Jack-in-the-Green Festival, Hastings, Sussex, UK (5 May 2014)

Jack-in-the-Green, Hastings, Sussex, UK (May 2014). Jack-in-the-Green is a traditional May Day festival held on May Bank Holiday in England, originating several hundred years ago, in which a man covered in a tall conical green mass of foliage (the ‘Jack’) is paraded through the town – typically accompanied by much revelry (and beer) – to mark the end of winter and the beginning of summer. The tradition was originally associated with chimney sweeps, but went out of fashion in the Victorian Britain of the late 19th century, being replaced by a tamer and less bawdy May Day/May Queen celebration. Several Jack-in-the-Green festivals were revived towards the end of the 20th century – Hastings Jack-in-the-Green in 1983, Rochester (the ‘Sweeps Festival’) in 1980, Whitstable in 1976. ‘Jack’ is accompanied by Bogies, painted and dressed in green, together with other characters and troops of Morris Dancers. © Rudolf Abraham. All Rights Reserved.