Spring & Summer Customs
Dr Geoff Doel PhD lectures on medieval and traditional culture. He said his illustrated talk about summer customs starts with May Day. Surprisingly, as today we think of May as a Spring celebration but for centuries long past 1st May, Beltane, was considered to be the start of summer. Celebrations included folk figures such as Maid Marion, Friar Tuck, Robin Hood, Maypoles and the marriage of the May King and Queen. Thomas Hardy writes that originally maypole dancers were adult couples and not children.
Until the Victorian era May Day in England was a blaze of colour with May garlands in the South, and particularly in Kent and Sussex. Participants in May (Mary’s) Day were mostly girls although boys were not wholly excluded. There were parades featuring Jack in the Green, Chimney Sweeps, a walking Maypole and various ‘tall ones’. Parades overlapped with older custom revivals.
In Rochester Jack in the Green was ‘woken up’ by Morris Dancers. Morris Dancing was also a feature of celebrations in Whitstable and Hastings. There were several regional styles visiting Canterbury and Romney Marsh and some may have been companies paid to perform. There are not many early references to the Hobby Horse except in Deal.
Hop Hoddening may have been a reference to the folklore figure Robin Hood who was well known throughout England. Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon rode out from Greenwich in 1516 and were met at Shooters Hill by Robin and his men, 200 tall men in green, and invited to be entertained by archers in Sherwood greenwood. There were also traditional Robin Hood plays in Kent especially at Sandwich and Lydd. Katherine of Aragon was said to bathe her face in May Day dew.
Oak Apple Day celebrated the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 when Charles II returned to the throne. By failing to wear an oak apple or a sprig of oak leaves on that day the back of your legs could be beaten with stinging nettles, a custom observed into the 1950s!
Beating of the Bounds, usually men of the parish went around beating the boundary of the district to show the younger generation the extent of their parish/village. This custom underwent a revival in the Victorian period.
Horned Head Fares included cross dressing and was banned in Victorian times as it was considered too licentious equating horns with animals and the devil or ‘Old Nic’. In Sussex Ebernoe cricket club revived their Horn Fare with a cricket match and folk songs.
Whitstable known for its oysters still hold an annual Oyster Fare around 25th July, the saint’s day of St James the patron of oyster fishers. Traditionally built by children are oyster shell lights, small grottos lit by candles.
Harvest Home supper. Traditionally gleanings (remnants of the harvest) were left for widows and children but this ceased after industrialists purchased farms and challenged gleaning in law courts.
St Bartholomew’s Day, August. In Sandwich there is a bun race and a biscuit with a commemoration date is specially baked for those attending.
Hop Picking usually in September. But now, along with hop fields have declined. Geoff briefly brought back the occasion with photos and by singing a Hopping song.
Geoff said if anyone can get to the Bell and Crown in Palace Street Canterbury a group of traditional folk musicians hold sessions there regularly about twice a month.
Report by Tricia Baxter