Holy Fair was quite the show
Scotland’s National Bard eloquently versified nature’s beauty and the virtues of ordinary men and women – but one poem deemed less worthy of his genius is The Holy Fair.
This satirises the Kirk, its ministers and congregations.
It parodies Holy Communion, which – along with baptism – is one of the Reformed Church’s two sacraments.
Holy Fairs were outdoor services where the Lord’s Supper was shared.
They attracted huge crowds of devout worshippers from scattered parishes.
Renfrewshire’s most famous gathering was Burntshields Holy Fair, at the Burgher Church, during the 18th century.
This historic Secession kirk was in open countryside at Burntshields, near Kilbarchan.
Its Holy Fair was attended by hundreds of parishioners from Paisley, Kilbarchan, Lochwinnoch, Houston, Bridge of Weir and Greenock.
The faithful walked, rode on horseback or travelled in farm-carts to the place of pilgrimage. After church services, they welcomed opportunities to meet friends they hadn’t seen for ages.
They’d gossip about family and country matters and discuss money, work and domestic affairs.
Local publicans cashed in by erecting tents and booths where worshippers merrily slaked their thirst before embarking on long treks homeward.
One Burgher Kirk minister remembered the multitudes handing round tobacco pipes, swallowing copious amounts of whisky and rum and devouring cheese and ham sandwiches.
Celebrations lasted well into the night, sometimes spilling over to local inns.
After the carousing, inebriated revellers headed back to dismal work places in gloomy coal-mines, rain-lashed fields and dust-polluted mills, where they toiled 15 hours daily.
They were returned to a world which they longed to escape by dulling their sensibilities with intoxicating liquor.
The Burgher Kirk was demolished nearly 200 years ago but its site is visible near elegant 19th century Burntshields House, which I visited one April evening.
Ghostly presences of long-dead humble countryfolk who participated in Burntshields Holy Fair seemed to linger but their phantoms weren’t those lampooned by Burns as ‘hizzies’ (women), ‘crowdies,’ (black-robed ministers and elders), ‘swankies,’ (young men) and ‘billies’ (country lads).
Mine of information
They were the spirits of men and women originally inspired by a spiritual hunger for the Bread of Life which never perishes and a thirst for soul-sustaining
Water from the Well of Life which never runs dry.
Ordinary people, with human frailties – just like us.