May babies at Starcross

29 May · Starcross, Devon

No longer kept

Around Starcross the children marked Oak Apple Day by carrying May babies, small dolls neatly dressed and decked with flowers. The dolls lay in boxes that looked rather like coffins, though Dyer’s correspondent in Notes and Queries thought the likeness was not intended.

the children celebrate this anniversary by carrying about what they call May babies, i.e., little dolls, carefully and neatly dressed, decked with flowers, and laid in boxes somewhat resembling coffins

From Dyer's British Popular Customs, p. 302. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Nettles for the disloyal in Nottinghamshire No longer kept NottinghamshireOn Oak Apple Day Nottinghamshire children carried nettles as well as oak twigs, and stung anyone not wearing royal oak.
The end of birds’-nesting at Fishlake No longer kept YorkshireAround Fishlake, 29 May marked the close of the birds'-nesting season.
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.
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.
Oak Apple Day Still kept EnglandThe anniversary of Charles II's return in 1660 was kept by wearing oak leaves in the hat and on horses' heads, for the oak at Boscobel that hid him after Worcester.
Oak boughs for Penderell and King Charles No longer kept LondonRichard Penderell, one of the brothers who hid Charles II after the battle of Worcester, was buried in the churchyard of St Giles in the Fields, and it was once the custom to dress his monument with oak branches every 29 May.
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.
Lawless Day at Exeter No longer kept DevonMany people in Exeter believed that on 29 May the law took no notice of any breach of the peace short of downright riot, so the day was called Lawless Day.
Oliver at Tiverton No longer kept DevonA correspondent told Hone that at Tiverton on 29 May young men dressed in the style of the seventeenth century and armed with swords paraded the streets collecting money.

May babies at Starcross

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