Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore

English hear

Oh love

city, town,

eke eve

he fragra

d sprout in

birds do si

do make

say both yo

and mai

nd guns that

y tabor

ay-da

n Aryan myth. Olaus Magnus says, the "Northern natives have a custom to welcome the returning splendour of the sun with dancing, and mutually to feast each other, rejoicing that a better season for feasting and hunting was approached." Tollet quaintly says: "Better judges may decide that the institution of this festival originated from the Roman Floralia, or from the Celtic La Beltine, while I conceive it derived to us from our Gothic ancestors." The theory of the common Aryan source of these festive rites reconciles Tollet's conception with th

ivals were anciently kept, and that on which, in imitation of prim?val customs, they are celebrated by the moderns. Now, the vernal equinox, after the rate of that precession, certainly could not have coincided with the first of May less than four thousand years before Christ, which nearly marks the ?ra of creation, which, according to the best and wisest of chronologers, began at the vernal equinox, when all nature was gay and smiling, and the earth arrayed in its loveliest verdure, and not, as others have imagined, at the dreary autumnal equinox, when tha

cornibus a

ged in at that season are to be found in the records and customs of people otherwise the most opposite in manners and most remote in situation. I could not avoid considering the circumstance as a strong additional proof that mankind originally descended from one great family, and proceeded to the several regions in which they final

rist. The festival of the vernal equinox would then be celebrated on the first of April. The modern "April fool" freaks are regarded by many writers as relics of these festiv

s, "On May-day the choristers assemble on the top to usher in the spring." Oxonians of the "olden time," appear to have welcomed the season not simply by blowing lustily through cows' horns, but by drinking deeply fro

e day. Some of these garlands were afterwards deposited in the neighbouring churches; others decorated the doors and windows of the villagers' residences. It appears that the gathering of these woodspoils was accompanied by much clangour of rude music, including the blowing of cows' horns, previously referred to. Stubbs, the Puritan, in his "Anatomy of Abuses," p

cribes the cust

g all together or dividing themselves into companies, they go, some to the woods and groves, some to the hills and mountains, some to one place, some to another,

of his time, and says that early in the morning "fourth goth al the Court

rred to by Shakspere in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Lysander,

lovest m

father's house

d, a league wi

eet thee once

vance of a

l I stay

party discover the two pairs of sweethearts asleep in t

y rose up ear

ay; and, hear

grace of ou

aint lyric on th

budding boy or

and gone to

youth ere

white-thorn

apostrophises the advent

morning star, d

rom the East, a

, who from her

wslip and the

ous May! tho

youth and

oves are of

e doth boast

e thee with o

thee and wis

s the May-day doings in the begi

birds praysing God in their kind. I find also that in the moneth of May the citizens of London, of all estates, lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joyning together, had their severall Mayings

rry," or gathering. The day opens with singing and the beating of drums and kettles. The whole population rush out of the town into the country, and return garlanded w

the "heavenly soma" of the Vedic hymns. No doubt, some genuine love-making, as well as much licentiousness, has resulted from the observance of such ceremonies. It was formerly a custom, for milkmaids especially, in various parts of the country, to dance around a "garland" decorated with articles of

they danced, attended by a strange-looking pyramidal pile, covered with pewter plates, ribands, and strea

keley, the celebrated antiquary, writing in 1724, speaks of a May-pole near Horn Castle, Lincolnshire, on a spot "where probably stood an Hermes in Roman times." He adds: "The boys annually keep up the festival of the Floralia on May-day, making a procession to thi

n-ale" or a "Morris-dance." Old Stubbs calls the May-pole a "stinking idol," and says it was brought home with "great veneration," hence his malediction. The attendant ceremony he describes as follows: "They have twenty or forty yoke of oxen, every ox having a sweet nosegay of flowers tied to the tips of his horns; and these oxen draw home th

es I., in 1633, republished "his blessed father's declaration," which decreed that "after the end of Divine service, his good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation; such as dancing, either men or women; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreations; nor from having of May Games, Whitsun Ales, and Morris Dances, and the setting up of May-poles, and other sports therewith used; so a

ances in the North of England, a strict search was made, in every part of the kingdom, on the night of Sunday, the 10th July, 1569, for vagrants, beggars, gamesters, rogues, or gipsies. It resulted in the apprehension of thir

