Category: Celebrations & Holidays

Widecombe Fair has taken place annually in that Dartmoor village in Devon on the second Saturday of September, possibly since before the mid-1800s. It began as an agricultural show for local farmers, but has evolved into a celebration of all things rural. It is typical of fairs around the country, though Widecombe has an extra claim to fame, in that it is immortalised in the ‘Widecombe Fair’ folk song, heard in this video:-

Additions to the Widecombe Fair schedule of events began in the 1920s, with local schools organising field sports and pony classes. Villagers contributed rural craft displays and in years when ponies were withdrawn due to disease safeguards, other events, such as terrier racing, were inserted, then remained.

Today, Widecombe Fair attracts spectators from further afield and special road traffic management has to be put in place in the narrow country lanes. Folk music and refreshments of all kinds are a-plenty, along with the essential traditional highlights, such as the ‘Old Tom Cobley Downhill Running Race’ (not for the faint-hearted), ferret racing, hawking, dogs and ducks demonstrations, thatching, sheep-shearing, bale-tossing and the tug-o’-war. The Fair is run entirely by volunteers and funds raised are donated to charity.

(Image of tractor parade at 2006 Widecombe Fair: Barry at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

“Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And that hath twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine in each Leap Year.”

This centuries-old aide memoire highlights the occurrence of Leap Day, or Leap Year Day, on 29th February. It arises when the year number, e.g. 2020, is exactly divisible by 4. Additionally, if it is also a multiple of 100, another condition is that it must be exactly divisible by 4². This adjustment deals with the fact that our planet takes 365.24219 days to make its elliptical solar orbit.

People born on Leap Day, sometimes called ‘leaplings’, are in an odd position in non-leap years, as they must plump for either 28th February or 1st March on which to celebrate their birthday, and some joke that they are only a quarter of the age of their contemporaries.

Traditionally, Leap Day was the one day on which a woman could propose marriage to a man. If he refused, there was some sort of forfeit to make up for the rejected woman’s embarrassment. It is said that St Bridget persuaded St Patrick to agree to this practice. In Scotland, the forfeit was £100, payable unless the lady was wearing scarlet!

(Image: Skitterphoto at pexels.com)

Swithin, or Swithun, (c.800-863) became Bishop of Winchester in 852. He organised the building and restoration of churches and bridges, financed by a 10% tax introduced in 854 by a law to which he was a signatory. His dying wish was to be buried outside in Winchester Cathedral’s churchyard, where the rain would fall on his grave.

In 971 the Cathedral was being extended and on 15th July, Swithin was re-located inside, but it was reported that a rainstorm hampered the process, which some took to signify Swithin’s sorrow at what was happening. He was later canonised and several miracles were claimed in his name, with 15th July becoming St. Swithin’s Day. The faithful would pray to him for rain in times of drought.

His association with rain is enshrined in our weather folklore, as in:

St. Swithun’s day, if ye do rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithun’s day, an ye be fair,
For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.

The French have an equivalent for 19th July: ‘Quand il pleut à la Saint Gervais, Il pleut quarante jours après’. Due to the steadiness of the Atlantic jet stream in July and August, these sayings do have a little scientific basis!

(Image: Ian Paterson at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

After studying hard for a degree, a university student will have mixed feelings on graduation day. It is an achievement to fill yourself and your family with pride, but it is also the start of an uncertain journey into adult working life, with new responsibilities. Joy, relief, excitement, anxiety and nervousness are all present at graduation ceremonies up and down the land each year.

The UK’s oldest university, Oxford, was established in 1096, with Cambridge following in 1209. These were adjoined to the Catholic Church and, as graduates were entitled to become lecturers or clerics with all the accompanying privileges, they were permitted to wear the long black robes and hoods of that tier of society from graduation day onwards. Today, most graduands hire their gown, hood and cap just for the day.

Different universities specify their own colours for gowns, linings, hood trims and type of degree and if a student is receiving more than one degree on the day, they must change their regalia for each one. Processions, speeches and uplifting music characterise the ceremony, while studio photographs are a large part of the behind-the-scenes activity, as are the congratulatory sips of champagne and the fond farewells.

(Image: Richard Croft at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Weddings in the UK are now high on the list of life’s major expenses at an average of £30,000. Wedding fairs, websites, planners, outfitters and event services populate the wedding industry and ensure each couple is aware of the latest trends. It is not uncommon to see wedding photos proudly displayed in couples’ homes, especially as they were probably quite expensive.

The ceremony takes place either in a church, registry office or other authorised venue such as a hotel. At least one or two traditions are usually observed, though this is the couple’s choice. These include:-

• a long white bridal dress, ballgown-style, copied from royal weddings
• the assistance of bridesmaids, pages and a ‘best man’
• the bride’s father escorting her down the aisle
• the bride stands on the left
• a hand-held bridal bouquet, thrown back among the eligible female guests on the couple’s departure for their honeymoon
• the bride wearing “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” to signify ties to family, friends, new life and faithfulness
• not seeing each other before the wedding ceremony, a relic of arranged marriages
• guests throwing confetti, now banned in some venues due to the mess
• a tiered cake, also copied from the royals

(Image: pxhere.com)

The number 13 has long been considered unlucky but its combination with Friday in a double-whammy of doom is a relatively new idea. In 1869, the English journalist and suthor Henry Sutherland Edwards (1828-1906) remarked in a biography of Rossini that he had the misfortune to die, not only on the 13th, but on a Friday, too. Friday the 13th subsequently made its way into our culture as a day on which bad things happen.

