There's a January tradition which was once common across England and which lives on at Whittlesea in Cambridgeshire.
Back in the nineteenth century times were hard for ploughboys in the middle of winter: there was no work. They weren't forgotten though. Come Plough Sunday a plough would be blessed in the church. They couldn't eat prayers however and so they came up with the idea of parading in costume and collecting money to get through the month. The costume was The Straw Bear. Originally quite scruffy but these days highly stylised. Every January the Straw Bear walks out accompanied by music and dancing and the coppers roll in. I'm adding below a picture of the 1909 Straw Bear.
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I am currently part of the Bodies Of Wonder Storytelling Choir run by the wonder that is Joanna Gilar.
Moss is part of the stories that are being told and it's an endlessly fascinating plant, stabilising the forest and having over 20,000 varieties. The more I've looked for moss the more fascinating I've found it, grazing the green tops of the white limestone walls in the dales, creeping between cracks, creating cushions in the crevices of trees or decorating the edges of abandoned vehicles. In-between the stories we are voicing the plants that appear - this is the video above. You can also see there the coat I have made resembling moss. Here is the script for the video and a few more photos of moss and the mossy coat. I am moss. Edge dweller, shape shifter, pillow maker. Stem, leaf, root. Water worshipper. I thrive in shadows, weaving the low light, stitching the forest together. Soft, patient, resilient, I survive, I revive. I humbly offer myself to you for your warmth, your wounds, your babies, dreaming. I am winters green carpet. I am moss, edge dweller, shapeshifter. |
AuthorJosie Beszant and/or Ian Scott Massie, both artists from Masham North Yorkshire, Uk. Archives
January 2025
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