Originally Posted by
Nicodemus
Hi Ronijayne. I think the best book on the subject is The English Year, "a month-by-month guide to the nation's customs and festivals from May Day to Mischief Night" by Steve Roud. It has recently been published in paperback by Penguin Books in the UK. Steve Roud quotes from an article in the Folklore Society journal Folk-Lore for 1954 by Frank Turner for a very full account of the custom as it was practiced in the 1950's
Hi Ged; I think any definitive statement about a folk practice or custom (including this one!) is liable to be proved wrong.
It was thought that the custom was confined to the Toxteth/Dingle area, but contributors to this forum have shown on this and other related threads that it turned up elsewhere. It was also thought to have died out by the 60's, but again contributors here have shown it was going on much more recently. Folk customs are pretty tough creatures; they can carry on undetected long after being declared extinct!
Nicodemus