Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/433

 TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

GUY FAWKES' DAY.

BY CHARLOTTE S. BURNE.

(Read at Meeting, March 20th, 1912.)

recrudescence of old customs in modern shapes, and the assumption of common forms by practices which have different origins, are matters of firstrate importance to the proper understanding and appreciation of folklore. The changing forms of a given custom, and the history of the circumstances and influences which have led to changes in any ascertained case, are therefore worth noting and recording.

The observance of the Fifth of November has an interest of its own. It shares with the Twenty-ninth of May, and with that alone, the peculiarity of being a specially English Calendar festival, referable to a known political event. But the distribution of the observance seems to be somewhat unequal, and the manner of it varies in different places. In the following notes I propose to call attention to these variations, and to suggest that some features at least of the celebration may have descended to it from an earlier festival

To begin with London:—We are all familiar with the. sight of parties of little boys carrying effigies about the streets on the fifth of November, shouting rhymes and