people stopped dressing wells was during the reign of Henry VIII when crutches and sticks of those who had been cured by the healing waters were destroyed.
Wishing you a lovely Whitsuntide and may the merriment of the first of May continue for all this month. Just don’t go pinching anyone’s bottom!
Brightest blessings,
Elissa
BIBLIOGRAPHY -
A Year Of Festivals by Geoffey Palmer and Noel Lloyd (1972)
A Year In Ireland by Kevin Danaher (1972)
English Traditional Customs by Christina Hole (1975)
A Dictionary Of British Folk Customs by Christina Hole (1979)
Folklore And Customs of Rural England by Margaret Baker (1974)
Curious Country Customs by Jeremy Hobson (2007)
A Chronicle Of Folk Customs by Brian Day (1998)
Stations Of The Sun by Ronald Hutton (2001)
Dictionary Of Roman Religion by Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins (1996)
I had never seen or read of the well dressing display board tradition before, thank you for sharing that. Do you know how far back it goes? I am curious and must now google about to see if I can find any less comtemporary examples.