Wishing at sunrise on Whit Sunday

Whit Sunday

Lore and belief

An 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. Arise Evans, the Welsh prophet, wrote in 1652 that he had climbed a hill early on Whit Sunday to see the sunrise, and saw the sun skip, play, dance and turn about like a wheel. It is the Whitsun counterpart of the sun dancing on Easter morning.

whatsoever one did ask of God upon Whitsunday morning, at the instant when the sun arose and play'd, God would grant it him

From Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 283. Read the original

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Also on this day

Folklore from the old calendars

The Whitsun ale No longer kept EnglandEvery 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.
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 Burford Whitsun deer hunt No longer kept OxfordshireThe people of Burford once claimed the right to hunt deer in Wychwood Forest on Whit Sunday.
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.
The Whitsun morris Still kept EnglandWhitsuntide was the great season for morris dancers.

Wishing at sunrise on Whit Sunday

Also on this day

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