Folklore of England

29 May

Folklore from the old calendars

Royal Oak, the Whigs to provoke No longer kept NorthumberlandBrand remembered that the boys of Newcastle had a taunting rhyme for Royal Oak Day, which they shouted at anyone they met on 29 May without oak leaves in his hat.
Scotland Feast at Sheffield No longer kept YorkshireOn the eve of Scotland Feast, kept every 29 May, the people of Scotland Street in Sheffield went out by night and brought back sixteen to twenty young trees, mostly birches from Walkley Bank, and planted them in rows down both sides of the street.
The end of birds’-nesting at Fishlake No longer kept YorkshireAround Fishlake, 29 May marked the close of the birds'-nesting season.
The Royal Oak Day holiday rhyme No longer kept Northern EnglandSchoolboys greeted the twenty-ninth of May with a rhyme threatening to run away if they were not given the day off.
Up with the rump at Driffield No longer kept YorkshireAt Driffield in the East Riding a three-line rhyme was sung or said every 29 May: up with the rump, down with the stump, and away with the Presbyterians.

Folklore from the old calendars

Dancing in the hog’s trough No longer kept East Anglia, West CountryA clergyman writing to Chambers about marriage customs among East Anglian labourers said that when a younger sister married before the elder, the elder had to dance in the hog's trough.
Lida, the gentle months for sailing Lore and belief EnglandThe heathen English called both June and July Lida, meaning gentle or fit for sailing, because the breezes were mild and the seas could be sailed in both.
Marry in Lent Lore and belief East AngliaThe same East Anglian correspondent gave Chambers two sayings about choosing when and whom to wed.
The dow purse No longer kept CumberlandChambers traced the old custom of a bridegroom giving his bride a gift of money on marriage, known in England as the dow purse.
Wafers and cakes for the sheep-shearing No longer kept NorthamptonshireSheep-shearing was one of the ploughman's feast days, when the farmer's wife was told to spare neither meat nor corn.