Haxey Hood

Village gathering Lord of the Hood in red with staff

This is a 700 year old winter tradition in our village. It is the oldest tradition still practiced in England.  Lady De Mobray was riding through the fields on Jan 6^th 1359 when the wind blew off her hood. Thirteen laborers ran after it. The one who caught it was too embarrassed to hand it to her.  A fellow laborer took it and returned it to the lady. The original man she called a fool. The group though was rewarded with 13 acres of common land if every 6^th of January they would re-enact the chasing of the hood.

Fool with black face. Lord with hat behind him.

The morning starts with singing in the pub. The main figures are the fool, the lord and 11 boggins.  The fool is dressed and his face is blackened. At 2:00 the fool, the Lord of the Hood, and the boggins (helpers) process to the stone steps by the village church.  The fool tries to run and the boggins chase him down, and carrying him to stone steps by the church.  Straw is then lighted at his feet and he is smoked.

 

Fool being smoked while holding the Hood and giving speech.

While the smoke billows, he makes a speech. It ends with "hoose agen hoose, toon agen toon, if a man meets a man knock 'im doon, but doan't 'ot 'im," which translates as: "house against house, town against town, if a man meets a man, knock him down but don’t hurt him."  The village all chants this part with the fool. The games have officially begun.

Hood Field,  Haxey and St. Nicholas church in background

The village processes to the Hood field.  

Us with the fool

The boggins spread out around the edges in preparation for the kid’s part in the festivities.  There are 12 kids hoods made of burlap about 24 inches long and2 inches in diameter and floppy. The Lord throws out a hood of burlap and the children scramble to pick it up and run it off the field. 

Kids burlap hood. One of 12.

The boggins try and stop them and if caught the hood is taken from them returned to the middle of the field and thrown again.  If a child gets a hood off the field and to a pub they receive 2 pounds.

Our neighbor Susan rethrowing hood when it landed at her feet.

When the kids are done, the real scramble begins. The hood, stiff leather rolled up about 2ft long and 2-3 inches in diameter, is thrown up and when caught the opposing teams form a rugby scrum or sway to get the hood to their pub.

Lords staff is raised just before he throws the hood in the air.

There are 4 pubs vying for the hood.  The middle of the scrum had 4 men each with a hand on the hood.  The people, mostly men, surrounding these 4 them push the scrum the direction they want it to go. If it gets moving too fast the center figures fall over. 

Sway moving quickly

When that happens, hands are raised, pushing stops, the four are stood up while never letting go of the hood, and the pushing starts again.  The hood can’t be thrown or run with.  Occasionally the mob moves quickly, but most of the time it only goes a few feet before it topples over.

Sway near a pub. Pushing gets intense.

Each pub owner waits at their door. They must not go outside. They are waiting for the hood to be passed to them.  When they touch it from their door, they win. It can take until 7 or 8 pm before the hood will make it inside a pub. 

Sway and crowd making its way through the village.

This year it made it to the pub across the street from us by 5:30. The 6^th being a Monday may have lightened the crowds and made the pushing easier.

Hood being passed to the Land lady in the door. Look between the upright hands. 
The landlady is being held up above the crowd in the pub.

Most villages have trouble keeping one pub.  Haxey has 3 and the neighboring village Westwoodside, which also participates in the game, has one.  We were told that the 4 pubs make more money on this one day then the rest of the year. It is what keeps them open.

Christmas Season Pantomime

Aladdin and dancers around him.

We joined a group form the village and went to a traditional English pantomime.  It is a cross between a musical, vaudeville acts, and slapstick comedy.  It was loosely based on Aladdin with cross dressing actors, dancers, audience participation in the form of shouting directions or answers to the actors, booing the villain, and cheering the hero.  It was totally crazy and fun. Everyone young and old participated and enjoyed it.  (Sorry pictures aren’t great they are from my phone.)

Dark figures are Cops - like the keystone cops.

