Horn Dance

Monday following first Sunday after September 4

The ancient Horn Dance, believed by many to have originated in Norman times or before, is performed at Abbots Bromley, a small village in Staffordshire, England, as part of the Wakes Monday celebration each year. Wakes Monday, the day after the first Sunday following September 4, was at one time part of the Old St. Bartholomew Fair. But the Horn Dance is all that remains of the original three-day festival. Although some believe it was once an ancient fertility dance, the Horn Dance probably had something to do with hunting rights and customs in nearby Needwood Forest.
A dozen local men, ranging in age from 12 to more than 50, dress in 16th-century foresters' costumes. Six of them carry reindeer antlers mounted on short wooden sticks. There is also a Hobby Horse, a man playing Robin Hood, a man dressed as a woman who plays the role of Maid Marian, a Fool carrying an inflated bladder on a stick, and a young archer who snaps his bow in time with the music—originally provided by a pipe and tabor but nowadays by a concertina and a triangle.
Beginning at the parish church, the men dance their way around the parish boundaries, stopping to perform at homes and farms along the way. The six deermen, three of whom carry white antlers and three black, take turns "charging" each other while the Hobby Horse prances, the Fool shakes his bladder at the spectators, and Maid Marian takes up a collection. The dancing is over by evening, when everyone adjourns to the local pub or goes home to eat Wakes Cakes, "fair rock candy"—sugar-coated sticks of candy—and brandy snap cookies.

CONTACTS:
Abbots Bromley Parish Council
Village Hall
Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire DE13 8AF United Kingdom
44-18-8950-0660
www.abbotsbromley.com

SOURCES:
DictFolkMyth-1984, pp. 3, 947

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