The Merry Month of May: Part Two
Deities, Sacrifice and a sprinkling of Fairies.
What is it about May?
In my last article on the subject I mentioned my penchant for feasting and frolicking to welcome the merry month of May:
The Merry Month of May: Part One
The fair maid who, the first of May, Goes to the fields at break of day, And washes in dew from the Hawthorne tree, Will ever after handsome be
I also promised I’d come on to the ‘darker sacrificial elements’ in the next instalment! As well as the forgotten traditions of Beltane in the ancient towns of Norfolk. So here we are:
In Norfolk, the peculiar county at the top of East Anglia, it has been said that things are somewhat slow to change. Norfolk, along with parts of Lincolnshire & Cambridgeshire, spent great swathes of the year cut off from the rest of the country by the ever flooding Fens for many centuries. The fens began to be drained in the 17th Century (only a few decades after Henry VIII curled up his toes…for more about his impact on the land check out my latest instalment of ‘The Missing Fairies of Norfolk’). What does this have to do with Maytime celebrations? Well, I’m glad you asked!
“The ancient Celts & Saxon’s celebrated May 1st as Beltane, which means the day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun. The Saxon’s began their May Day celebrations on the eve of May, April 30. It was an evening of games and feasting celebrating the end of Winter & the return of the sun and fertility of the soil.”1
The Celtic tribes that made East Anglia their home were known as the Iceni and I’m sure many of us know the dreadful tale of Boudica’s resistance and eventual fall to the invading Romans. I’ve read somewhere (that I cannot for the life of me remember) that after the defeat, many Iceni made their way westward, to join up with other strongholds of Celtic tribes, leaving much of East Anglia in the hands of the Roman’s. Taking with them their Celtic traditions and, perhaps, knowledge of the supernatural beings that also call/called this land home. 🧚🏼♂️
I’ve written about the Roman influence in Norfolk upon local celebrations previously in ‘The Peculiar Norfolk Tradition of Old Father Valentine’ :
Perhaps we may look to the Roman’s to demystify Father Valentine’s origins. Faunus of Roman mythology is a deity of fields, groves and wooded glens connected to fertility and the season of Spring…There is archaeological evidence that indicates Faunus was worshipped during the time of the Roman Empire in 4th century Norfolk; thirty two 4th century spoons were uncovered in the Thetford Treasure in 1979 engraved with the word Faunus. Norfolk is a predominantly rural county with many a field, grove and wooded glen, it is easy to see how a nature God worshipped by Roman farmers and called upon for fertility of humans and animals alike could easily be assimilated into the customs and traditions of this land. I wonder if Jack Valentine is a leftover from the Roman occupation.
So, if I may, I submit for your examination the Roman festivals: Robigalia (mentioned in The Merry Month of May: Part One) and Floralia.
Robigalia:
“The Robigalia was a festival of the ancient Roman religion held on April 25, named for the god Robigus.”
The Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favour to avert it.”2
Floralia:
“The Floralia was a festival of ancient Roman religion in honour of the goddess Flora (A goddess of flowers, vegetation, and fertility), held on 27th-28th April.
The festival had a licentious, pleasure-seeking atmosphere.”3
Both Ancient Roman festivals celebrated around about the beginning of May and both of which involved some form of sacrifice to ensure a bountiful harvest. Robigalia’s main ritual was the sacrifice of a dog to protect the grain fields from disease and Floralia’s preferred sacrifice was a goat to Flora, beseeching her at the time of planting to provide a good harvest. (Some of the darker sacrificial elements I was referring to…there are more however, later on in the agricultural year - which I will aim to cover when Harvest time rolls around).
“The Romans brought their springtime celebration of Flora, the goddess of flowers, (Floralia) to the British Isles & combined it with the Beltane celebrations already established by the Celts.
By the Middle Ages, May Day celebrations were firmly established in England and were pleasurable affairs that included the gathering of wildflowers & creation of floral garlands. Flower gathering was called ‘fetching home the May’ and ‘going-a-Maying’.”4
How then did this manifest in Norfolk?
I mentioned Robigalia morphing into Rogation Sunday, the beating of the bounds and St Mark’s Eve in Part One. Now it’s Floralia’s turn. Enter stage right:
The Secret Society of the Sons of Flora.
