Customs at Collections

Collections Home

A Religious Miscellany

The final set in this section is about individual customs which have a religious element but religion is not necessarily the main reason it happens. It is a random collection and there are too many to describe. At any rate they all appear elsewhere on this website. As to whether the druids qualify for a place here all Collections has to offer on the subject is that they certainly make a good picture!

Pax Cakes and Palm Sunday Cross, Sellack, Herefordshire, England, 1983

Advanced design (by a local art teacher) of Coldwell End Well Dressing, Youlgreave, Derbyshire, England, 1983

Church Clipping at Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, 1968

‘Bishop’ on Bonfire Night, Lewes, East Sussex, England, 1989

Mary and Joseph in the Nativity Play at St Michael’s Church School, Highgate, London, England, 1985

Nativity Play at the Rosary School, Hampstead, London, 1985

The Queen, attended by the Lord High Almoner, distributing the Maundy Money to local pensioners at the Royal Maundy Service in Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, 1984

The ceremonial party, including HM The Queen and the Yeomen of the Guard, after the Royal Maundy Service at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, in 1984

One of the ‘Children of the Royal Almonry’, in fact a chosen local, with his nosegay at the Royal Maundy Service, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1984

Cutting sprigs of Glastonbury Thorn for The Queen, at the parish church, Glastonbury, Somerset, 1983 (This tree died and was cut down in 1991 but there are others in the churchyard, plus the ‘original’ Holy Thorn among the Abbey ruins)

The Mayor, the Mayoress and the Verger after cutting sprigs of Holy Thorn for The Queen, at the parish church, Glastonbury, Somerset, 1983 (The verger claimed the sprigs were posted free in a package marked ‘OHMS’, but later information suggests they are taken by hand to Buckingham Palace)

Crowds gathering to hear Latin carols from the top of Magdalen Tower at dawn on May Morning in Oxford, 1984

Decorated crosses left by village children in St Mary’s Church on Garland Day (May Day), Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, 1984

The Boy Bishop of Hereford Cathedral in 1985, invariably a chorister with an impeccable record

The Boy Bishop in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire (It is not known who this is but experts feel it is unlikely that a Boy Bishop would die in the short duration of his ‘office’, and therefore suggest it is more likely to be a miniature effigy of a real Bishop)

Christingle Service at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 1985 (‘Christingle’ came to Britain, not much more than 40 years ago, from the Moravian Church in Germany)

Children ‘Church Clipping’ at St Mary’s Church, Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, 1969

Filling the ‘poppers’ with gunpowder and newspaper in preparation for ‘Firing the Poppers’ at Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes, England, 1982

The Queen distributing the Royal Maundy, to as many male and female pensioners of the Diocese as the years of her age, in Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, England on Maundy Thursday 1984

A proud ‘Recipient’ of the Royal Maundy at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, England, on Maundy Thursday in 1984

The Wall Pulpit Sermon preached annually in St John’s Quad, Magdalen College, Oxford, England on a Sunday near St John the Baptist’s Day in late June, 1984

The Boy Bishop, elected on St Nicholas’ Day (6 Dec) and in office until Holy Innocents’ Day (28th), in Hereford Cathedral, Herefordshire, England 1985

The choir and congregation of St Bride’s, the ‘Journalist’s Church’ by Fleet St, London, egg rolling in the unusually deserted street after an early morning communion on Easter Sunday, 1988

The Wake, or feast of the dedication of the church (From ‘Old England’, published c1860)

Funeral Garland in Matlock Church, also know as Maiden’s Garlands or Virgin’s Crowns, they were carried before the coffins of ‘maidens’ and then displayed in the church (from Chambers’ Book of Days, 1862)

A Boy Bishop, (Published in ‘Ancient Mysteries Described’, William Hone, 1823)

‘A Martyrdom at the site of Bartholomew Fair’, from ‘Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair’ by Henry Morley, London, 1892 (Bartholomew Fair was a major London event every August for over 700 years between 1133 and 1855, on the site of the present Smithfield Market)

The four silver coins of a Royal Maundy Money presentation set for 1906 in a red leather case (4,3,2, and 1 ‘old’ pennies, still specially minted each year but worth a lot more to coin collectors - though surely recipients would want to keep them!)

Choirboys of the Abbey Choir School singing Christmas carols before the crib in Westminster Abbey, London, England

Handing out Pax Cakes on Palm Sunday at St Tyssilio’s church, Sellack, Herefordshire

Clergy and choir lead the procession of parishioners around the churchyard as part of the ceremony of ‘Church Clipping’ at Painswick, Gloucestershire.

The ‘Bellringers’ Feast’ commorating, since 1754, the safe return of William Davies from dense fog on the Downs by hearing the church bells of Twyford, near Winchester, Hampshire, England

At the Good Friday sermon preached beside Trinity Bridge at Crowland, Lincolnshire, England

The vicar and village schoolchildren on Garland Day (May Day) in Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire

Village schoolchildren carry their garlands to the church on Garland Day (May Day) at Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, England

The ‘Garland’, the decorated cross which stands permanently on the rood-screen in the parish church is re-dressed on May Day (Garland Day) every year in Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, England

Green Man pew end in Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire

Green Man on a pew end in the Church of the Holy Ghost, Crowcombe, Somerset

Druids leaving the Summer Solstice Ceremonies at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, c1990

Druids celebrating the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, c1990

Druids celebrating the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, c1990

Druids preparing to celebrate the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, c1990

Oranges with candles and sweets prepared for a children’s Christingle Service at Christmas in Cumbria (‘Christingle’ came to Britain, not much more than 40 years ago, from the Moravian Church in Germany)

Children at a Christingle Service in Cumbria (‘Christingle’ came to Britain, not much more than 40 years ago, from the Moravian Church in Germany)

Carpet of Flowers for the Feast of Corpus Christi (two weeks after Whit Sunday), Arundel Cathedral, West Sussex, England

Ballyheigue, Our Lady’s Well, a cure for skin ailments, Co Kerry, Ireland

Diwali clebrations, Belgrave Road, Leicester, Oct 2006 (Diwali is the important Hindu ‘Festival of Light’, exceptionally big in Leicester since around a quarter of the population of 300,000 is of Indian origin)

Diwali clebrations, Belgrave Road, Leicester, Oct 2006 (Diwali is the important Hindu ‘Festival of Light’, exceptionally big in Leicester since around a quarter of the population of 300,000 is of Indian origin)

Druid ceremony at the Spring equinox (20 March) on Tower Hill at which seeds are scattered over the earth, London, mid-1990s

Druid Ceremony at the Spring Equinox, Tower Hill, London, England

Religious fundamentalist at Auld Lammas Fair, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland

The Flower Sermon in St Katherine Cree Church, Leadenhall Street, London at which the congregation carry or wear flowers. Still held every Whit Tuesday. (From ‘Old & New London’ by Walter Thornbury, 1877)

Distribution of fruit after the Oranges and Lemons Service at St Clement Danes Church, Strand, London