Rushcarts are 'too pagan'
At Saddleworth Rushbearing Festival, St Chad's church in Saddleworth last week, had rushes strewn all over the floor and the banners of the previous 40 years hung up around the interior of the church.
But in Littleborough, where we helped out with the rushcart this year, the church St Barnabas is dead against the rushbearing festival, and don't want anything to do with it. Next year they still don't want anything to do with it.
Rushbearing - from Wikipedia
Rushbearing is an old English ecclesiastical festival in which rushes are collected and carried to be strewn on the floor of the parish church. The tradition dates back to the time when most buildings had earthen floors and rushes were used as a form of renewable floor covering for cleanliness and insulation. The festival was widespread in Britain from the Middle Ages and well established by the time of Shakespeare, but had fallen into decline by the beginning of the 19th century, as church floors were flagged with stone.
The custom was revived later in the 19th century and is kept alive today as an annual event in a number of towns and villages in the north of England. During the Middle Ages the floors of most churches and dwellings consisted of compacted earth, and rushes (commonly "sweet flag" Acorus calamus) or other herbs and grasses were strewn over them to provide a sweet smelling, renewable covering for insulation. At Saddleworth (then in Yorkshire) the church floor was covered with rushes until 1826.
I am kind of on the committee (kind of a sub-member) of the Littleborough Rushbearing Festival, and so I get emails from Steve, SJ's dad, who is on the L.E.A.F committee (Littleborough Event Association Forum) and today I got this little gem....
I have today spoken with the vicaress at St Barnabas and she is very determined and adamant that SHE will not have anything to do with our event because of its "pagan" connotations. We had a brief but intense and interesting conversation. She did agree to discuss it with John, the parish priest at Holy Trinity, (also dead set against us) and said that their new lay reader might be persuaded to conduct some sort of service. (Apparently the guy who used to do the service allowed....(shudder and grimace) DANCING...in the church!!!
Don't wait too long to exhale!
Regards
Steve
Funny how all this rushcart business started because in the Middle Ages, because the rushes covered muddy floors of the churches. After flagstones were put down, the rushes were not needed and used for something else - chuck it on a cart and rever it. I suppose that is rather pagan - revering a plant. Now its just not good enough. May as well ban Palm Sunday because that's a plant too, and plants are revered by pagans. Oh No! Gods forbid the Christians rever something pagan...
Pagans - 1, Christians - 0 - And without even trying!
But in Littleborough, where we helped out with the rushcart this year, the church St Barnabas is dead against the rushbearing festival, and don't want anything to do with it. Next year they still don't want anything to do with it.
Rushbearing - from Wikipedia
Rushbearing is an old English ecclesiastical festival in which rushes are collected and carried to be strewn on the floor of the parish church. The tradition dates back to the time when most buildings had earthen floors and rushes were used as a form of renewable floor covering for cleanliness and insulation. The festival was widespread in Britain from the Middle Ages and well established by the time of Shakespeare, but had fallen into decline by the beginning of the 19th century, as church floors were flagged with stone.
The custom was revived later in the 19th century and is kept alive today as an annual event in a number of towns and villages in the north of England. During the Middle Ages the floors of most churches and dwellings consisted of compacted earth, and rushes (commonly "sweet flag" Acorus calamus) or other herbs and grasses were strewn over them to provide a sweet smelling, renewable covering for insulation. At Saddleworth (then in Yorkshire) the church floor was covered with rushes until 1826.
I am kind of on the committee (kind of a sub-member) of the Littleborough Rushbearing Festival, and so I get emails from Steve, SJ's dad, who is on the L.E.A.F committee (Littleborough Event Association Forum) and today I got this little gem....
I have today spoken with the vicaress at St Barnabas and she is very determined and adamant that SHE will not have anything to do with our event because of its "pagan" connotations. We had a brief but intense and interesting conversation. She did agree to discuss it with John, the parish priest at Holy Trinity, (also dead set against us) and said that their new lay reader might be persuaded to conduct some sort of service. (Apparently the guy who used to do the service allowed....(shudder and grimace) DANCING...in the church!!!
Don't wait too long to exhale!
Regards
Steve
Funny how all this rushcart business started because in the Middle Ages, because the rushes covered muddy floors of the churches. After flagstones were put down, the rushes were not needed and used for something else - chuck it on a cart and rever it. I suppose that is rather pagan - revering a plant. Now its just not good enough. May as well ban Palm Sunday because that's a plant too, and plants are revered by pagans. Oh No! Gods forbid the Christians rever something pagan...
Pagans - 1, Christians - 0 - And without even trying!