The Whitsun ale

Whit Sunday

No longer kept

Every Whitsuntide the churchwardens held a parish feast, usually in a barn near the church, where all agreed to be friends for once in the year. The squire and his lady came with piper and taborer, the young danced or played bowls, and each household brought what food it could spare. Strong ale brewed for the day was sold by the churchwardens and the profit went to repairing the church. Chambers says it later declined into mere revelry.

The ale, which had been brewed pretty strong for the occasion, was sold by the churchwardens, and from its profits a fund arose for the repair of the church.

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 637. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

The Whitsun morris Still kept EnglandWhitsuntide was the great season for morris dancers.
Strewing Yatton church with grass No longer kept SomersetHone quoted Collinson's History of Somerset that John Lane, a gentleman of Yatton, left half an acre of ground called the Groves to the poor for ever.
Wishing at sunrise on Whit Sunday Lore and belief EnglandAn old belief held that whatever a person asked of God on Whit Sunday morning, at the moment the sun rose and played, would be granted.
The Burford Whitsun deer hunt No longer kept OxfordshireThe people of Burford once claimed the right to hunt deer in Wychwood Forest on Whit Sunday.
Dressing the graves at Whitsun in Glamorgan No longer kept GlamorganIn Glamorgan it was an old and general practice to plant the graves with flowers, so that many churchyards looked like rich gardens, and only sweet-scented plants were allowed: pinks, polyanthus, sweet williams, gillyflowers, carnations, mignonette, thyme, hyssop, camomile and rosemary.
The Whitsun king in oak leaves No longer kept EnglandAt Whitsun, each village once chose a lord or king at the maypole, and he picked a queen to rule over the games with him.
Smoke farthings No longer kept EnglandIn Whitsun week, every householder in England with a chimney once paid a small sum to the cathedral of his diocese.
Bread and cheese thrown in St Briavels church Still kept GloucestershireOn Whit Sunday baskets of bread and cheese cut into inch squares were carried into the gallery of St Briavels church after service and thrown down to the congregation, who scrambled for them.
Huf-cap sold in the church No longer kept EnglandAgainst Christmas, Easter or Whitsunday the churchwardens provided ten or twenty quarters of malt, partly bought from the church stock and partly given by the parishioners, and had it brewed into very strong ale.
Birch and flowers to honour Whitsuntide No longer kept EnglandAt Whitsun the yew was cleared out of the house and birch boughs and fresh flowers brought in to dress it.
The angel and the dragon at St Patrick’s, Dublin No longer kept LeinsterAt Whitsun in 1509 St Patrick's in Dublin paid players to work a great angel, a little angel and a dragon, with cords to let down the Holy Ghost.
Dulce Domum round the Winchester pillar No longer kept HampshireEvery year on the evening before the Whitsun holidays the master, scholars and choristers of Winchester College walked in procession with a band round the college court and a pillar, chanting the Latin song Dulce Domum.
The maidens’ gathering by the tree at the church door No longer kept BerkshireAt Whitsuntide the maidens of St Laurence's parish in Reading gathered money for the church beside a tree set up at the church door.
No poor rate but the church-ale at Kington St Michael No longer kept WiltshireIn the days of John Aubrey's grandfather the Whitsuntide church-ale paid for the poor of Kington St Michael, a large Wiltshire parish, and no poor rate was needed.

The Whitsun ale

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