‘So much can be learned from delving into the traditions from the past’
Head of collections and interpretation at the Weald & Downland Living Museum Lucy Hockley introduces The Ritual Year – one of the venue’s themes for 2022 that will see it focus on traditions and customs once woven into rural life.
At the Weald & Downland Living Museum we aim to bring to life how rural historic communities would have lived and worked to help us understand and reconnect to our past.
My role involves working with our team of interpreters, demonstrators and volunteers to plan and deliver our daily activities, family activities and Historic Life Weekends, as well as developing collaborative projects.
I’m also responsible for how we care for, present and communicate our amazing collections of historic buildings and artefacts.
The museum reflects over 1,000 years of history through more than 50 historic building exhibits as well as working landscapes, historic gardens and traditional farm animals.
Alongside these physical representations of historic life, we also want to reflect seasonal rituals and rhythms of the past and aim to follow a traditional farming and festive calendar.
One of our themes for 2022 is The Ritual Year, which will see us focus on the unique traditions and customs that were woven into rural life through the centuries.
We will explore how communities celebrated the changing seasons across the year from special foods, to how homes were prepared and decorated for various occasions.
Just like the modern calendar that we are all familiar with today, our ancestors would have also followed a calendar punctuated by celebrations and significant dates that shaped how communities collectively lived and worked.
But unlike today, the traditional calendar of the past would have had nature at the very heart and be intrinsically linked to the environment, shaped by the weather conditions and harvest as well as what produce and materials were available at certain times of the year.
For example, the first part of the year would have been about preparations, such as ploughing the fields, preparing the soil and planting crops.
After long periods of hard work through the cold winter months, communities gathered for celebrations to keep spirits high such as Midwinter Festivals where greenery would have been used to decorate homes and public spaces.
The spring sees lean times, when the crops are growing but not yet ready.
Summer Solstice would have been a real highlight in the year and communities would celebrate Midsummer with processions, parades, music and decorative greenery.
Come autumn, various crops would be harvested and harvest festivals and celebrations would take place before the important preparations for winter began, such as preserving harvest produce through curing, fermenting and drying for the leaner winter months.
There is so much that can be learned from delving into the unique traditions from the past and what they can tell us about life during that time.
It is interesting to see the many common features across many regions and countries, with lives closely linked to the environment and careful management of available natural resources.
As part of our Ritual Year at the museum we will also be celebrating Quarter Days.
These were the four dates that signalled the start of a new quarter, traditionally known as
Lady Day (Mothering Sunday), Midsummer, Michaelmas and
Christmas.
To find out more about The Ritual Year celebrations and events at the Weald & Downland Living Museum, visit wealddown.co.uk