Hiring an angel for Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday · London

No longer kept

London churchwardens’ accounts show parishes paying players for the Palm Sunday procession. St Andrew Hubbard’s paid eightpence in 1520 for the hire of an angel, and in 1535 to 1537 eightpence for a priest and a child who played the messenger, the angel that year costing fourpence. At St Mary-at-Hill in 1451 fourpence went to one Loreman for playing the prophet. Hone notes that Henry VIII kept the bearing of palms, and that the practice was only stopped in 1548.

fourpence was paid to Loreman for playing the prophet on Palm Sunday.

From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, cols. 395-396; Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 397. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Double flowers from Palm Sunday sowing Lore and belief GloucestershireMr R.
A bundle of box for Palm Sunday No longer kept ShropshireDomesday Book records under Shropshire a tenant who paid for half a carucate of land with a bundle of box twigs on Palm Sunday.
Fig Sunday at Kimpton No longer kept HertfordshireAt Kempton in Hertfordshire, as the book spells Kimpton, it had long been the custom for the villagers to eat figs on Palm Sunday, which they called Fig Sunday.
Hail be thou our King No longer kept SurreyDives and Pauper, printed in 1496, describes the priest in the Palm Sunday procession drawing up the veil before the rood and falling to the ground with all the people, saying three times Ave Rex Noster, hail be thou our King.
No palm, no hand Lore and belief EnglandAn old saying held that whoever did not have a palm in his hand on Palm Sunday would have his hand cut off.
Cakes from the steeple No longer kept EnglandA Protestant dialogue of 1554, quoted by Brand and Hone, mocked the old Palm Sunday processions, saying hardly one in ten thousand knew what they meant.
The palm cross in Nantswell No longer kept CornwallBefore the Reformation people went on Palm Sunday to the well of Our Lady of Nantswell at Little Conan in Cornwall, carrying a cross made of palm.
The Borrowed Days Lore and belief ScotlandThe last three days of March were called the Borrowed Days and were expected to be stormy.
The Caistor gad-whip No longer kept LincolnshireEvery Palm Sunday a man from Broughton came to the north porch of Caistor church during the first lesson and cracked a great ox-whip, the gad-whip, three times.
Going a-palming No longer kept LondonEarly on Palm Sunday men and boys went out from London to gather willow or sallow branches with their grey, velvety buds, which stood in for palms.

Hiring an angel for Palm Sunday

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