Mar 14, 2021
British folk Customs
Mathew Jackson illustration
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British folk Customs
Mathew Jackson illustration
redbubble Prints click here
the kennet and avon morris men. do not trust them with your beer. (at Yattendon Fete)
dogs, engines, donkeys and morris men. standard fete. (at Yattendon)
Happy May Day!
Masquerade watches a troop of Morris Men and their Obby Oss.
At Lanhydrock, in Cornwall, England.
the morris will dance. whether you want them to or not. (at Yattendon Fete)
Cheadle Hulme Morris Men, R J Bradbury, ink & colored drawing on paper
Morris Men (2022) Movie Review
Morris Men – Movie Review Director: Gregg Masuak Writer: DB Morgan (Screenplay) Cast Jamie Chambers (The Shamrock Spitfire) Eloise Lovell Anderson (Villain) Ross O’Hennessy (Game of Thrones) Jon Campling (The Northman) Charlie Rich (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) Charlie Bond (Slumber) Plot: When a seaside town is gripped in a vice of drug fuelled corruption, sometimes the…
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19th June
The Mayor of Ock Street
Mayor of Ock Street. Source: the Abingdon Blog
On the weeekend before 20th June, the Morris men of Abingdon in Oxfordshire elect the Mayor of Ock Street, who becomes the “Squire” of Abingdon’s morris dancing team for a year. It is a genuine election in which the residents of Ock Street itself are entitled to vote. The tradition is said to be over 350 years old and originated in 1700 when a fight over ownership of the horns of a roast oxen in the centre of town during a Midsummer celebration, broke out, won by the Morris men. The victory has been celebrated every midsummer since, with an effigy of an ox carried in procession by the Morris dancers in full traditional garb. The head of the ox is stamped with 1700, to mark the year that began this long lived exercise in one upmanship.
Some folklorists trace a pagan origin to the tradition, citing the horns as typical totems, the slaughtered ox itself as a sacrifice, and even suggesting the Mayor himself may have started out as a Year King sacrificial victim. Most conclude however that the town punch up story is more credible an explanation.