Each year there is at least one and up to three such opportunities to exercise our superstitions. On the day itself, most people give a moment’s thought to its connotations but carry on with their normal routine. However, very few of them would arrange, for example, a wedding on that date.

Friday has been known as the Witches’ Sabbath in centuries past and as Hangman’s Day, possibly explaining what seems today to be a puzzling association with bad luck, since most people now look forward to it as the start of the weekend. The number 13 is said to be viewed suspiciously because it comes after 12, a favoured number underpinning our traditional system of measurements. Furthermore, the 13th guest at the Last Supper was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

(Image: pexels.com / CC0)

St. Dwynwen’s Day is on 25th January and commemorates the Welsh patron saint of lovers ~ a chance to exchange Welsh lovespoons! The legend is that Dwynwen was the daughter of a Welsh king who ruled in the fourth century. Having twenty-three other daughters, he must have forgotten to tell Dwynwen that he had arranged a marriage for her and, unfortunately, she promised herself to another man, Maelon Dafodrill.

This was never going to end well. Maelon behaved despicably, leaving Dwynwen in such a turmoil that she asked God to erase her love for Maelon. God went even further, encasing him in ice. Dwynwen then asked God for three more favours ~ to melt the ice; to ensure she never again had any romantic desires; and to reward couples truly in love with the fulfilment of their dreams.

She became a nun and went off to a tiny tidal island off the west coast of Anglesey, where she founded a convent. The island, Ynys Llanddwyn, is named after her and is in a beautiful spot with views of Snowdonia. A wishing-well there is supposed to be home to magical eels whose reactions reveal the faithfulness or otherwise of a potential husband.

(Image of Ynys Llanddwyn: Noel.Morgan2000 at Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

Thinking Day, or, as it has been known since 2000, ‘World Thinking Day’, has been celebrated each year by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts since 1926. Both Lord Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) and Lady Olave Baden-Powell (1889-1977), Chief Scout and Chief Guide respectively, were born on 22nd February, so this day was the perfect choice for the event. Its purpose, following WW1, was to link all the Guides and Girl Scouts across the world in friendship and comradeship in a communal ‘think’.

In the UK there is no separate Girl Scout organisation, although girls started to be permitted to join the boys’ Scouting movement in 1990 and have done so in large numbers. In recent years certain boys have been allowed to join Girlguiding, so there is no longer a female-only principle. Thinking Day is therefore celebrated by a variety of Girlguiding and Scouting units, including the younger sections ~ the Brownies, for instance.

In 1932 Lady Baden-Powell helped set up the Thinking Day Fund, which collects contributions from the girls and donates them to projects and Guide/Scout units in need. Since 2005, Thinking Day has been themed and today there is an additional aim, which is to “take action and speak out on issues we most care about” (WAGGGS, 2019).

(Image: Girl Guides of Canada at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

A ‘stag do‘ is a get-together of a bridegroom and his male friends shortly before his wedding day. Tradition has it that the groom is humiliated by a prank played on him by his pals, after having consumed a large amount of alcohol. This marks the end of the groom’s freedom before being legally bound to his waiting bride.

It is usually organised by the ‘best man’ and, with the potential for disaster, hopefully he can judge just how far they should take this social embarrassment. As well as the drinking, the groom may be coerced into carrying out a dare, wearing fancy dress, putting on a fake tan, eating a very hot curry or a fake arrest or kidnapping may even have been pre-arranged if his friends are so inclined. A visit to a nightclub or stripclub is also fairly traditional.

In the past, it would take place the night before the wedding but nowadays it is usually moved back sufficiently to allow for recovery time. Frequently, it is also now a whole weekend or longer, with groups going off on adventure breaks or foreign holidays. The expectation is that it will be an unforgettable, hilarious, male-bonding experience.

(Image: Michal Jarmoluk at pixabay.com)

The celebration of Mothering Sunday was firstly Christianised, then Americanised and finally commercialised into its present form. It is one of the days in the year that restaurants, florists and greetings card retailers depend upon. It occurs on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which means it is in March but occasionally April.

Early Christians adapted a veneration of mother goddesses and Mother Earth into a mid-Lent homage to the ‘mother church’ and Mother Mary. This was well-established by the sixteenth century, with young servants being allowed the day off to go home and accompany their parents to church. A special service would be conducted and hand-picked bouquets and simnel cake (a light fruit cake) would be enjoyed at family gatherings.

In 1914 in the USA, the second Sunday in May was declared a national holiday called ‘Mother’s Day’. Its purpose was to honour real-life mothers rather than a religious mother or an abstract concept of motherhood. This inspired Constance Smith (1878-1938) in Britain and she published a book entitled ‘The Revival of Mothering Sunday’ in 1921. After WW2, both versions merged in the UK and Mothering Sunday remains on the church calendar but is also a day to spoil your own mum.

(Image: Oren Atias on Unsplash.com)

May Day is on 1st May and it is an ancient pagan celebration of the seasonal warming of the weather, bringing on a period of fertility of crops and animals, and the blossoming of flowers. Communal festivities have traditionally included dancing round the maypole on the village green, Morris dancing and the crowning of the village’s May queen for the year.

It is marked today by a public holiday on the first Monday in May. As well as the dancing, there may also be funfairs or street processions of floats, fancy dress and the attendance of the local Mayor. Youth is a vital element of the May Day tradition and it is usually a teenage girl or young woman who is chosen to be the May queen. She wears a white gown for purity and her crown is adorned with flowers.

This video shows schoolchildren weaving and unweaving their ribbons round the maypole:-

(Top image: Colin Park at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)