The wonderful
recently posted on their Instagram about The Secret Society of the Sons of Flora.“They held parades through the city where members dressed in green robes and floral garlands, carried emblems of spring and processed behind a “Queen Flora” crowned in blossom. Local people lined the streets to watch them pass, tossing petals in their path.” 5
Their very interesting post led me to do some further research, and wouldn’t you know it, our old friend Bishop Richard Corbett - author of ‘The Fairies Farewell’ showed up (by way of association). Around the same time that Corbett was Bishop of Norwich (1632-1635) William Strode, Chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich, wrote a poem entitled: ‘A Prologue crowned with Flowers. On the Florists Feast at Norwich’. I cannot find a copy of Strode’s poem online as it appears to only exist in manuscript form at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. But, on the website colonnelunthanksnorwich.com it states that:
‘Strode, a florid preacher, had already been summoned before a parliamentary committee in Oxford and in his poem he was careful to disavow Flora’s pagan origins: ‘…Our feast we call/ Only with Flowres, from Flora not at all’.
The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.
It seems, to me, that the festival of Floralia, first introduced by the Roman’s, intertwined itself with native traditions and was then gurgitated through the centuries into the ‘Florist’s Feasts’ of Norwich. From my limited online research (colonnelunthanksnorwich.com) it appears that the first reference to a ‘Florists Feast’ in print was in an obscure play by Ralph Knevet called ‘Rhodon and Iris. A Pastoral as it was presented at the Florists’ Feast in Norwich, 3 May 1631’. A good long while ago, certainly before the Victorian craze for resurrecting idealised pastoral folk traditions (I see you Morris Dancing). If the Society of the Sons of Flora did indeed process behind a ‘Queen Flora’ as the Norfolk Folklore Society suggests then the Norwich Queen of the May has ancient roots indeed. Alas! The Society (as far as I can tell) is no longer. Although I teased of Norfolk’s slowness to change in the introduction of this article, change does reach us nevertheless. There has not been a festive floral procession through the streets of Norwich on May Day for a couple of centuries at least. But it is definitely something I would LOVE to see revived!
This brings me to the end of my Maytime ramblings about the forgotten Beltane traditions of the ancient towns of Norfolk. I’m sure there are more hidden in villages and hamlets throughout the county but they have not yet presented themselves to me so I will pursue them throughout the year and present them to you next May-tide. I did however mention a sprinkling of fairies in the subtitle, so where might they be?
Well, I’m sure there’s a link somewhere between the Celtic tradition of the Green Man, the Roman God Faunus and the mischievous fairy Robin Goodfellow! Perhaps a subject for another article…I am, in fact, currently writing a historical fiction novel involving many of my favourite things: Fairies, May, History and Norfolk and Robin Goodfellow will be playing a major part 😉
I’m toying with the idea of releasing my novel in instalments here on Substack and wondering if that’s something people would be interested in reading? I have now turned on paid subscriptions (£5 per month) and the novel instalments will be exclusive to paid subscribers. Here’s a little introduction to Old Robin:
‘Tis rather troublesome to describe someone whose appearance changes so frequently, there is one form that he favours over others however and it has been said ‘tis his natural state. Wavy, shoulder length hair that is one moment the colour of dark, damp earth and another glinting the deep green of a holly leaf in mid-winter, there’s always a leaf or twig to be seen amongst it. His slightly too-large eyes are at once mesmerising and disconcerting; the colour of new moss, bright green and sparkling like a pair of unripened acorns. His face has an uncanny symmetry to it, with high cheekbones, a pointed chin, a short, goatee beard and curled moustache. He has a pale, glowing complexion, with rufus cheeks and lips that look as though he’s recently feasted on cherries. The clothes he favours are made from homespun linen (although in whose home it is spun is unclear) chestnut brown trousers, a loose cream shirt and waistcoat the colour of newly unfurling ferns. If on any given day he has an aristocratic inclination he favours silk and velvet (with exquisite embroidery) in his customary colours. Shoes, he detests them, but will appear shod if he deems it a necessity to his disguise. His height, it differs, one cannot ascribe a stature to him as this is the aspect which he finds hardest to remember from one day to the next, it often depends on his mood and how tall or short the people or creatures he wishes to interact with are.’
Would you like to read more?
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The Ancient Origins of May Day from Lib.com
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
agecrofthall.org
Norfolk Folklore Society