Whitsuntide Mummer's Mask

"In lower Bavaria, the Whitsuntide representative of the tree-spirit...was clad from top to toe in leaves and flowers.  On his head he wore a high pointed cap, the ends of which rested on his shoulders, only two holes being left in it for his eyes..." Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough.

Whitsunday was, in the Old Ways, the festival in which the King of the Wood was symbolically killed that his divine spirit might live again.  The tree-spirit was the representative of this king, and a boy chosen to portray him would wear the mask, be waded out into the river in the midst of a great procession and have his "head" cut off by other boys wearing swords.  A village-wide festival would follow to celebrate the now-assured success of crops and fruit trees in the coming year.

$30.00