whilst it is also said that Saint Augustine condemned the 'filthy practice of dressing up like a horse or stag'. Giving strength to these quotes is other surviving evidence that shows that horses, cattle and stags were in some way venerated or used in religious ritual. It is well recorded that cattle and oxen were ritually sacrificed to Heathen gods in ancient England. So it could be possible that the skins of these sacrificed animals were worn during similar hoodening rituals. Horses were very much sacred in ancient times, this can be recorded as far back as fifth century England where, two brothers called Hengest (stallion) and Horsa (Horse) could originally have been worshipped as twin horse gods in a cult that was recorded as far back as the first century by the Roman historian Tacitus. Whilst today there are, in some form, surviving examples of such hoodening customs, the most well known and popular is that of Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, which itself is said to have continued pretty much unbroken for many many centuries. May Day Like other celebrations May Day is a time of festivity filled to the brim with customs, traditions and superstitions. Celebrations concerning May Day are very old indeed, and even as far back as 1240 AD priests were complaining about May Day celebrations. At one point some of the customs of May Day, many of which were concerned with fertility, water and tree worship, were banned centuries ago by the Puritans, only to be revived in post-Puritan days. Many early references to May Day mention the custom of 'going-a-maying' into the countryside to collect flowers and greenery. Customs performed during May Day include maypole dancing, morris dancing, and the singing of May Carols. Many superstitions were also associated with May Day, especially it seems with fishermen. Some fishermen refused to fish at all on this day as they felt it was bad luck to do so, whereas others deemed it very lucky to be the one to reel in the first catch on May Day morning. Other customs and superstitions on this day involved waking early and washing your face in the morning dew, and also blankets soaked in dew were thought to cure the sick and ill. In 1602 it was written that: 'poor people say that a swelling of the neck may be cured by the patient, if a woman, going before sunrise on the first of May to the churchyard collecting therefrom the dew' . Parades involving the May Queen too are performed on this day, and even older traditions have a May Queen and May King, also known as the May Lady and May Lord. Another popular tradition involving parades were the May Day horse parades. The horses were finely decorated with flowers, ribbons and rosettes and paraded through town and countryside. This custom seems to have been most popular in Northern England. Hobby Horses The hobby horse is said by Dr E. C. Cawte to be a custom of Germanic or Scandinavian origin, which seems very likely considering the importance of the horse in these ancient cultures. And it has been theorised that the roots of the hobby horse is rooted in traditions such as hoodening, a custom which involved people dressing up in animal skins and carrying the heads of animals. The custom of the hobby horse has been compared to similar customs found in Scandinavia, one of these being the julebukk, meaning Yule-goat. Easter Although today seen and regarded as a Christian time of celebration, the word Easter as explained elsewhere on this site has it's roots in the name of an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess called Eostre. The Anglo-Saxon celebration of Eostre was the celebration of the passing of winter and the arrival of the summer season. So when the Christian missionaries arrived and converted the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity it would have been sensible to keep the celebration, but replace the resurrection of summer with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter as a celebration contains many customs of differing origins, some pagan and some Christian and others of a none too clear origin. The passing of winter is found and celebrated in an Easter custom known as Riding-the-Black-Lad, which is performed in Lancashire. In this custom a dummy is dressed in black and burnt. Egg related customs and traditions performed during Easter are very widespread indeed, this is in keeping with the celebration of new life and birth, the egg itself of course representing the arrival of that new life. We have egg rolling, egg painting and the building of Easter trees. Egg Rolling A popular and widespread Easter custom is that of egg rolling, which can be found throughout the length and breadth of England. The rolling of the egg is thought by many to symbolise the rolling of the sun in the sky, and therefore may be a custom of pre-Christian origin. Well Dressing Well dressing is still common and practised in many English villages today. It can still be found in Derbyshire, where it seems to be especially popular, in places such as Tissington and Wirksworth, and also other villages such as Bisley, Endon, Tideswell, Bradwell and Buxton. Although well dressing can be found in many places, not all of them are descended from an ancient root, some certainly are, whilst others are revivals of a well customs that become lost and then found again, and others that were simply modern introductions due to the one time fashionable custom of well dressing. |
