British Popular Customs Present And Past - online book

A calendar of the traditional customs, practices & rituals of the British Isles.

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222                                      may eve.                          [April 30.
a dim light were seen moving slowly in the direction of the parish church, it was then deemed equally certain that a funeral would soon pass that way to the churchyard.—Train, History of the Isle of Man, 1845, vol. ii. p. 118.
Oxfordshire.
" At Woodstock," says Aubrey, " they every May Eve goe into the parke and fetch away a number of hawthorne trees, which they set about their dores : 'tis pity that they make such a destruction of so fine a tree."
WALES.
At Tenby the inhabitants went out in troops, bearing in their hands boughs of thorn in full blossom, which were bedecked with other flowers, and then stuck outside the windows of the houses. Maypoles were reared up in different parts of the town, decorated with flowers, coloured papers, and bunches of variegated ribbon.—Mason's Tales and Traditions of Ireland, 1858, p. 21.
IRELAND.
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