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A MORRIS CALENDAR
In our high northern latitude the contrast between winter and summer is far greater than in
lands nearer the equator. The natural pivots of the year would seem to be the two solstices
- the winter solstice when at last the decline in the length of the day is arrested and
recovery begins, and the summer solstice when the day length reaches its maximum. Midway
between these two points are the equinoxes, when day and night lengths are equal.
The Morris is solely an English tradition. The traditional times of the equinoxes and the
solstices coincide with the important events of the Anglo-Saxons’ agricultural year - the
sowing of seed, the start of haymaking, the end of harvesting, and the start of ploughing:
| Agricultural Calendar |
| Vernal Equinox | 25th March | Summer Solstice | 24th June |
| Autumnal Equinox | 24th September | Winter Solstice | 25th December |
It is no surprise to find major festivals clustered around these dates. The delight of the
pagan Anglo-Saxons at the return of the sun is easy to understand. Nor is it hard to conceive
how a priestly caste whose role it was to observe the signs in the heavens would in time
assert that they themselves were controlling events by their magic. Unless you do this, they
would declare, the flight of the sun will not be halted and there will be no seedtime or
harvest. So, by inventing ritual and demanding sacrifices, they cemented their position in
society as a ruling class.
The Anglo-Saxons arrived in the fifth century supplanting the already-established Celts
whose ritual festivals were centred around a pastoral calendar - the beginning of lambing,
putting sheep and cattle out to pasture in the spring, rounding up the animals in the autumn,
and winter slaughtering.
| Pastoral Calendar |
| Imbolc | 1st February | Bealltein | 1st May |
|
| Lugnasad | 1st August | Samhain | 1st November |
As the Anglo-Saxon calendar subsumed the Celtic one we also find festivals around these dates and the Morris ritual associated with them all. Christianity wisely preferred to adopt and adapt these festivals rather than obliterate them and so the ancient festivals survive in disguise.
PLOUGH MONDAY (Back to top)
Speed the Plough is an ancient tradition of touring the local district with a plough on
Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night, when farm workers began the working
year and ploughing commenced. A corn dolly, fashioned from the last stalks of the previous
Harvest, in which the Corn Goddess was believed to have taken refuge, was reverently laid
in the first furrow and ploughed in, in readiness for the coming season of growth. This
was done so that the Corn Goddess, whose spirit resided in the corn dolly, would get to
work on the new crop when the time came. The plough was then pulled round the district not
by horses but by the local Morris Men with a view to collecting money from onlookers.
Originally the coins would have been spent on beer in the local ale-house. Nowadays we
collect for local charities.
In Essex the plough was often painted white and kept in the local church. Consequently the
ceremony often became known simply as ‘The White Plough’. When the Mayflower Morris Men
perform this ceremony the side is indebted to Mr. Jim Munden of Barleylands Farm Museum for
the kind loan of a plough which dates from the late 1920s. In the dances the sticks were
struck on the ground to awaken Mother Earth from her slumber to begin the spring. High
capers encouraged her to ensure the crops would grow tall in the coming harvest. There was
much primæval energy and magic in the air - so the local people were sure to partake of the
good luck generated and gave alms to the dancers! In olden days those who did not
contribute had the front gardens of their houses ploughed up in retribution! You have been
warned!!!
YULETIDE (Back to top)
This is the time of Yule, the ancient festival celebrating the winter solstice, the shortest
day, when at last the decline in the length of the day is arrested in midwinter and recovery
begins. The delight of our ancestors at the return of the sun and its implications for
agriculture and their consequent well-being is easy to understand. It was originally Woden
who careered across the night sky in his chariot bearing gifts. Fir (Christmas) trees and
evergreens have always been treated with reverence because the woodland spirits of vegetation
were believed to reside in them at a time when the leaves had fallen from other trees.
Cutting the mistletoe promoted the fertility of the earth and the production of good crops;
the custom of kissing under the mistletoe obviously derives from this. The Yule log was
dragged in with much ceremony to burn on the hearth. Wassailing ('waes hal', Anglo-Saxon for
'be healthy' and consequently the toast ‘good health!’), Mummers' Plays, and Morris are all
customs associated with Yuletide and collecting money for them was never considered begging.
Corn and milk were generally asked for but coins were an acceptable substitute. To give was
to partake of the primæval energy and magic produced by the Morris dancers' exertions. The
collecting 'boxes' from which Boxing Day gets its name were usually earthenware piggy-banks
which had to be broken to extract the contents.
With the arrival of Christianity in England in the late sixth century and the reluctance of
the populace to abandon their customs and ceremonies, the Christian priests were instructed
to ‘graft’ the new Christian ceremonies on to the dates and places of pagan worship. That’s
why so many customs of pagan origin are still associated with Christmas. In Essex it took
Christianity three attempts (in A.D. 604, 653, and 675) before the Old Religion was finally
officially replaced!
MAY DAY (Back to top)
May Day is the festival of the greenwood, having its roots far back in time when England was
a forest country. With trees bursting into leaf, birds nesting, animals mating, and flowers
blooming, the season of fertility was self-evident. The human counterparts are seen in the
ancient pagan Maypole, Maying, Maydew, Maybaby and Queen of the May customs. The festival
associated with May Day was Bealltein, one of the Celtic quarter days. Bonfires were lit to
rid the fields of evil winter spirits, after which it was safe to turn livestock out to graze.