Blessing the Plough Today this custom has been revived in many places. The plough is blessed in a local church or chapel because it is seen as a symbol of all the coming agricultural work to be done. Although there is no concrete evidence showing that such plough customs have come down to us directly from ancient days, such similar customs of plough blessing did exist long ago. An Anglo-Saxon charm recited by farmers to make their land fertile, contains a passage that points to a similar symbolic reverence of the plough. Part of the charm gives the following instructions to be carried out by the farmer: 'And let him gather all his ploughing implements together, then bore the plough tail and put in incense and fennel and hallowed soap and hallowed salt. Then take the seed, place it on the body of the plough, then say' (Anglo-Saxon Verse Charms, Maxims and Heroic Legends by Louis J Rodrigues) When these instructions are completed, the earth, or more so the earth mother, is praised and honoured with the cry of 'Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth', Erce is an unknown and obscure word that may be a name for the earth goddess. This Heathen charm, although influenced by later Christianity, is a hymn to the sun (sky father) and the earth (earth mother), a marriage of sky and earth to bring fertility to the farmers land. These ancient and modern, Heathen and Christian examples of the praise and reverence of the plough show it's importance and symbolism in custom and tradition in England from ancient times to modern times. Horn Blowing This is a custom that is performed each year in North Yorkshire and is said to date from 886 AD when King Alfred granted a charter and horn. A horn is blown yearly outside the mayors residence, and on more important occasions it is said that the original granted horn is blown Hoodening Hoodening is an ancient custom that involves people or practitioners to dress up in animal skins or to carry the heads of animals in a ritual or some form of dance or parade. This custom was recorded and condemned in England over a thousand years ago, which indicates that the origins of hoodening more than likely stretch back into the Heathen mists of time. It is recorded |
Blessing the Plough Today this custom has been revived in many places. The plough is blessed in a local church or chapel because it is seen as a symbol of all the coming agricultural work to be done. Although there is no concrete evidence showing that such plough customs have come down to us directly from ancient days, such similar customs of plough blessing did exist long ago. An Anglo-Saxon charm recited by farmers to make their land fertile, contains a passage that points to a similar symbolic reverence of the plough. Part of the charm gives the following instructions to be carried out by the farmer: 'And let him gather all his ploughing implements together, then bore the plough tail and put in incense and fennel and hallowed soap and hallowed salt. Then take the seed, place it on the body of the plough, then say' (Anglo-Saxon Verse Charms, Maxims and Heroic Legends by Louis J Rodrigues) When these instructions are completed, the earth, or more so the earth mother, is praised and honoured with the cry of 'Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth', Erce is an unknown and obscure word that may be a name for the earth goddess. This Heathen charm, although influenced by later Christianity, is a hymn to the sun (sky father) and the earth (earth mother), a marriage of sky and earth to bring fertility to the farmers land. These ancient and modern, Heathen and Christian examples of the praise and reverence of the plough show it's importance and symbolism in custom and tradition in England from ancient times to modern times. Horn Blowing This is a custom that is performed each year in North Yorkshire and is said to date from 886 AD when King Alfred granted a charter and horn. A horn is blown yearly outside the mayors residence, and on more important occasions it is said that the original granted horn is blown Hoodening Hoodening is an ancient custom that involves people or practitioners to dress up in animal skins or to carry the heads of animals in a ritual or some form of dance or parade. This custom was recorded and condemned in England over a thousand years ago, which indicates that the origins of hoodening more than likely stretch back into the Heathen mists of time. It is recorded |
Folk Customs |
Maypole The maypole is thought to be a continuation of ancient tree worship that was practised by our Heathen ancestors. Tree worship and veneration was known to exist amongst the ancient Anglo-Saxons. Found in an ancient law forbidding Heathen practices in England we read: 'We teach that every priest shall extinguish heathendom, and forbid wilweorthunga (fountain worship), and licwiglunga (incantations of the dead), and hwata (omens), and galdra (magic), and man worship, and the abominations that men exercise in various sorts of witchcraft, and in frithspottum, and with elms and other trees, and with stones, and with many phantoms.' It is clear from the above law that when Christianity first gained a foot hold in England, the missionaries were working hard to forbid any form of worship, including that of trees. But deeply entrenched traditions dont die easy, even when traditions evolve and no longer resemble to a large extent their original meaning and tradition. Today maypoles are |
danced around every year throughout the whole country, but one big difference that separates the maypoles of today and yesterday is their size. Today's maypoles may only be a matter of 20 to 30 feet high, whereas in days gone by some maypoles reached as high as 134 feet, others were 100 feet and in the appropriately named Paganhill there was one that stood 94 feet high. Many of the very tall maypoles were permanent |
