The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain - An Encyclopaedia of Living Traditions with a Calendar of Customs and Regional Gazetteer

What must the Tichborne family do every year to avoid invoking Lady Mabella's curse? Where do men run through the streets with blazing barrrels of tar on their heads? How was the old man of Braughing's life saved by some dead leaves? When is the luckiest time of year for a wedding? Who is `the Burry Man'? Throughout the British Isles, hundreds of fascinating customs and ceremonies - many of them centuries old - continue to be observed. Kightly, experienced traveller and well-known historianm unfolds a broad and colourful tapestry of those that survive to this day - folklore and calendar customs; royal ceremonies; remnants of life in the Middle Ages, and of vanished farming ways; the proud observances of ancient towns and the less ordered merry-making of the countryside; the festivals of the Church and the relics of deep-rooted pagan beliefs; sportings traditions; commemorations of loved, hated or merely eccentric people; or celebrations of deliverance from plagues and perils past. Some have found national (and international) fame - changing the guard at Buckingham Palace, Burns Night, the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, Royal Ascot. Others are mysterious customs perpetuated in the remoter corners of Britain - Turning the Devil's Stone, Burning Bartle, the Mari Lwyd of South Wales, and Lanark's Whuppity Stourie. The origins of these traditions have frequently been obscured by fantastic tales of demons and spirits, by centuries of local gossip, or by glib interpretations often repeated but lacking any foundation in truth. With absorbing detail Kightly relates the myths but also examines the known historical facts and suggests convincing explanations...