The May Queen and King were tree spirits concerned with the renewal of vegetation. May Day
was their wedding day, hence the May fertility customs. The hawthorn, sacred to the May
Queen, was brought into the home to bring good luck, was used to decorate the village
Maypole and is alternatively known as the Mayflower.
Male ritual Morris dancing would traditionally have occurred around the Maypole to placate
Mother Earth for all the goodness taken out of the soil over the previous year. Energy
produced from the dancers’ exertions replaced the energy taken from the soil. Many features
of the Morris reflect its early origins from the spring flowers around the hats, to the
Animal character (showing Man’s reliance on Nature), to the Fool (showing man’s naïvety),
to the fertility symbols within the dances. A Jack i’ the Green (a dancer dressed as a
Green Man) was often one of the characters in the side.
HARVEST HOME (Back to top)
‘Harvest’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘herfst’ meaning ‘autumn’, the time when the harvesting
of crops was coming to an end, and occurred at the time of the autumnal equinox on 24th
September. As the crops were gathered, it was believed that the domain of the Corn Goddess
shrank as each sheaf was cut. When the final cornstalks remained in a field corner it was
believed that the Corn Goddess resided within them. So the last sheaf was fashioned into
a corn dolly, placed on the cart containing the last load and borne home to much singing,
dancing and, no doubt, drinking. A branch of oak leaves would be held over the cart - a
survival from ancient times when all rites and ceremonies were conducted under an oak tree.
The corn dolly would be taken to the farm workers’ Harvest Home feast where it had the place
of honour on the top table. Afterwards the corn dolly would be kept on a mantelshelf or a
safe place in a barn until the ploughing season started in January when it would be
ceremonially placed in the first furrow and ploughed back into the soil to ensure its
regeneration and productivity.
At the Harvest home there would be celebrations and thanksgivings in the villages for the
benefits of the harvest on which the Morris Men would be expected to bestow the blessing
of their magic. The Corn Goddess and her associated ceremonies had parallels throughout
the world. The modern Harvest Festival is a much watered-down continuation of the
traditional Cerealian ceremony.
HALLOWE’EN (Back to top)
The evening of the 31st October, before Hallowmas or All Saints’ Day, was the evening when
traditionally the ghosts of the dead walked the Earth and the landscape was alive with
witches, elves and goblins. The warding off of evil spirits was an important village
ceremony and many of the morris traditions belie their early origins - the jingling of
bells and waving of white handkerchiefs to frighten away the evil spirits, the clashing
of sticks to represent the fight between good and evil, and so on.
Huge bonfires (‘bone fires’) would be lit bringing with them the protection of the light
against the unknown of the night’s darkness. This tradition was easily transposed to 5th
November and Guy Fawkes’s Night. In Germany this day is known as St. Walpurga’s Day and
Hallowe’en as Walpurgisnacht - witches traditionally gather on the Brocken mountain in the
Harz Mountains.
EASTERTIDE (Back to top)
The vernal equinox, 25th March, the arrival of the spring, was an important date in the
pagan calendar. The rebirth and flourishing of new life in the plants and crops of the
countryside was matched by the rearing of new life among the birds and animals of the
counrtryside. An outburst of fertility was everywhere apparent and to encourage that
fertility the Morris would be expected to dance - by their exertions to appease Mother
Earth, the goddess Eostre (hence ‘Easter’), and to put back into the soil through their
stampings all that energy which over the previous year man had extracted from the earth
in the form of harvested crops. Thus the importance of the egg as a fertility symbol,
the giving as presents of eggs, and all the traditional egg-rolling, and egg-pacing
ceremonies throughout the country at this time of the year are explained. The Resurrection
of Christ, conveniently placed around this time, enabled the Christian Church to hijack
the festivities and expropriate the festival itself.
TREE DRESSING (Back to top)
Tree-dressing is actually tree-worship and was practised as part of the pagan religions
of both the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic inhabitants of this island. Trees, like wells and
standing stones, were common objects of veneration in ancient times. They were the home
of powerful spirits whose worship was associated with fertility. An essential feature of
the ceremony is the ‘dressing’ – the presentation of offerings, charms and tokens to the
tree. This practice lingered late in traditions like Beating the Bounds and Wassailing and
lingers still in the decoration of the Christmas tree. Another feature is the association
of the Morris dance with the festivities conducted round the tree. Both were intended to
show reverence to and to propitiate the spirit of the tree. The traditional time of year
for the ceremony was Midsummer’s Eve, the 22nd June and an associated ceremony on May Day,
1st May.
Oak groves were the original forerunner of churches – they were the sacred sites of the
Old Religion – and when Christianity arrived on these shores they became the site of
today’s churches. Even the design of church interiors aped the architecture of the oak
grove in an effort to entice believers of the Old Religion within. Marriages continued
to be celebrated under an oak until the Church prohibited the practice and even for long
afterwards it became the custom for couples to go from church to dance three times around
a sacred oak. The custom of tree-dressing continued long after tree-worship ceased and
its many associated customs survive in much diluted forms from the Yule log to the
Maypole, from the Green Man to touching wood for luck. Long may they continue!
