Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival
17 Jan 2010 1 Comment
in Old English Traditions Tags: 2010, farming, fenland, festivities, folk music, morris dancing, Old English Traditions, pig dyke molly, procession, rural, straw bear festival, whittlesea, whittlesey, winter, YouTube
In 2010 the Straw Bear Festival took place on the 15th, 16th and 17th of January.
According to The Straw Bear Organisation , from when no one quite knows, it was the custom on the Tuesday following Plough Monday (the 1st Monday after Twelfth Night) to dress one of the confraternity of the plough in straw and call him a ‘Straw Bear’. This custom was used to collect food for the impoverished indentured farming workers in the area, who had by January, begun to run low in their supplies of food and firewood.
A newspaper of 1882 reports that “… The Straw Bear was then taken around the town to entertain by his frantic and clumsy gestures the good folk who had on the previous day subscribed to the rustics, a spread of beer, tobacco and beef”.
Twelfth Night
05 Jan 2010 3 Comments
in Old English Traditions Tags: celebrations, cheer, christmas, festivities, good health, king bean, mummers, new year, queen pea, twelfth night, twelve days, wassail, winter, winter solstice
So how was the Christmas for you? Did you manage to prepare everything on time? After consuming all those mince pies and that festive food are your clothes feeling a little bit tighter than they did 12 days ago? What was your preferred tipple? Whisky? Sherry? Wine or beer? Maybe you’ve tried all of them several times over the past 12 days? Have you considered seeing if you can raise a little extra pocket money on eBay with those unwanted or slightly strange gifts?
Could this festival go on forever? Would you like it to go on forever? Don’t worry – Twelfth Night is here to save the day!
Short films from Twelfth Night at the Globe are embedded within the following text -
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