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Minehead Hobby Horse
In the coastal town of Minehead, located in the southwest English county of Somerset, there is a folk custom on May Day entailing the parading of a brightly decorated hobby horse around the locality. The origins of the custom are unknown. The earliest known record of the practice dates from 1830. Description The custom takes place during the evenings of the first three days of May, and involves the hobby horse perambulating the port of Minehead. The hobby horse measures eight feet in length and three feet in breadth, and consists of a frame covered in a cloth that has been painted with brightly coloured roundels and decorated with ribbons affixed along the top. The wording "Sailors Horse" is written in large capital letters across the side of the cloth. The head of the man carrying the horse protrudes from the middle of the frame; he wears a painted mask with a crested conical hood affixed with coloured ribbons. A tail made from rope is also affixed to the horse. The folkloris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christina Hole
Christina Hole (1896 – 24 November 1985) was an award-winning British folklorist and author, who was described as “for many years the leading authority on English folk customs and culture”. Early life and education Hole was born in Rickmansworth in 1896 and brought up in Kingston-on-Thames by her grandmother. She was educated at St Bernard's Convent in Slough before finishing her education in France. Before the Second World War she worked in Cheshire as an organizer for the Conservative Party. During the Second World War she was for some time Oxfordshire Women's Land Army County Secretary. Author It was during her pre-war activities in Cheshire that Hole started to collect folklore seriously, activities that led to her first dedicated folklore book, ''Traditions and Customs of Cheshire'' (1937). Hole's many books were aimed at a popular audience and have been described as being “characterised by their gentle lucidity and common sense”. She wrote introductory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
May Events
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which have since become known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution; the national government briefly ceased to function after President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled France to West Germany on the 29th. The protests are sometimes linked to similar movements that occurred around the same time worldwide and inspired a generation of protest art in the form of songs, imaginative graffiti, posters, and slogans. The unrest began with a series of far-left student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions. Heavy police repression of the protesters led France's trade union confederations to c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Traditions
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national identity, an identity and common culture ** English language in England, a variant of the English language spoken in England * English languages (other) * English studies, the study of English language and literature * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity Individuals * English (surname), a list of notable people with the surname ''English'' * People with the given name ** English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer ** English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach ** English Gardner (b. 1992), American track and field sprinter Places United States * English, Indiana, a town * English, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * English, Brazoria County, Texas, an unincorporated community * En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festivals In Somerset
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival constitutes typical cases of glocalization, as well as the high culture-low culture interrelationship. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern. Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanking to the gods, goddesses or saints: they are called patronal festivals. They may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced enterta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Somerset
Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE. Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horses In Culture
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, '' Eohippus'', into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies ''caballus'' are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, and po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fool (stock Character)
There are several distinct, although overlapping categories of fool as a stock character in creative works (literature, film, etc.) and folklore: simpleton fool, clever fool, and serendipitous fool. Silly fool A silly, stupid, simpleton, luckless fool is a butt of numerous jokes and tales all over the world. Sometimes the foolishness is ascribed to a whole place, as exemplified by the Wise Men of Gotham. The localizing of fools is common to most countries, and there are many other reputed imbecile centres in England besides Gotham. Thus there are the people of Coggeshall, Essex, the "carles" of Austwick, Yorkshire, the "gowks" of Gordon, Berwickshire, and for many centuries the charge of folly has been made against silly Suffolk and Norfolk (''Descriptio Norfolciensium'' about twelfth century, printed in Wright's ''Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems''). In Germany there are the "Schildbürger", from the fictitious town of "Schilda"; in the Netherlands, the people of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grenadier
A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word ''grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited from among the strongest and largest soldiers. By the 18th century, the grenadier dedicated to throwing hand grenades had become a less necessary specialist, yet in battle, the grenadiers were the physically robust soldiers who led assaults, such as storming fortifications in the course of siege warfare. Certain countries such as France ( Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale) and Argentina ( Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers) established units of Horse Grenadiers and for a time the British Army had Horse Grenadier Guards. Like their infantry grenadier counterparts, these horse-mounted soldiers were chosen for their size and strength ( heavy cavalry). Today, the term is also used to describe a soldier armed with a grenade launcher, a wea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ascension Day
The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday, commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one of the ecumenical (i.e., shared by multiple denominations) feasts of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of the Passion and Pentecost. Following the account of that the risen Jesus appeared for 40 days prior to his Ascension, Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter; although some Christian denominations have moved the observance to the following Sunday. The day of observance varies by ecclesiastical province in many Christian denominations, as with Methodists and Catholics, for example. History The observance of this feast is of great antiquity. Eusebius seems to hint at the celebration of it in the 4th century. At the beginning of the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo says that it is of Apostolic origin, and he speaks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Combe Martin
Combe Martin is a village, civil parish and former manor on the North Devon coast about east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the northwest edge of the Exmoor National Park. Due to the narrowness of the valley, the village consists principally of one single long street which runs between the valley head and the sea. An electoral ward with the village name exists. The ward population at the 2011 census was 3,941. History Evidence of Iron Age occupation includes the nearby Newberry Castle fort. The toponym "Combe" is derived from Old English ''cumb'' meaning "wooded valley". It derives ultimately from the same Brythonic source as the Welsh cwm, also of the same meaning. The name was recorded as ''Comer'' in 1128. The 'Martin' suffix on the place name is from the name of the FitzMartin family, feudal barons of Barnstaple, from which large barony the manor of Combe was held. The FitzMartins held the barony following the marriag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Devon
North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the Barnstaple municipal borough, the Ilfracombe and Lynton urban districts, and the Barnstaple and South Molton rural districts. The wider geographic area of North Devon is divided between North Devon District and the district of Torridge, based in Bideford. Population North Devon is popular with retired people. The 2011 census showed that 18% of residents were aged 15 years and under, 60% were aged 16–64 and 23% were aged 65 and over. This compares to the 20% of the population who were aged 65 and over when the 2001 census was taken. For comparison, the same age distributions across England were 19%, 64% and 17% respectively. Life expectancy for men, at 77.7, is close ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
