Without religion, English rituals have found a new purpose. A means of representation and expression, our festivals, our fireworks, our effigy beheadings, are a means by which to understand disaster, death and all things diabolical. In this respect, we need the fete more than ever before. The British are known for finding it difficult to confront death, but maybe they can make conversation about it a little more easily when decked out in a sheep’s skull. As an outlet for our darkest fears, the absurd and theatrical are a form of both control and sanctuary, as well as fuel for terror. Based on American writer Thomas Dixon’s novel The Clansman 5, D.W. Griffith’s film The
Birth of a Nation 6 spawned a wave of Clansman costumes in small rural towns and villages across the United Kingdon, whilst overseas in the United States, the Klu Klux Klan had found its visual identity 7. The revival of symbols is in theory a powerful visual medium, but this can so quickly become sinister. Even the musicologist Cecil Sharp’s work to revive the folk songs of England has been critiqued for its nationalist undertones, despite Sharp’s own democratic and socialist political views. Ross Cole, writing about the political role of folk song in the early twentieth century, suggests that ‘Sharp seems to have been less keen on achieving political equality for all members of society than on a spiritual call to national unity.’ 8 Morris men dancing with their faces painted black in the town of Padstow, Cornwall, has now proved controversial enough in contemporary English society to ban these rituals being appropriated as a regional symbol. This might be considered helpful to the secularists who accuse folklore collectors of wrongly catapulting too many events into the public eye. However, the Joint Morris Organisation’s decision to ban the practice of blackface
Morris dancing in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, resulting in the Morris Federation recognising in an open letter the need to ‘take further steps to ensure the continued relevance and inclusivity of the tradition’ 9 was undoubtedly overdue. Yet when looking at the ritualistic beheading of a young female virgin in traditional Morris sword dance routines, it could be argued that the British folk movement’s darkness allows it to escape its connotation of whimsy and engage with a lived experience beyond the sphere of the ‘quaint’ and ‘old-fashioned’. In complete contrast, ritualistic dance ceremonies now find a contemporary articulation in their influence on Techno music. This can be seen in Techno’s combination of energetic, convulsive movement followed by moments of meditative stillness. Rave culture sustains the fete in both the urban and the rural context with its genuinely ritualised disorder and its underlying aim of subverting the societal and political status quo. The Stonehenge Free Festival in the 1970s embodied a contemporary pagan ritual, culminating in the Summer Solstice, but was deemed so dangerous to society that it was shut down in 1984 10: a sign not of the death of the fete but rather of its continued potential for disruption. We can only hope that the symbols, rites and rituals of English folklore, so well established, and adapted so often, strengthen the cultivation of a modern English community, one in which the meaning of ‘English’ constantly expands rather than creating a secular division.
5 Dixon, Thomas (1905) 6 Birth of a Nation (1905) 7 Curtis, Adam (2021) 8 Cole, Ross (2019) 9 The Morris Federation (2020) 10 McKay, George (2020)
1974
BEAFORD
James Ravilious photograph from Beafod Archive. James Ravilious was an English photographer who specialised in recording the rural life of north Devon.
Winter in England is bleak.
As we look for an escape, a promise of a future spring,
UNKNOWN
BURGHEAD
A popular tradition to celebrate the New Year, largely in Scotland, involves burning the old year out with a large torchlight procession and bonfire. Usually followed by country dances to drive out evil spirits and cleanse the village.
we set fire to
o our nights.
A display of conquest, the B
British people overcoming.
1957
LERWICK
To mark the end of the bleak midwinter, Up Helly Aa festival pays homage to Norse ritual and Sheltand’s Viking heritage through a boat burning ceremony. Although, it’s actually a fairly modern festival, originating in around 1881.
Or simply to jolt us aw
wake in time for dawn.
1956
OTTERY ST MARY
An ancient custom, Firing of the Cannon, was revived in 1957. Handheld cannon devices are filled with gunpowder, their loud bang intended to wake locals for the day and night festivities that begin before dawn.
1960
HEREFORD
“No, we’re not bird scaring and we’re not drunk either…” Herefordshire folk revive the ancient custom of ‘wassailing the orchard’ to improve the cider apple crop.
2018
MUDGLEY
Locally proclaimed cider legend Roger Wilkins at the Roger Wilkins Wassail. Wassailing ceremonies are thought to have pagan origins and sing in the spring season. Celebrated on Twelfth Night, the ritual involves dressing up, nominating a king and a queen, processing to music and chanting to the apple trees in the orchard. Before the wassail queen is lifted to place bread soaked in the previous season’s cider atop the tree trunk. This appeases the tree spirits.
A drunken population, salvaged from evil spirits.
1978
OTTERY ST MARY
The Annual Tar Barrels Festival of Ottery St Mary.Young boys roll nine-gallon barrels or firkins through the streets, the older boys roll the eighteen-gallon barrels or kilderkins and the men wrestle with the hogshead at fifty-four gallons. The barrels are lined with tar and filled with straw and lit before being carried through the streets. The only town in the country to hold such a festival. Each barrel is sponsored by a different pub in the area.
Liquor burning, an
nd barrels rolling.
In Winter we
e face death.
A Grim Reaper costume appears outside the local NHS doctors clinic at this village fete. 1963
KILKEEL
A Rag parade bursting with satirical mischief; a woman is delivered to an executioner from the crowd. Possibly an effigy of Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the UK in 1955. 1958
BELFAST
Morbid fascination.
A Grim Reaper costume appears outside the local NHS doctors clinic at this village fete.
1963
KILKEEL
1968
CROFT
When village carnivals seemed to be in decline in the 1960s, Croft was bucking that trend, drawing in massive crowds for its carnival favourites: the police dog display and the dare devil high dive.
Dare-devil high-dives.
