Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

Yesterday was WhitSunday - I remember when Whit Monday was the May Bank Holiday.. and looked up when it changed and why.

According to Wikipedia it lasted a century....

Whit Monday was officially recognised as a bank holiday in 1871 but lost this status in 1971 when the Spring Bank Holiday was created.

I'd never been quite clear on the differences between Whitsun and Pentecost

The name is a contraction of "White Sunday", attested in "The Holy-Ghost, which thou did send on Whit-Sunday" in the Old English homilies, and parallel to the mention of hwitmonedei in the early 13th-century Ancrene Riwle.[7] Walter William Skeat noted that the Anglo-Saxon word also appears in Icelandic hvitasunnu-dagr, but that in English the feast was always called Pentecoste until after the Norman Conquest, when white (hwitte) began to be confused with wit or understanding.[8]

Wikipedia also had some other interesting things to say

In England it took on some characteristics of Beltane, which originated from the pagan celebration of Summer's Day, the beginning of the Summer half-year, in Europe.[1] Whitsuntide, the week following Whitsunday, was one of three vacation weeks for the medieval villein;[2] on most manors he was free from service on the lord's demesne this week, which marked a pause in the agricultural year

and who could resist

As the first holiday of the summer Whitsun was one of the favourite times in the traditional calendar and Whit Sunday or the following week was a time for celebration. This took the form of fêtes, fairs, pageants and parades with Whitsun ales and Morris dancing in the south of England and Whit walks and wakes in the north.[11] A poster advertising the Whitsun festivities at Sunbury, Middlesex in 1778 listed the following attractions:

On Whit Monday, in the morning, will be a punting match...The first boat that comes in to receive a guinea...In the afternoon a gold-laced hat, worth 30s. to be cudgell'd for...On Whit Tuesday, in the morning, a fine Holland smock and ribbons, to be run for by girls and young women. And in the afternoon six pairs of buckskin gloves to be wrestled for.[11]

Lovely!

I wondered what had been the position in Cornwall - especially the far West which always held a different view from the East of Cornwall with its shifting boundaries.

I found http://feastsandfestivals.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/23-may-whitsun-ales.html

A 'Whitsun Ale' was a parish celebration held originally to raise money for Church funds. The whole village would take a day off and as the name suggests a large quantity of ale would be brewed for the festival. The custom mirrored the courtly practice of holding feasts and tournaments at Whitsuntide as described by Thomas Malory.

A Whitsun Ale was a very big affair in most villages. A King and Queen of the Day would be appointed, there would be archery competitions, games and Morris Dancing. In 1557 St Mary’s Church in Reading paid for some of the performers: 'Item payed to the morrys daunsers and the mynstrelles, mete and drink at Whytsontide, iijs. iiijd.' The Gildhouse at Poundstock in North Cornwall is one of the very few buildings still standing where we know Whitsun Ales took place. You can see it at http://www.poundstockgildhouse.co.uk/.

An edict of Queen Elizabeth I in 1569 gives us some idea of what games might have been performed:‘the shooting with the standard, the shooting with the broad arrow, the shooting at twelve score prick, the shooting at the Turk, the leaping for men, the running for men, the wrestling, the throwing of the sledge, and the pitching of the bar, with all such other games as have at any time heretofore or now be licensed, used, or played.'