 

Villain

Iceland

John’s office closes from Christmas through the New Year.  We couldn’t decide where we wanted to go for the week.  Not really a week, as we wanted to spend Christmas in Haxey.  Belatedly, we decided to try to go north in an attempt to see the Northern Lights.  It is the height of an 11 year cycle and December is supposed to be to peak of that high.   The only place we could be accommodations and fights to was Iceland, so off we went.

View of lava field from airplane. Ocean in background.

If you have ever been to the big island in Hawaii and seen the lava flows along the north side, add snow and you have Iceland.  The lava outside of town was only covered in snow in the low spots. The rest was blown clear with the snow off into the sea.  There was more snow in the city where the buildings stop its movement. There was ice everywhere.  It was 29 to 32 degrees while we were there with a light to strong breeze at times.  We had sun and some cloud cover but no snow during the day.  

Us along the harbor in Reykjavik about noon.

Sadly to say, we didn’t see any Northern Lights.  The two nights we were scheduled to go out into the hills, the trip was cancelled.  The first night due to high winds, and the second due to cloud cover.






Looking toward downtown. Notice ice on walk and glass building on right.

Glass building downtown. Glass has solar capabilities.
 

Close up of glass building

We spent the first day doing a tour of Reykjavik. We took a city bus to the downtown area, walked the harbor and the main streets. You’d think that an island that uses it geothermal assets to generate all its electricity would also run that hot water under streets and sidewalks to keep them clear at least in the tourist areas. No, it was a sheet of ice everywhere but the main shopping streets.  Reykjavik is not flat it goes up hill fairly steeply from the shore. 

View of harbor and mountains from center of town.

It was a challenge picking a street that was cleared to hike up the hill. While we were walking around the harbor, carefully trying not to fall on the ice and break something, locals would jog by! I was amazed until I was walking next to some of them on cleared sidewalk and heard the studs in their shoes!

Viking ship frame along harbor

While building a hotel in the center of town, the remains of a home from 867 were unearthed.  The site was completely exposed, left in place, made a museum, and the hotel built over it. It was fascinating to see.  We got a good history lesson as to how and who settled Iceland.

House-looking at fire in center and outside wall.

What interior would have looked like. Animal stalls at the far end.

 

What the outside would have looked like. These were sod houses. Walls were layers of sod stacked.

The next day we took a bus into the lava fields to a geothermal hot spot.  Here the hot water is used to generate electricity, but also to heat a 500 sq meter salt water outdoor hot tub.

It was very relaxing.  When you got your face or head wet, the wind with the sub-freezing temperatures made your head ache from the cold. Luckily we only did that just before we got out.

Blue Lagoon Hot Springs

The days started about 11:30 when it got light, and the shops closed at sunset about 3:30.  All day it looked like the sun was about to set.  You got the pretty sunset/sunrise with the pink on hills and in the sky all day. An interesting trip even without the Northern Lights.

Lutheran Cathedral at the top of hill in town center.
 

Cathedral

There were images of thirteen elves all over town.  These elves according to folk lore come at Christmas from the hills and sneak into homes to steal food.  Each elf steals a specific food.  The elf below liked sausages.



Christmas in Haxey

We spent Christmas here in Haxey this year.  It was very quiet.  All of our friends here were away with family or had family visiting, so it was just John and I. Midnight mass was nice but not much different from home. 

Christingle Service

The one difference in the Christmas season was the Christingle service on the 14^th of December.  It is aimed at kids, but adults participate too.  Everyone brings a toy the service, or donates money saved, and when they bring it forward they are given an orange with a candle in it. Everyone then stands in all the churches isles, lights their candle, and sing Christmas Carols.  It is very pretty in a 900 yr old stone church.  The picture, which I didn’t take, doesn’t do it justice. The donated money and toys goes to an orphanage in the county.

Everyone around the church lighting their candles

From the program handed out at the service:
 The orange  represents the world and that God created us.
 The candle reminds us that Christ is the world’s true light.
 The red band around the orange reminds us that Christ was killed upon the tree.
 The four sticks with which the orb we spear reminds us how God cares for us thro’ the seasons of the year.