Jack in the Green

It involves a pyramidal or conical wicker or wooden framework that is decorated with foliage being worn by a person as part of a procession, often accompanied by musicians.

It emerged from an older May Day tradition—first recorded in the 17th century—in which milkmaids carried milk pails that had been decorated with flowers and other objects as part of a procession.

Lady Raglan – following an interpretive framework influenced by James Frazer and Margaret Murray – suggested that it was a survival of a pre-Christian fertility ritual.

[4] Judge thought it unlikely that the Jack in the Green itself existed much before 1770, due to an absence of either the name or the structure itself in any of the written accounts of visual depictions of English May Day processions from before that year.

[9] Many accounts from the second half of the 18th century describe chimney sweeps dressing up in costumes for May Day, including in wigs, crowns, and coats.

[10] Many of the descriptions of chimney sweeps at May Day make no reference to them carrying garlands, indicating that at this point this was not considered a standard part of their seasonal costume.

[13] Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there are further accounts of bunters having garlands, although theirs were often made of pewter, on contrast to the milk maid's silver, reflecting their comparative socio-economic status.

[14] The first known textual account of the Jack in the Green tradition was written in 1770 by a Frenchman who had visited London and observed a May Day procession, Peter Grosley.

[17] A clearer depiction of a Jack in the Green was featured in a 1795 engraving, perhaps by Isaac Cruikshank, which included the foliate figure alongside a fiddler with a wooden leg, a man, and a cross-dressed "May Queen"; in the background are dancing chimney sweeps.

[16] Judge suggested that it would have been "neatly appropriate" had the foliate Jack in the Green been developed by greengrocers or members of another trade that worked closely with fauna, however, he noted that there was no evidence for this.

The Lord and Lady of the May,[20] with their practical jokes, were replaced by a pretty May Queen, while the noisy, drunken Jack in the Green vanished altogether from the parades.

Her interpretation was an extension of the ideas about fertility deities which had been promoted by the anthropologist James Frazer in his influential book, The Golden Bough.

[23] In her 1976 overview of British folk customs, for instance, the folklorist Christina Hole suggested that Jack in the Green was a "very ancient figure" who represented "the Summer itself, the very old bringer-in of the time of plenty".

[25] Hutton described Judge's book as "a turning-point in folklore studies which showed how much could be learned from a systematic investigation of historical evidence".