#horses

Yeah there are some odd regional traditions.
🔔 In Dewsbury they start ringing a church bell (the bell that Black Tom de Soothill once presented the church with as penance for murdering his servant) at 10am and therafter once for each year since the year 0. This must be a nightmare for local residents.
🏰 From Clifford’s Tower in York they hang mistletoe, if a woman stands underneath it it means she wants to be kissed by anyone passing by. (You’re still allowed to fire crossbows in York by the way, providing that you’re shooting at a Scottish person. Conversely, 45 minutes away in Hull, crossbows have been banned since the 1500s.)
🎼 In Dungworth xmas carols are only sung by locals in a local pub ever since carolling was banned in churches hundreds of years ago by Puritans. There’s also a local pub we used to go to for meals (its name escapes me, I think it’s in or near the village of Goodmanham, where a Temple of Odin lies buried beneath the local church) that does public carolling in the pub, and I wonder if this is rooted in the same tradition. Furthermore, the Yorkshire villages of Castleton, Oughtibridge, Bradfield, Ecclesfield and Worrall all have a 200 year old tradition of pub carol singing, and all have their own Christmas carols unique to that village.
🐴 Every Christmas Eve in Richmond marketplace a person wearing a horses head is sung to by a group of huntsmen who then ‘bring it to life’ with hunting sticks and a horn.
🌞 In York Every 21st December (usually the date of Yule or the Winter Solstice) the Sheriff is accompanied around the city by the York Waits playing music. The procession ends with a speech at the Mansion House.
🐠 On Boxing Day at Flamborough Head, eight fishermen perform a sword dance on the high street.
💈 On the common land of Beverley Westwood at Solstice Dawn or Dusk (winter and summer) , local Morris sides often meet to dance at The Black Tower, weather and other restrictions permitting. I have been to this myself, and danced at dawn. Beer and music is to be had in a local pub afterwards.
🍎 During the Christmas Day service at Ripon Cathedral, visitors and parishioners are each given the gift of an apple, a custom that began in Mediaeval times.
⚽️ In Scarborough on Boxing Day the 150-year-old tradition of Firemen versus Fishermen having a football (soccer) match on the beach continues. (I do not know if women can be members of either team, something for me to investigate).
🔥 On 31st December a Viking Fire Festival takes place at Flambrough, with fireballs and the traditional burning of a Viking longship, something that’s practiced in a number of towns in the UK with Viking heritage.
🦃 This year as you tuck into your turkey, give thanks to William Strickland, born on the Yorkshire coast, who brought the bird back to England in 1526. It became a popular Christmas food during the Victorian era.
🧀 for over 100 yers now, Yorkshire folk have enjoyed a slice of cheese with their xmas cake

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