1966
BRACKLEY
The old folk dance traditions had been dying out since at least the First World War but in Brackley we find a group of revivalists perfecting an ancient bean setting dance. Fresh from their success at the National Folk Festival held at the Royal Albert Hall one of the boys of Magdalen College School admits that learning a complex traditional folk dance is one of the few things that a boarder at the school can enjoy.
A Morri
is dance
1972
RIPON
Ripon Sword Dance Play includes a ritualistic beheading. Photograph by Homer Sykes.
behea
ading.
England’s secre England’s secrets
rets on display. placed on display.
1930
TYNEMOUTH
A rude and rowdy collection of costumes at Tynemouth Carnival. Costumes based on television were popular as England sought out escapism during this challenging period between the General Strike and The Great Depression.
1932
SOUTH UIST
Young people on South Uist celebrate Samhain in 1932 with a scooped out sheep’s head as a mask. Photograph from Margaret Fay Shaw Photographic Archive.
Masked.
1934 Village fete.
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS
Performed.
1971 Strip tent at Pinner Annual fair. Photograph by Homer Sykes.
PINNER
Presented.
Prejudices enacted
Ethnic stereotypes are reinforced in this village fancy dress competition. Evident is the influence of Angelique and the Sultan, a sequence of five films released in 1968 that display disturbingly familiar and ugly stereotypes of Arabs. 1969
CARLETON-IN-CRAVEN
1979
ROCESTER
Carnival costume. Home movie shot by Les Humphries.
under the dangerou
us guise of popular culture.
Intent detatche
ed from symbol.
1965
ABERAERON
Amongst the children’s tropical scene float, the Turkish Delighters, the Beverley Hillbillies and the variously fancy-dressed people, appear several swathed in Ku Klux Klan outfits, a troubling choice of costume for a light-hearted, community event.
Symbols carry the potentia
al for alarming adaptation.
1923
ABERYSTWYTH
A college Rag features costumes inspired by the recent release of DW Griffith’s A Birth of Nation. A film that went on to inspire the costumes of the KKK.
When placed into ci
2019
AVEBURY
A far-right meeting takes place in a National Trust field neighbouring Avebury’s ancient stones.
ircles of extremism.
2021
HAMPSHIRE
The Hook Eagle Morris Men performed together for the first time in more than a year to mark the May Day dawn. In response to the Black Lives Matter movement the Morris Society made the decision to ban black-face, they now perform with their faces painted blue.
We find a necessity for change.
1968
ST JUST
Members of the Gorsedh Kernow or Cornish Gorsedd meet at St Just in Cornwall. The Gorsedd has non-political aims to be guardian of the Cornish language and Celtic spirit. The procession is part of a ceremonial day of circle gathering and awards are given in recognition of a contribution to Cornish culture.
A necessity for rebirth.
1976
WADEBRIDGE
Cornwall County Show in Wadebridge presents a male showjumper getting on to a camel’s back and then joining other male showjumpers riding their camels in an arena. The camel riders then thrill spectators with a race before making way for a pantomime camel to be led into the showground.
A rebirth, less rig
gid with tradition.
Genuine ritua
alistic revival.
The Stonehenge Free Festival was held from 1974 to 1984 at the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating with the summer solstice. It emerged as the major free festival in the calendar after the violent suppression of the Windsor Free Festival in August 1974. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures. The Tibetan Ukrainian Mountain Troupe, The Tepee People, Circus Normal, the Peace Convoy, New Age Travellers and the Wallys were notable counterculture attendees. UNKNOWN
STONEHENGE
1901
STONEHENGE
A policeman stands next to the stonehenge.
Hopefully, without unw
waranted intervention
1966
GLASTONBURY TOR
The Beltane Celebrations at Glastonbury Tor are a celebration of the ancient Celtic pagan fertility rite of spring. The Glastonbury Order of Druids holds the celebration to usher out winter and welcome in spring and a time of renewal. Ceremonies are held every year with a community group running celebrations at the White Spring, Market Cross and Bushey Comne in the centre of the town. The day culminates in a Beltane fire and service at the Abbey.
and centred in a communi
The beginnings of the Glastonbury Fayre which is in its second year and very much rooted in the hippie culture of peace and love. It is the vision of Michael Eavis who owns Worthy Farm in Pilton and who was inspired by a Led Zeppelin concert he saw in Bath in 1969. Glastonbury is near Stonehenge and steeped in myth and legend and the festival changes days to join with the pagan summer solstice of June 20 in an attempt to harness positive energy. 1971
GLASTONBURY
ity focused on acceptance.
1973
SOLARFLARES BURN FOR YOU
As drug-inspired masterpiece of rural psychedelia.
1997
RAVE
We follow a rave DJ instigator rigging up decks in abandoned warehouses, a nosebleed ‘techno tourist’ who chases the hardcore around Europe and a girl addicted to... partying. A film directed by Torstein Grude.
That can infiltrat
te the urban too.
UNKNOWN Villagers dance at a ball in their parish hall.
STEVENSON
A massive thank you to:
Anya Landolt, Adrian Shaughnessy, and to all the villages who generously contributed to, and inspired, the making of this publication.
Copy Editor:
Former May Queen, Cathy Johns.
Production:
This publication is one of three. Letterpress: Niamh Thompson with support from Ian Gabb Riso Printing & Binding: Niamh Thompson Digital Printer: Newspaper Club
Typeface:
Gill Sans has been used with an awareness of its controversy. As, despite the horrors of its history, it continues to exist as one of the most iconically British typefaces ever created.
Imagery:
Imagery within this publication has primarily been sourced from the British Film Institute’s collection of archival footage. Where imagery has been gathered from other sources, care has been taken to trace the copyright and provide suitable references.
Author and Designer: Niamh Thompson