fixtures in their area, left to stand throughout the year due to their vast size and height. But sadly many of these maypoles were cut down and destroyed by Puritans, but many still stand today as strong as they ever did. Other maypoles were erected each year, and just as dancing and frolicking around the maypole was a custom, the erecting of a maypole and it's procession through the streets too was a maypole custom in itself. A long lasting custom is to finely decorate the maypole in greenery and flowers and to hang ribbons from the May garlands that were fixed to the top of the maypole. If the maypole is of an ancient origin, then it is likely to be of an Anglo-Saxon or wider Germanic root. This is due to the abundance of maypoles and references to maypoles in literature throughout England. Whereas such evidence for maypoles in Celtic cultural strongholds, such as Wales and Scotland, are very rare. Beating of the Bounds The beating of the bounds was and is an English custom that was used to define and distinguish the borders of a parish. Sometimes young children were involved in the beating of the bounds so that they could remember and take the knowledge of where the boundary lays to the coming generation. The custom of beating the bounds is still performed annually in many places in England today. Burning the Bush This is a tradition that is held at the very start of January, or during twelfth night celebrations and is found in places such as Hereford and Worcester. 13 bonfires are lit, a main central one surrounded by twelve smaller ones. When all the bonfires are lit a hawthorn globe is filled with straw and then thrown on the central fire. As it burns a new globe is constructed and doused in cider and then scorched within the embers of the of the central bonfire. A chant of Old Cider is then given nine times after which the hawthorn globe is put away till the following year. Wassailing Wassailing is very ancient, the word itself comes from the Anglo-Saxon Wass Hael, meaning to your health. On twelfth night celebrations a bowl known as a wassailing bowl would be filled with a drink known as lambs wool, each person present would drink from the bowl and wish health to the others present. The wassail bowl itself would have been finely decorated with greenery. There are many other traditions and customs concerning wassailing, which shows how popular and deeply entrenched in English society the custom of wassailing was and is. Travellers would be known to sell the contents of wassail cups. Poor people and families would go from house to house with an empty wassail cup singing wassail carols asking for food and drink. |
They would also carry sticks and branches known as wassail sticks, these wassail sticks like the wassail bowl would have been finely decorated with greenery and ribbons. Another wassail tradition is that of wassailing trees, especially that of apple trees. At dusk time the people wassailing the trees would sing songs and pour cider upon the roots of the trees, and pieces of toast |
would be hung from the branches of the trees. Noises were made with horns to scare away evil spirits. It was also a tradition that the people who had been wassailing the trees were not allowed back in to their homes until they had answered a question put to them. That wassailing is still so widely and strongly practised today is evidence of the popularity of this custom throughout the centuries. Straw Bear This custom, which takes place in a couple of English villages, involves |
a man dressing up from head to toe in a costume made entirely from straw. Another variation is that the straw bear is merely a straw effigy containing no man at all. The straw bear custom used today is a revival of a much older Heathen rooted custom where the straw bears were ritually sacrificed, quite possibly with the person still inside. |
that the Archbishop Theodore is said to have condemned the practice of those 'whom on the calends of January clothe themselves in the skins of cattle and carry heads of animals', |
whilst it is also said that Saint Augustine condemned the 'filthy practice of dressing up like a horse or stag'. Giving strength to these quotes is other surviving evidence that shows that horses, cattle and stags were in some way venerated or used in religious ritual. It is well recorded that cattle and oxen were ritually sacrificed to Heathen gods in ancient England. So it could be possible that the skins of these sacrificed animals were worn during similar hoodening rituals. Horses were very much sacred in ancient times, this can be recorded as far back as fifth century England where, two brothers called Hengest (stallion) and Horsa (Horse) could originally have been worshipped as twin horse gods in a cult that was recorded as far back as the first century by the Roman historian Tacitus. Whilst today there are, in some form, surviving examples of such hoodening customs, the most well known and popular is that of Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, which itself is said to have continued pretty much unbroken for many many centuries. May Day Like other celebrations May Day is a time of festivity filled to the brim with customs, traditions and superstitions. Celebrations concerning May Day are very old indeed, and even as far back as 1240 AD priests were complaining about May Day celebrations. At one point some of the customs of May Day, many of which were concerned with fertility, water and tree worship, were banned centuries ago by the Puritans, only to be revived in post-Puritan days. Many early references to May Day mention the custom of 'going-a-maying' into the countryside to collect flowers and greenery. Customs performed during May Day include maypole dancing, morris dancing, and the singing of May Carols. Many superstitions were also associated with May Day, especially it seems with fishermen. Some fishermen refused to fish at all on this day as they felt it was bad luck to do so, whereas others deemed it very lucky to be the one to reel in the first catch on May Day morning. Other customs and superstitions on this day involved waking early and washing your face in the morning dew, and also blankets soaked in dew were thought to cure the sick and ill. In 1602 it was written that: 'poor people say that a swelling of the neck may be cured by the patient, if a woman, going before sunrise on the first of May to the churchyard collecting therefrom the dew' . Parades involving the May Queen too are performed on this day, and even older traditions have a May Queen and May King, also known as the May Lady and May Lord. Another popular tradition involving parades were the May Day horse parades. The horses were finely decorated with flowers, ribbons