The Green Man

 

Green Man

 

This post is going to be entirely written in green to pay tribute to 'The Green Man'. 
The green man is basically a human head with a mass of leaves around it or coming from it. It can often be found decorating old buildings, particularly churches and gravestones. The earliest Green Man that is known of dates from the 2nd century and was found on a monument to a dead rich citizen. From the 4th century they have been known to be found on christian gravestones and monuments too.

A Jack-in-the-Green

The Green Man has its origins in pagan beliefs, with many being discovered in Britain before the widespread adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Britons. It is interesting that Christianity did choose to adopt the green man as a kind of symbol of its own. Some argue that Christians use it as a mark on their gravestones to symbolise the different stages of life- birth, life and death- and how Christianity or faith can overcome nature.


In the 19th century the Green Man became associated with May Day celebrations, particularly those of the Chimney Sweeps. As May Day is a bank holiday, the chimney sweeps would have a day off and would participate in the festivities (as well as earning a little extra cash through begging) by dancing round a Jack-in-the-Green in a morris dancing fashion. The Jack-in-the-Green would be made out of wicker and leaves and would have a real man inside!




The most modern reinvention of the Green Man is in the Green Man festival down in of course... Wales. It's a folk festival (again of course). Doesn't truly have anything to do with the tradition of the Green Man but I thought it was interesting. Here's a link in case any of you fancy going or just looking at modern day Green Men: www.greenman.net
There's also a Jack-in-the-Green festival on May Day in Hastings. Please actually do check out this website for some true Jack-in-the-Green antics (complete with the mandatory folk musical) : http://www.hastingsjack.co.uk/