Wow what an evening. Woodcraft Folk groups from all over Stroud met at a farm near Aston Down to light a huge bonfire (see left), sing and eat veggie hot dogs - and of course to see the Wicker woman burn. Some 150 to 200 people in all that mud - but the rain held off - at one point in the evening we slid down muddy paths, few avoiding falls as we descended into the woods along a candle lit path to hear scary stories in the woods.I had taken my partners 6 year old who loved every minute - toasting a marshmallow on the fire, watching older
children with fire poi (left) - hot chocolate - then at last it was time for the Wicker woman to burn....She was some 5 metres tall at least - one evening this week I'd helped make her left foot from wicker and old grass matting - other Woodcraft groups had made other parts of her before she was assembled on site earlier today. She was impressive and it was quite something to see her burn (see bottom photo) - her huge arms had wires attached to them so that people could wave them when they were lit - really amazing.
Too tired to write more now. See more Woodcraft Folk here.
3 comments:
Philip, was there any pagan significance to this wicker bonfire, or was it merely a community event?
By the way, I'm not from the area but have passed through. I read your blog regularly and both admire and appreciate your commitment to a Green world!
Cool! I presume once we have councils controlled by the Greens everywhere this kind of event will replace Christmas.
Yes nice blog
Thanks for kind words. Roots of this must be pagan but the evening was just some fun - love the lack of commercialism and people enjoying themselves together. Around the country there are now a fair few festivals like in Scotland - use a search engine to find out more.
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