Collected Words & Wisdom

1 August is traditionally known as Lammas Day and, although not necessarily observed on this day, was meant to coincide with the first reapings of wheat.  The name ‘Lammas’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘hlafmaesse’, meaning ‘loaf mass’.  The festival of Lammas marks the beginning of the harvest, when traditionally farmers would make loaves of bread from the new wheat crop and present them to the church for use as Communion bread during a special mass to thank God for the harvest.  This custom ended when Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church and was replaced with harvest festivals at the end of the season.

A full moon occurs once every 29.5 days and so, with the exception of February, the possibility exists for two full moons to occur in any of the remaining eleven months.  (This year August has two full moons, on 2 and 31 August.)  The second of these is called the ‘blue moon’, hence the expression ‘once in a blue moon’, referring to the rarity of the occasion.

The English calendar is littered with fairs and festive gatherings.  An official fair could only be granted by royal charter, which gave the ‘owner’ of the fair the very lucrative right to collect any tolls and dues generated by the event.  Charters were often granted to religious or charitable institutions as a way of ensuring their long-term funding.  One such very famous event was the Bartholomew Fair held in Smithfield in London on 24 August every year since it was granted its charter in 1133 by Henry I.  However, the Bartholomew Fair gradually became more and more raucous and lawless and was eventually closed down in 1855.

On the last Sunday in August every ear, the village of Eyam in Derbyshire remembers the sacrifice made by the villagers in 1665 when the plague struck and the decision was taken to isolate the village in a self-imposed quarantine to prevent disease from spreading.  Many of the graves can still be seen.

Considering the weather we have been experiencing lately, let’s hope the old adage

‘If the first of July it be rainy weather, ‘twill rain more or less for four weeks together’

does not hold true!

In the early Roman calendar, July was the fifth month in the year and was therefore called ‘Quintillius’ (meaning ‘fifth’) until it was renamed ‘Julius’ by the Roman Senate in honour of Julius Caesar who was born on 12 July.

The English year is littered with various festive fairs and fetes and July is no exception, two examples being the Fairlop Fair which takes place around a huge oak tree in Epping Forest on 6/7 July and Stagshawbank Fair held on 4 July in Corbridge, Northumberland, one of the most popular fairs in the north of England for at least 700 years and originally held at Midsummer.

July and through into August sees the time of the old rush-bearing ceremonies in Ambleside, Great Musgrave and, later in August, Grasmere.  Until around 1800 floors of buildings, particularly in rural areas, would be covered with rushes for warmth and comfort, often mixed with sweet smelling flowers and herbs in the higher status buildings.  Before they gradually acquired flagged floors, churches too would be strewn with rushes, as in early days there were no pews and the congregation stood or knelt on the floor.  The annual rush-bearing or strewing soon became a major festival in which the whole community would come together in celebration.

15 July is St. Swithin’s Day.  St. Swithin was Bishop of Winchester and died in 862.  According to legend, he had requested to be buried in the churchyard but instead was interred inside the church as a mark of respect, whereupon it rained so hard for 40 days that his remains were re-buried outside in the churchyard.  This all gave rise to the famous rhyme:

‘St Swithin’s Day, if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain’.

The Whitstable oyster festival usually starts on the nearest Saturday to 25 July, as the trade has St. James as its patron saint.  It begins with the ceremonial landing of the first catch of the season and a horse-drawn cart delivers the fresh native oysters to the restaurants in the town, followed by a week of events and concerts.  There is also a ‘blessing of the waters’ service at Reeves Beach, to give thanks and to ensure good future harvesting.

Swans were introduced into Britain in the thirteenth century and were always owned by the Crown, but in 1473 permission to keep swans on the Thames was granted to the Worshipful Companies of Vintners and Dyers.  Each year the swan keepers for these Companies meet the Royal Swan Master and together they journey down the river from London Bridge to Henley to capture and examine the swans.  The beaks of the young birds are marked, one nick for the Dyers and two for the Vintners according to their parentage, with the Queen’s swans being left unmarked.  The whole process is called ‘swan-upping’ and this year takes place from 16 to 20 July.

The first week in June sees the famous Horse Fair take place in Appleby in Cumbria, the greatest gathering of the year for travellers and Gypsies in the UK.  In the old days horses would be driven through the crowded streets of the town but this has been banned for safety reasons.  Nowadays the horses are ridden into the local river for a wash and swim and thousands of spectators gather on the banks to watch.  There is also a market and lots of entertainment.

Summer is beginning and pagans everywhere look forward to the Summer Solstice, which this year takes place at 23.09 on Wednesday, 20 June.  In recent times Druids have gathered at Stonehenge to worship the rising sun, though there is little historical evidence that they actually ever did so in the past.  However, it is a fact that from the earliest records Midsummer in England was always celebrated with processions and bonfires and houses and churches were decorated with greenery.  The bonfires had a dual purpose - on the one hand, they helped the local community come together in celebration, on the other, it was believed that the smoke from the fire purified the air and was therefore medicinal in nature.  For this reason religious reformers in the 1500s branded the practice as superstitious and the custom gradually died out.  One of the last places to keep the old tradition alive was the West Country.

Probably the whole period between St. John the Baptist’s Eve (23 June) and St. Peter’s/St. Paul’s Day (29 June) was regarded as one long Midsummer festival, when the famous ‘mock mayor’ ceremonies would take place, still practised today in the town of Abingdon with the election of the Mayor of Ock Street.  In towns up and down the country civic pomp and the pretensions of local dignitaries would be made fun of in these mock mayor ceremonies, when there would be ludicrous ‘electoral’ speeches full of ridiculous promises and outrageous clothing and regalia, such as a cabbage stalk instead of a civic mace.  The mock mayor would then be paraded through the streets, handing out outlandish favours and punishments and the whole affair would often degenerate into a loud drunken brawl.  The mock elections would often take place at the same time as the real one at a time when most of the population was denied the vote and in the end local authorities took steps to suppress the custom.

In late June in the Cheshire village of Appleton a custom called ‘Bawming the Thorn’ is performed each year.  The original hawthorn tree in question stood in the centre of the village and was rumoured to be an offshoot of the famous Holy Thorn at Glastonbury, which in turn is purported to have grown from a single thorn from Christ’s crown of thorns, planted by Joseph of Arimathea.  The present tree in Appleton, however, only dates from 1967, when its predecessor blew down.  ‘Bawming’ means decorating and each year local children decorate the tree with ribbons and garlands.

In June each year the Ceremony of Knolly’s Red Rose takes place in London when a red rose is presented to the Lord Mayor.  The story behind this is that in 1381 Lady Constance, wife of Sir Robert Knollys, built a footbridge between her two properties in Seething Lane without first gaining the Lord Mayor’s permission, for which she was fined one red rose each year.  The ceremony is organised by the Company of Thames Watermen and Lightermen and this year takes place on 14 June at 10.45 am at the Parish Church of All Hallows by the Tower.

FInally, remember the old line ‘If St. Paul’s Day be fair and clear, then it betides a happy year’.  Fingers crossed everyone!