and rosettes and paraded through town and countryside. This custom seems to have been most popular in Northern England. Hobby Horses The hobby horse is said by Dr E. C. Cawte to be a custom of Germanic or Scandinavian origin, which seems very likely considering the importance of the horse in these ancient cultures. And it has been theorised that the roots of the hobby horse is rooted in traditions such as hoodening, a custom which involved people dressing up in animal skins and carrying the heads of animals. The custom of the hobby horse has been compared to similar customs found in Scandinavia, one of these being the julebukk, meaning Yule-goat. Easter Although today seen and regarded as a Christian time of celebration, the word Easter as explained elsewhere on this site has it's roots in the name of an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess called Eostre. The Anglo-Saxon celebration of Eostre was the celebration of the passing of winter and the arrival of the summer season. So when the Christian missionaries arrived and converted the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity it would have been sensible to keep the celebration, but replace the resurrection of summer with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter as a celebration contains many customs of differing origins, some pagan and some Christian and others of a none too clear origin. The passing of winter is found and celebrated in an Easter custom known as Riding-the-Black-Lad, which is performed in Lancashire. In this custom a dummy is dressed in black and burnt. Egg related customs and traditions performed during Easter are very widespread indeed, this is in keeping with the celebration of new life and birth, the egg itself of course representing the arrival of that new life. We have egg rolling, egg painting and the building of Easter trees. Egg Rolling A popular and widespread Easter custom is that of egg rolling, which can be found throughout the length and breadth of England. The rolling of the egg is thought by many to symbolise the rolling of the sun in the sky, and therefore may be a custom of pre-Christian origin. Well Dressing Well dressing is still common and practised in many English villages today. It can still be found in Derbyshire, where it seems to be especially popular, in places such as Tissington and Wirksworth, and also other villages such as Bisley, Endon, Tideswell, Bradwell and Buxton. Although well dressing can be found in many places, not all of them are descended from an ancient root, some certainly are, whilst others are revivals of a well customs that become lost and then found again, and others that were simply modern introductions due to the one time fashionable custom of well dressing. |
There has been worship and veneration of sacred springs and wells for thousands of years throughout Britain, it was popular amongst both Teutonic and Celtic peoples, and amongst the Romans in Britain too. And many of these wells have myths and superstitions attached to them |
indicating such an ancient root. One well with an ancient myth is that of the well of Saint Augustine in Cerne and the introduction of Christianity to that particular area. This well was said to have healing powers and could restore eyesight, aid fertility and help women during pregnancy. Some wells also seem to have become sacred at a later date, such as during the times of the Black Death when the people felt that their avoidance of the plague was down to the pure water that came from wells and springs, and so honoured it. During the reign of King Canute laws were passed to make it punishable if any of our ancestors were found worshipping the sun and moon, fire or floods, wells and stones and any sort of tree. Some wells throughout England are also sacred to a particular Christian saint, which could be a result of the Christian conversion during which much Heathenism and Heathen customs were either destroyed or Christianised with a saint replacing a god or goddess. Blessing the Sea This custom is used to ensure that fishermen are blessed with good catches for the coming year. The blessing of the sea is still performed today in several places. One variation is for a decorated cross to be dipped into the sea three times, whereas another dictates for the cross to be thrown into the sea and later retrieved Cheese Rolling Cheese rolling is a custom that is to this day still performed in parts of England, and like many English customs it's roots and origins are hazy to say the least. Similar to egg rolling, it could be that the rolling of cheese, nearly always down a very steep hill, could represent the rolling or turning of the sun in the sky. Another theory is that cheese rolling is a fertility custom dating back hundreds of years. More often than not the very large piece of cheese is followed down the hill by a large group of people aiming to be the first to lay their hands on it before it reaches the bottom. In past days it may have been thought that whoever captured the cheese would be the one blessed with fertility of the fields they worked each year. Mummers Plays The custom of Mumming and mummers plays date from medieval times when nobility and common folk would dress up in fanciful costumes such as animals or dragons. The performers would parade around their local town or village acting out plays, and at times these plays would also be performed in pubs or in the home. Today mummers plays can be found throughout the British Isles and other parts of the world. Mumming also at times had it's drawbacks when people used the act of disguising themselves as an excuse to commit crime, this resulted in attempts to ban it. Mumming in places seems to have mingled with the custom of wassailing, as in parts of the country, especially in Yorkshire, people carrying he wassail cup called themselves mummers. Like a lot of English customs many have tried to trace the roots of mumming to pre-Christian times, but there is no concrete evidence to support such a theory. |