Kiplingcotes Derby

Kiplingcotes, Market Weighton, Yorkshire - 16th March

The Kiplingcotes Derby is said to be the oldest flat race in England, dating back to 1519, but it was not until 1669 that it became an endowed race thus ensuring its future. It traditionally takes place on the third Thursday in March and is a challenge to all who take part, whether riders or spectators, as the weather can be very unkind at this time of the year.

The race covers a distance of 4 miles over farm lanes and tracks, starting at an old stone post on the grass verge in the parish of Etton, not far from the old Kiplingcotes railway station near Market Weighton, and finishing at Londesborough Wold Farm.

The 'Rules' drawn up in 1618 say:-

'A horse race to be observed and ridd yearly on the third Thursday in March; open to horses of all ages, to convey horsemen's weight, ten stones, exclusive of saddle, to enter ye post before eleven o'clock on the morning of ye race. The race to be run before two.'

The incentive to win the race is a prize of £50, however the second horse home can, unusually, receive a higher amount, this being made up of the sum of all the entrance fees, each of £4.25! Just to keep the rather eccentric aspect, the total amount of entrants is kept secret until the actual morning of the race itself.

St. Patrick's Day - Ireland

Ireland - 17th March

Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.

Saint Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish christians.

Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. On Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland and indeed all over the world the Irish and everyone else celebrate everything Irish, they drink green Guiness and wear shamrocks!

Spring Equinox

Parliament Hill Fields, London - 21st March

In London the Druid Order meets at the Stone of Free Speech. Seeds are scattered and an Eisteddfod of music and poetry takes place. As the newly reborn sun races across the sky, the days become longer, the air warmer and, once again, life begins to return to the land. Twice a year, day and night become equal in length (hence equinox!)

To the elders of the Olde Way, these times, equinoxes, were markers in which seeds would be planted and then harvested. The first of these, the Spring or Vernal Equinox occurs on or about March 21st.

While the Vernal Equinox was an important point of passage in the year, the actual method of marking the festival varied from village to village and people to people. Rituals and invocations for abundance in the new crops being planted would often be held during the new moon closest to the Equinox (traditionally a good time to plant). In some places this was also the time when promises were made between lovers for the Handfasting Ceremony that would come at Midsummer. In a very real sense the ceremony was an expression of hope and trust in the new lives that would blossom in the warmth of summer.

Tichborne Dole

Tichborne, Sussex - 25th March

This tradition dates back to a great story which happened over 800 years ago. When wealthy women got married in those days their husbands would be presented with a dowry - a gift of money, the wife's money - which then became the husbands property. The woman then had to ask her husband for any part of this money if she wanted to use any of it!

Lady Maybela had married Sir Roger de Tichborne and taken a substantial dowry with her. Sir Roger was a bit tight fisted - the complete opposite of his lovely wife who wanted to give lots of charity to the poor. Lady Maybela was on her deathbed when she begged her husband to feed the poor every year but Sir Roger, mean to the bone, declared that he would only give away however much of his land his dying wife could cover before the flames from the log in the fire went out. On this land he would set aside wheat which would be made into flour for bread for the poor.

Lady Maybela's maids lifted her from her bed and carried her outside where she began her long journey. Now, usually March is very windy but as the burning log was carried out alongside Maybela, the wind dropped and the flames burned brightly. The kind hearted lady, too weak to walk, crawled on hands and knees further and further into the distance. It was painful even to watch but the great Lady pushed herself and crawled the entire area of 23 acres! (this area is to this day known as the Crawls!)

The Crawls then were given to the poor and for good measure, Lady Maybela put a curse on the house and said that any family not giving the bread which was promised to the poor would see their house collapse, their money would be lost, then 7 sons would be followed by 7 daughters and the family name would die out. Every March 25th since that day, the 'Tichborne Dole' was honoured until 1796 when Henry Tichborne gave the money to the church instead of the poor. He then had 7 sons...the eldest son had 7 daughters and as the family started dying out, the worried Henry gave the share of money to the poor and things have been good ever since!

Mother's Day

NNationwide - 4th Sunday of Lent - 26th March

Mothering Sunday has been celebrated in the UK since at least the 16th Century and is not a fixed day because it is related to Lent and based on the which is also a moveable celebration. It was originally also known as 'refreshment Sunday' or Mid-Lent Sunday because the fasting rules for lent were relaxed in honour of the feeding o f the 5000. We don't know quite how it began but on this day 400 years ago people would go to their Cathedral or 'Mother Church' and those who visited were said to have gone 'A-Mothering'. It then became inherently linked with celebrating and worshipping 'mothers' of all sorts and what they do for us, one traditional food at this time is 'the Simnel cake'. (fruit cake with a layer of marzipan and decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas who betrayed Jesus.)

Pooh Sticks competition

Oxfordshire - 25th March

One day, when Pooh bear was just walking along the bridge with a fir cone in his paw, in his own world, not looking where he was going (probably thinking about honey), he tripped over something. This made the fir-cone jerk out of his paw into the river. 

"Bother", said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the bridge. So Pooh went to get another fir cone, but then thought that he would just look at the river instead, because it was a peaceful sort of day. So, he lay down and looked at it, and it slipped slowly away beneath him, and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slipping away too. 'That's funny,' said Pooh. 'I dropped it on the other side,' said Pooh, 'and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?' 

And he went back for some more fir-cones. It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one of them did; but as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it was the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time he dropped one big one and one little one, and the big one came out first, which was what he had said it would do, and the little one came out last, which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice ... and then he went home for tea.

And that was the beginning of the game called Poohsticks, which Pooh invented, and which he and his friends used to play on the edge of the Forest. But they played with sticks instead of fir-cones, because they were easier to mark.'

The event has been held in Oxfordshire ever since a local lock-keeper noticed people were picking sticks off a hedge and playing the traditional game. He began charging them in order to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. Funds raised are now split between the RNLI and the rotary club's charitable projects.

The original Pooh-sticks bridge where Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin played in the books is in Ashdown Forest, a mile from Hartfield in East Sussex.

Oranges and Lemons Day

St Clements Dane, London - end March

In London before the 19th Century when the Victoria Embankment was created, the River Thames was a lot wider and a lot shallower. Also the old London Bridge was a lot harder to pass as it had narrow boat shaped arches which created almost white waters as they passed through. Barges carrying Oranges and Lemons from overseas would pass through carefully and land at the churchyard of Saint Clements Dane. On the last day of March the local primary school children in the area gather to attend a service and they recite the famous nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons' which comes from this ancient service. Afterwards the children are rewarded with an Orange and Lemon!