Protest to save May Day

Morris dancers, drummers, May Queens, Jack in the Greens, hobby horses and many others will be taking a protest to Parliament on April 18 to try to stop David Cameron scrapping the May Day Bank Holiday.

The protesters have been given the use of Old Palace Yard, immediately to the west of the Houses of Parliament, from 12 noon until 1pm for a demonstration, after which a petition will be handed over.

Organisers are expecting hundreds of people to join in the demonstration on Monday lunchtime, aimed at halting Government plans to shift the popular annual holiday from the start of May to October. The event should be worth watching too, as Morris Dancers and Jack in the Green troupes from all over the country will be congregating to dance, drum and wave placards.

The event is intended to be a peaceful demonstration. On the Facebook page We Do Not Want to Lose the May Day Bank Holiday, organisers say: "Please remember that this is a peaceful non-party political event with the aim of persuading The Government to keep the May Day Bank Holiday. We are not here to protest about anything else or to show our discontent with the government. We need to concentrate on the one issue of the May Day Bank Holiday, and do it peacefully with good humour; anything else could damage our case."

The website adds that Morris Dancing, drumming and placard-waving should only be done in the designated place between midday and 1pm and reminds protesters: "After the official end of the protest at 13:00 we are all ordinary pedestrians so please no more demonstrating. If you do so you could be arrested for having an unauthorised demonstration."

My personal opinion is that it would be good to keep May Day as a national holiday, but also have another holiday on October 31 - the festival of Samhain. That way we could celebrate the start and end of summer in traditional style.

The photo shows the Houses of Parliament, taken by me on a stormy day in 2008

Links and previous posts:
http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local-news/taking_may_day_fight_for_jack_to_parliament_1_2587078
http://www.selfs.org.uk/2011/03/23/may-days-in-london-jack-in-the-green-and-beyond/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Palace_Yard
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/05/pagan-eye-jack-in-green.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/05/beltane-frolics-and-may-day-dancing.html

May Day and Jack in the Green

On May Day, the foliage-clad figure of Jack in the Green, accompanied by musicians and people in fancy dress, is now almost a familiar sight on the streets of London and other towns in southern England.

This spring tradition was revived in Deptford in the 1980s by the Blackheath Morris Men, after seeing a curious photograph of a Jack in the Green procession dating from the 1900s.

The Morris dancers weren't quite sure what the event in the photograph was really all about - the only caption on the photo being that it was The Fowler's Troop Jack in the Green - but it looked fun, and suitable for the season, so they thought they'd give it a go themselves.

It proved popular, and the revived Fowlers Troop and man dressed up in a wickerwork frame covered in leaves now returns every May 1, visiting various pubs in London's City and suburbs.

Since those early days, folklorists have delved into the history of the tradition to find out a bit more about it.

At first glance, Jack in the Green does bear a striking resemblance to The Green Man - a figure found carved in many old English churches and thought by some to be a relic of pre-Christian nature worship.

However, similarities in appearance aside, the current theory is that the tradition of Jack in the Green began only a couple of hundred years ago and developed totally independently of any earlier folklore.

The Fowler's Troop website states:

"The Jack in the Green tradition developed from the 17th Century custom of milkmaids going out on May Day with the utensils of their trade - silver cups, pots, spoons - decorated with garlands and piled into a pyramid which they carried on their heads. By the mid 18th Century other groups, notably chimney sweeps, were moving in on the milkmaids' territory as they saw May Day as a good opportunity to collect money."

Whatever the true origins, it is hard to see Jack in the Green celebrations today and not feel you are witnessing something a little wild and pagan and full of the spirit of Beltane.

If you want to see it for yourself, Fowlers Troop will be dressing Jack tonight, Thursday 30 April , at the Market Porter pub, Stoney Street, London SE1 from 8.30pm. On May Day, The Deptford Jack in the Green will start processing from the Market Porter at 11am and return there later in the day.

Other towns also have Jack in the Green events, including Guildford, Rochester and Oxford.

One of the biggest is in Hastings, with May Day activities all over the Bank Holiday weekend, including the crowning of a May Queen, Morris dancing, live music and the release and symbolic slaying of Jack, to set free the Spirit of Summer.

The picture above is by Sarah Crofts and shows Fowlers Troop and the Deptford Jack in the Green on May Day 2007.

Links
http://www.deptford-jack.org.uk/
http://www.cityjackinthegreen.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A1048439
http://www.hastingsjack.co.uk/
http://home.freeuk.net/bristoljack/
http://www.madjacksmorris.co.uk/jackinthegreen.html
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Jack_in_the_Green.htm
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Jack-Greenarticle-770205-details/article.html
http://www.1066country.com/hastings/events/jackinthegreen/default.aspx
http://www.england-in-particular.info/greenman/gr-index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man
http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/greenmen.htm

Video of Bacchus Morris Dancers

I finally managed to upload the video of the Bacchus Morris Dancers putting on their first public display, at Eastbourne Lammas Festival last weekend.

The guy in the green was, apparently, at one time a member of a famous 1970's rock band, or so I am told.

Eastbourne Lammas Festival

I went to the Eastbourne Lammas Festival on Saturday afternoon. It had been raining all morning, but it stopped just as I arrived, the sky cleared and it stayed dry for the rest of the day.

The festival was in a great site - a park next to the seafront at Eastbourne - and I had a very pleasant time sitting on the grass with a pint of Black Rat scrumpy listening to lovely folk music from Kim Tompsett (pictured). Then I wandered round the stalls spending too much money.

A friend who was with me had a camera that took videos and got persuaded to record the first-public display by the Bacchus Morris. I tried to posted it here as another first, as I have never tried putting a video on A Bad Witch's Blog before, but my computer kept crashing while it was uploading.

The Eastbourne Lammas Festival is an annual event, so if you missed it this time round there is always next year - and I would recommend it if you are in the area.

Wassail

Wassail, which now means either a delicious drink of mulled cider or a blessing of the apple orchards, originally comes from an Old English term 'waes hael', meaning ' be well'. Both the drink and the blessing are traditions associated with this time of year.

Last January I went to a fantastic wassail celebration run by Hunters Moon Morris at Middle Farm cider orchards, in Firle, East Sussex. There was much drinking of cider, great entertainment and toasting of the apple trees - both by alcohol and an enormous bonfire.

I was very pleased to discover they are doing it again this Saturday, although it was so popular last year they have been forced to make it a ticket-only event due to health and safety considerations.

The wassail starts at 6pm with a barbecue, drinks, morris dancers, drummers and a mummers' play. This will lead onto a torch-lit procession which will wind its way to the orchard to wassail the apple trees. Afterwards there will be a party in the barn.

For more information and to buy tickets see the Hunters Moon Morris website: www.huntersmoonmorris.co.uk/ or contact 01323 769848.
Middle Farm is at Firle, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6LJ. For more information about Middle Farm, visit www.middlefarm.com/
For more on the history of wassailing, visit: www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/wassail.htm
Here is a link to a wassail recipe: www.history.uk.com/recipes/index.php?archive=31