Rose and woodruff garlands

11 June · St Mary at Hill, London

No longer kept

On St Barnabas’s Day the priests and clerks of English churches used to wear garlands of roses and woodruff. Brand, who was rector of St Mary at Hill in London, found payments for rose garlands and woodruff garlands on St Barnabas’s Day in the churchwardens’ accounts of the 1470s and 1480s. Gerard’s Herbal praised woodruff for its sweet smell, saying that bunches hung up in houses in summer cooled and freshened the air, and that put in wine it made a man merry.

For Rose-garlondis and Woodrove-garlondis, on St. Barnebes' Daye, xjd.

From Hone's Year Book, cols. 709-710; Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 769. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

The Glastonbury walnut tree No longer kept SomersetBesides the Holy Thorn, the abbey churchyard at Glastonbury had a miraculous walnut tree on the north side of St Joseph's chapel.
Barnaby Bright Lore and belief EnglandBefore the calendar change of 1752, St Barnabas's Day on 11 June fell close to the summer solstice, and country people still called it the longest day.
Riding the Lanark marches Still kept LanarkshireLanark rode its marches every year on the day after the last Wednesday of May, old style, which fell early in June.
The Englewood forest court at Hesket No longer kept CumberlandEvery year on St Barnabas's Day the court for the whole Forest of Englewood was held at Hesket in Cumberland, by the side of the highway under a thorn tree.
Barnaby yea, Barnaby nay Lore and belief County DurhamA farmer who led his hay on St Barnabas's Day was said to have been swallowed up with his carts and horses in the Hell Kettles near Darlington.
Ragged Robin at Barnaby Bright Lore and belief EnglandSt Barnabas's Day, Barnaby Bright of the longest day, was the day of ragged robin, which bloomed then in the hayfields.
The hay rake on the clog for St Barnabas No longer kept StaffordshireOn the old wooden clog almanacs, the notch for St Barnabas's Day was cut with the figure of a rake, because the day marked the start of hay harvest.

Rose and woodruff garlands

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