...popularly called Whitsuntide, the Dominica Alba of the middle ages, because the catechumens, newly baptized, appeared from Easter to Whitsuntide in white garments; hence White Sunday...1
Accordingly, the holy day falls on the 7th Sunday following Easter (this year May 19). The week that followed was called Whitsuntide or Whitsun Week.
In some churches, a wooden dove might be attached to the church ceiling to represent the Holy Spirit during services as described in Googe's translation of the disparaging but trustworthy Naogeorgus:
On Whitsunday whyte pigeons tame in strings from heaven flie.
And one that framed is of wood still hangeth in the skie.
Thou seest how they with Idols play, and teach the people to;
None otherwise then little gyrles with puppets use to do.2
It is difficult, however, to escape the impression that Whitsuntide became progressively more about feasting and entertainment.
While the details varied, the main preparations for the week revolved around collections for meat, drink, and, not incidentally, the church petty cash fund. Meanwhile, the guilds of wealthier towns such as York, Chester and Wakefield drew their rolling stages out of storage, loaded with costumes and props to portray the temptation of Adam and Eve, Noah and his shrewish wife and over a dozen other biblical stories.
The Whitsun playes first made by one Don Handle Heggenet, a Monke of Chester Abbey, who was thrise at Rome, before he could obtains leave of the Pope to have them in the English tongue.
The Whitsun playes were playd openly in pageants by the Cittizens of Chester in the Whitsun Weeke.
Nicholas the fift Then was Pope in the year of our Lord 1447.3
The Wakefield plays began in the mid-14th century. Smaller towns possibly presented their own humbler scripts of biblical stories with considerably less equipment salted with secular jokes.
The feasts around these festivities featured ale foremost and were called “ales”. Thus history records Whitsun Ales in most parishes. Brand gives a selection from church accounts that supports the common description.
'In the Churchwardens’ Accounts of St Mary’s parish, Reading, we have —
“A.D. 1557. Item, payed to the Morrys Daunsers and the Mynstrelles, mete and drink at Whytsontide, iijs. iiijd’.”
In the parish of St Laurence, “A.D. 1502. It[em] payed to Will’m Stayn’ for makyng up of the mayden’s ban’ cloth, viijd.”
“ A.D. 1504. It. payed for bred and ale spent to the use of the church at Whitsontyde, ijs. vjd. ob. It. for wyne at the same tyme, xiiijd.”
“ A.D. 1505. It. rec. of the mayden’s gaderyng at Whitsontyde by the tre[e] at the church dore, clerly ijs. vjd. It. rec. of Richard Waren, for the tre[e] at the church dore, iijd.”
In the parish of St Giles, 1535. “ Of the Kyng Play at Whitsuntide, xxxvjs. viijd.”
This last entry probably alludes to something of the same kind with the Kyngham, already mentioned. In the parish of St Laurence, we read : “A.D. 1499. It. payed for horse mete to the horses for the kyngs of Colen on May-day, vid.” A note adds; “This was a part of the pageant called the King-play, or King-game, which was a representation of the Wise Men’s Offering, who are supposed by the Romish Church to have been kings, and to have been interred at Cologne.” Then follows : “ It. payed to mynstrells the same day, xijd.'4
Catechumen were baptisted. Plays were played. Morris Dancers pranced and minstrels strolled. Lots of food and strong ale were consumed.
The tree at the door of the church is further explained by the Medii Aevi Kalendarium:
An arbour, called Robin Hood's Bower, was erected in the church-yard, and here maidens stood gathering contributions.5
Various sources agree that Robin Hood was master of the archery competition that featured in every such festival in order to keep English bowmen practiced for military service. This is amplified by a recollection by John Aubrey of a Wiltshire Whitsun Ale in the early 17th century.
In every parish was a church-house, to which belonged spits, crocks, and other utensils for dressing provisions. Here the housekeepers met. The young people were there too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, &c. the ancients sitting gravely by, and looking on.6
As the bow and arrow were replaced by firearms the Robin Hood competitions faded into memory. They seem to have been replaced during the 16th century by horse racing.
More descriptive, still, Brand quotes from [Philip] Stubbs' account of “The Maner of Church-Ales in England” from his Anatomie of Abuses (1583).
In certaine townes where dronken Bacchus beares swaie, against Christmas and Easter, Whitsondaie, or some other tyme, the churchewardens of every parishe, with the consent of the whole parishe, provide halfe a score or twenty quarters of mault, wherof some they buy of the churche stocke, and some is given them of the parishioners themselves, every one conferring somewhat, according to his abilitie; whiche maulte being made into very strong ale or beere, is sette to sale, either in the church or some other place assigned to that purpose. Then when this is set abroche, well is he that can gette the soonest to it, and spend the most at it.—In this kinde of practice they continue sixe weekes, a quarter of a yeare, yea, halfe a year together.
That money, they say, is to repaire their churches and chappells with, to buy bookes for service, cuppes for the celebration of the Sacrament, surplesses for sir John, and such other necessaries. And they maintaine other extraordinarie charges in their Parish besides.7
Stubbs is another trustworthy source for all his disparagement of such festivities as pagan.
1 Medii Aevi Kalendarium (1841). I.280.
2 Brand, John. Observations On Popular Antiquities (1900). 159.
3 The Chester Plays (Deimling ed., 1892).
4 Brand, 156.
5 Kalendarium, I.210.
6 Aubrey, John. Wiltshire. Topographical Collections of John Aubrey (1862). 10.
7 Brand, 158.
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