Goose Fair
Pearly
Kings & Queens Harvest Festival
Like the cockney culture, the tradition of Pearly Kings and Queens can be traced to London's street traders. These traders used to elect representatives, known as "kings" in order to defend themselves against competitors and the police.
The tradition of sewing pearls onto their clothes can be traced to 1875 when a roadsweeper called Henry Croft (nothing to do with the street trader "kings") decided to raise money to help the orphanage where he was raised. In order to attract attention to himself whilst fundraising, he came up with the idea of sewing pearl buttons onto his clothes. The traders latched onto the idea and followed suit. And it is the street trader "kings" who have since become associated with elaborate suits bedecked with pearls.
An average Pearly King suit will have an amazing 35,000-odd buttons sewn on to it. Nowadays the Pearly Kings and Queens are all members of the Pearly Kings' and Queens' Association which was founded in 1911. In 1975, the original Pearly Kings and Queens Association was reformed and today it is a charitable association.
You will be very lucky to see a Pearly King or Queen just wandering around the streets. So if you want to catch a glimpse of one you should head for their annual festival held on the 1st October each year in St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square.
World Conker Championships
The game of conkers has been a popular pastime of British schoolchildren for decades. The rules are simple. Each player is given a conker attached to a piece of string and takes turns in trying to break their opponent's nut using a swinging motion.
The world tournament came about after a group of local friends had to cancel their annual fishing trip one year.
"They sat in a bar wondering what to do," said Hadman. "Crying into their beer they looked out and saw conkers falling on the village green. So they went out and had a game."
A new passion was born and the green has since hosted 38 world tournaments.
Since 1965, the championships have also raised close to a 250,000 pounds (415,000 dollars) for the blind. "Not bad for seeing people cracking a few nuts," joked Hadman.
Official sponsors Ben & Jerry have a jolly, larky litte web site where you can play a virtual game of conkers.
Harvest
Festivals in October
This time of year is for celebrating this year's harvest and for customs to make sure that next year's harvest will also be good. In churches all over Britain there are services to thank God for the Harvest and to pray for a good harvest next year. As part of these services local people bring baskets of fruit and vegetables to decorate the church. This produce is then distributed to the poor.
Superstitions associated with Harvest time
Corn Dollies
The last sheaf of corn to be harvested is made into a corn dolly, this is created by plaiting the wheat stalks to create a straw figure. The corn dolly is kept until the Spring. This is because people believed that the corn spirit lived in the wheat and as the wheat was harvested, the spirit fled to the wheat which remained. By creating the corn dolly the spirit is kept alive for the next year and the new crop. Sometimes the corn dolly is hung up in the barn, sometimes in the farmhouse, and sometimes in the church. In Spring the corn dolly would be ploughed back into the soil.
The story of John Barleycorn
A similar story to the corn dolly is to be found in the folksong John Barleycorn. Three men swear that John Barleycorn must die. They take a plough and bury him alive. But the Spring comes and John rises through the soil. After a while he grows big and strong, even growing a beard, so the three men cut him down at the knee, tie him on to a cart, beat him, strip the flesh off his bones and grind him between two stones. But at the end it is John Barleycorn who defeats his opponents, proving the stronger man, by turning into beer.