cited a very different train of thought in the imagination of W

equal to turning over the pages of a black letter volume, or gazing on the pictures in Froissart. The May-pole on the margin of that poetic stream completed the illusion. My fancy adorned it with wreaths of flowers, and peopled the green bank with all the dancing revelry of May-day. The mere sight of this May-pole gave a glow to

e modern juvenile representative of the mythical Maid Marian of old. Eliza Cook, in one of the most successful of her man

ve land! oh, may'st t

l be the bond that ti

re glowing, when Autu

re snowing, thou art s

hinks I lov

nursed on whit

de pours in-sw

and Hope c

rom the feat

in merry ma

n streamlet

n diamonds

t 'tis to s

he theme of

fool and l

lands for t

nd shout cam

knight and

for merry E

ng of the

old times ha

games and vi

priest shared

est jostled w

sing of the

at the present day. The main streets of Preston, Manchester, and other towns, during "the good old coaching time," presented a remarka

in North Cheshire; but the dancers, as well as the May Queen, were all children, and the spectators chiefly ladies and gentlemen from Manchester and its neighbourhood. It was a very pretty sight, and was patronised by the n

tc., which I visited, took place, in 1867, in Whit-week, which is the great Manchester holiday. The children looked pretty with their pink sashes and wreaths of green leaves, and evidently enjoyed themselves much. With

the machinations of witchcraft. Both the white and black thorn are considered as representatives of the Mimosa catechu, the sacred thorn of India, which, being sprung from lightning, was supposed to be endowed with supernatural properties. Amongst the Germans "wishing" or "divining" rods were made from both t

has, no doubt, intimate relationship to the presumed supernatural attributes of the celebrated Glastonbury thorn, and its progeny. The original plant, acc

r is the sign that he is the destined husband of the former. When the feeble old man unwillingly appears before the "b

cy! mercy! l

of God we

·

e see a me

beryth ff

hert, with

e blyth, with

wedde, tho

eracle I

s here

taff of Joseph appears to be but a reproduction of the budding thyrsus of the Bacchanals and of Hermes, which is regarded as a phallic symbol, typical of the

ms, and the other was demolished during the "Great Rebellion." Collinson says, "It is strange to see how much this tree was sought after by the credulous; and, though a common thorn,

wthorn, probably brought by the early crusaders from Palestine. If this be true, it throws some light on t

ghost' dares to approach the white thorn." The writer attributes this peculiar sanctity of the white thorn to the belief that the crown placed in derision on the head of Christ, previous to his crucifixion, was made from branches of this tree; and, doubtless, at the present day, such may be mainly the case, although, as the writer himself observes, modern botanical researches have taught us that the fact "cannot have been so." Kelly says we know more than even this; "we know that the white thorn was a sacred tree before Christianity existe

unches of the albespyne, that is white thorn, that grew in the same gardyn, and seten yt on hys heved.... And, therefore, hath the white thorn many virtues. F

from any stranger returning from the country with a few branches of this May trophy. I have had scores of applications of this class for the small branches which I have carried in my hand from Ol

ge of the ru

omes whose cru

the Past unt

e ancient gam

, then, and i

their light and

by most persu

ey are to h

d-like, credu

heir tender

ur own great

he bright an

"The Aryan idea, that the rain clouds were cows, has been well preserved among the Northern nations.... It is a very common opinion that rain and dew, the milk of the heavenly cows, are capable of increasing the milk of the earthly cows; hence a dewy May morning is welcomed as giving promise of a good dairy year." Mannhardt speaks of a practice in North Germany of tying a May bush to the tail of the leading cow on May-day morning, in order that she may brush up the potent dew,

hond. And thei growen to gedre, male and femele. And thei ben norysscht with the dew of Hevene. And thei engendren comounly, and bryngen forthe smale children, that multiplyen and growen alle th

cure of deliriums, frenzies, and manias; but he does not intimate any preference for dew gathered on May-day. All dew does not appear, however, to have p

re

me up at midni

till-vext

Prospero and Miranda, can find no

as e'er my m

eather from un

on yo

and E?s (the east or morning)? Mr. Cox says "it sprung from three simple phrases, one of which said, 'The sun loves the dew;' while the second sai

TNO

several capital hunting and other so