May 1st provides a pay-back opportunity for any that were caught out on April Fool's Day since it also May Gosling Day on which all the rules of the earlier fool's day apply. It is a north country version of the event but distance is no object to traditional fun. It must all end on the stroke of noon though and anyone foolish enough continue after that time can be regaled with;

May Gosling's past and gone

Now you're the fool for trying to make me one.

May is a tradition filled month that, like all others, is out of step with the heritage bequeathed us by our ancestors, thanks to calendar changes.

The purists that honour the seasons can, of course, celebrate most things twice, which is particularly beneficial where feasting is concerned but the increased galloping round maypoles or jumping of fires can offset these values.

For convenience, and often to the benefit of the tourist industry some established events, e.g. Hunting the Earl of Rone in North Devon, is now celebrated on a Bank Holiday weekend at the end of the month.

However, coming back to the beginning, the first day of May this year also happens to be Rogation Sunday, the fifth after Easter, and the start of Rogation Week which effectively climaxes on the Thursday, 5 th , Ascension Day. Rogation comes from the Latin rogare, meaning to beseech. It is the traditional time for beseeching on behalf of crops, fisheries, wells, areas, communities, or buildings - any place or object where a prayer might help. Although Christian in tone, Rogation's origins lie in Roman ceremonies: during the May feast of Ambervalia crops were blessed, and at Terminalia there were sacrifices and bounds-beating.

The traditional Beating of the Bounds used to take place on Ascension Day but, for convenience, often takes place on one of the May holidays but remains a patrol of the village/parish borders, including a symbolic beating of boundary points and prayers at selected spots, including the site of an old well or watering place.

Rogation blessings in many rural areas are still directed towards the crops and the bountiful earth, while coastal areas hold ceremonies Blessing the Sea; a few have recently been either revived or overhauled to make them more appealing to tourists.

Churches decorated with lobster pots and fishing nets; services held on the shore or quay side; choirs and local bands participating; processions down to the sea or quay. Sometimes the priest is rowed out to sea by one of the local fishermen where the cleric asks God to bless the harvest of the waters, and lays a small cross of flowers into the waves.

Auctions - for the use of land - with all interested parties gathering at the church gates and the auction is conducted using the church door key as the gavel. Money raised going towards church repairs.

In 1833 the Charities Commission described such auctions as 'very ancient'. Until recently, bidding started at sunset with the land going to the last person to bid before the last glimmer of sun slipped over the horizon.

Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday, is also an important day for customs related to water-worship, and the ritual Beating the Bounds - a tradition that has its roots in Terminalia, a May-time Roman sacrificial festival honouring the boundary god 'Terminus.'

In the north of England this period of bounds-beating was known as the Gang Days or Ganging Days, ganging, means 'go'. According to 17th-century poet and clergyman George Herbert, ganging along the boundaries fulfilled many functions. He called the custom a genuine thanksgiving which invoked God's blessing on the land, adding that it also had an important social role, enabling locals to get together in peace and love; that it offered an opportunity to collect money for the poor; and that it imprinted the boundaries in the memories of the parishioners.

Children were originally the chief boundary beaters, and boys were ducked in way-marking ponds, dragged through intruding hedges, and even had to climb over buildings that straddled the boundary. This instilled in them a sense of place, with a wound for every landmark.

The traditional bloom for the day was milkwort, known as Rogation or Gang Flower.

Water-worship in Britain was not easily given up, if ever it was. As late as the 16th century Henry VIII was forced to issue a decree attempting to ban well worship. Long before this the Church had realised that rather than trying to dam up these beliefs, it was better to divert them so Pagan wells became linked with saints, and believers were encouraged to give thanks in prayer for the gift of water. Ascension Day became the chief festival for water, and many wells up and down the country were decorated with flowers - as they had often been in pre-Christian ceremonies. The custom became known as well-dressing.

The tradition still thrives in the Peak District, and the showpiece of all well-dressings takes place on Ascension Day at Tissington near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. With only slight variations, the formula for making the flower-pictures at Tissington today is identical to the method employed by all the other well- dressing villages.

Across the country it has never been unusual to find flowers laid at a well or water supply point, sometimes just a tap available for anyone to use and this is something the observant traveler can see for themselves. The re-discovery of ancient well-art by, usually, grant-aided groups has been instrumental in producing a new, exciting art-culture that is acceptable without anyone becoming concerned about pagan origins.

Hunting The Earl of Rone

According to history, the rebel Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, fled England in 1607 and died peacefully in Rome in 1616. He never went anywhere near Devon. But according to legend O'Neill was shipwrecked off Ilfracombe on his way to the continent. He managed to make it ashore, and went to ground in Lady's Wood near Combe Martin, living on the ships' biscuits which he had salvaged from the wreck. Rumours about the renegade leaked out and O'Neill was tracked down and captured by a contingent of grenadiers.

This fable forms the basis of the Ascension Day custom of Hunting the Earl of Rone at Combe Martin. A group of men dressed as grenadiers, with beribboned hats and masks, marched to Lady's Wood, followed by a crowd of spectators. There they searched high and low for the errant Earl before finding him in hiding - conveniently for the spectators. O'Neill, aka Rone, is represented by a man with a straw-stuffed jacket and a necklace of 12 ships' biscuits. With him in the wood were his faithful friends: the Fool, and The Mapper - a fast-moving, jaw-snapping Hobby Horse. Once the Earl had been discovered, the grenadiers sat him back-to-front on a donkey, which also sported a string of sea-biscuits as a fashion accessory. The procession then heads for the sea. Every now and then the Grenadiers fire their guns, and the Earl is 'killed' until the Fool and Mapper revived him. Money is coaxed from the crowd along the way: non-payment might incur an on-the-spot fine, threat of a dousing with dirty water, or a savaging by the Mapper. Pubs are visited along the way; and in 1837 pub number three proved the downfall for one reveller. He fell down the step and broke his neck. Not even the Fool and Mapper could cure a genuine death. It was this tragic accident that gave the custom's opponents the excuse they had been looking for in order to kill off this unique blurring of mock-hunt, mumming play, and apocryphal local legend.

Ring the tourist information office 01271 883319 for details of the hunting that has been moved to the late Spring Holiday.

© Roy & Ursula Radford