The crowfoot on Holy Cross Day

3 May · England

Lore and belief

The feast of the Finding of the Cross on 3 May belonged to the crowfoot, or buttercup, which by then turned the grass gold. Forster’s old rhyme of the saints’ flowers gives it the day. He noted that the poet’s narcissus and the primrose peerless also bloomed about this feast in southern England.

While on the day of the Holy Cross, / The Crowfoot gilds the flowerie grasse.

From Forster's Perennial Calendar, p. 108. Read the original

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Also on this day

Folklore from the old calendars

The bull kept from the cows till Crouchmas No longer kept EnglandThe bull was kept from the cows until Crouchmas, the feast of the Finding of the Cross on 3 May, and from the heifers until Lammas.
Ringing the old bailiff out at Buckingham No longer kept BuckinghamshireA visitor to Buckingham on the first Sunday after May Day found the main street lined with townspeople and villagers crying that they were ringing the old bailiff out.
All friends round the Wrekin No longer kept ShropshirePeople from round Wellington in Shropshire used to climb the Wrekin on the Sunday after May Day, and on the three Sundays following, to drink a health to all friends round the Wrekin.
Heavy cake Sunday at Penzance No longer kept CornwallOn the first Sunday after May Day families from Penzance went out together to Rose Hill, Poltair and other villages near by.

The crowfoot on Holy Cross Day

Also on this day

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