Main article: Saint George's Day

Jack in the Green[edit]
Main article: Jack in the Green
Hastings Jack in the Green procession.
Each June, Appleton Thorn hosts the ceremony of "Bawming the Thorn". The current form of the ceremony dates from the 19th century, when it was part of the village's "walking day".[52] It involved children from Appleton Thorn Primary School walking through the village and holding sports and games at the school. This now takes place at the village hall. The ceremony stopped in the 1930s, but was revived by the then headmaster, Mr Bob Jones in the early 1970s. "Bawming the Thorn" occurs on the Saturday nearest to Midsummer's Day.
Bawming means "decorating" – during the ceremony the thorn tree is decorated with ribbons and garlands. According to legend, the hawthorn at Appleton Thorn grew from a cutting of the Holy Thorn at Glastonbury, which was itself said to have sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who arranged for Jesus's burial after the crucifixion.[52]
Until Victorian times, Father Christmas was concerned with adult feasting and merry-making. He had no particular connection with children, nor with the giving of presents, nocturnal visits, stockings or chimneys. But as later Victorian Christmases developed into child-centric family festivals, Father Christmas became a bringer of gifts. The popular American myth of Santa Claus arrived in England in the 1850s and Father Christmas started to take on Santa's attributes. By the 1880s the new customs had become established, with the nocturnal visitor sometimes being known as Santa Claus and sometimes as Father Christmas. He was often illustrated wearing a long red hooded gown trimmed with white fur.
Any residual distinctions between Father Christmas and Santa Claus largely faded away in the early years of the 20th century, and modern dictionaries consider the terms
Father Christmas and Santa Claus
to be synonymous.
References[edit]
^ Whistler, Laurence (5 October 2015). The English Festivals. Dean Street Press. ISBN 9781910570494 – via Google Books.
^ Simpson, Jacqueline; Steve Roud (2000). "New Year". A dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-210019-X.
^ Page, Michael; Robert Ingpen (1987). Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were. New York: Viking Press. p. 167. ISBN 0-670-81607-8.