There are few more traditional and quirky past times in England than Morris Dancing dating back over five centuries, unless you think of cheese rolling in the Cotswolds a popular area for the aforementioned dancing. Everything relating to cheese rolling depends on the weather because although the spectators are perfectly safe wearing whatever clothing and footwear they need to combat a wet day, the competitors need to be sure of foot when following the cheese down Cooper's Hill near Gloucester every Spring Bank Holiday authority permitting.
Footwear has always been important for comfort and protection of the feet. Shoes and boots worn in the workplace of factory and building site require different qualities from the London stockbroker with cheaney shoes; cheaney quality that gives him comfort each day. The footwear needed to keep one's footing in a chase down a slippery hill is something yet again.
The 2010 event was cancelled on safety grounds based on the numbers expected to attend, and not because of the steep hill with its uneven surface, and the event is scheduled to take place again this year.
But the Cotswolds is also a major area for Morris Dancing, a traditional type of dancing with participants in age old clothes, using handkerchiefs, sticks and swords, with the dance taking place above crossed clay pipes put on the ground.
An English tradition though it is, ironically the name in fact comes from the Moorish dance, known as a Morisk Dance though there are similar terms in the French, German and Croatian languages, and there is no question that a similar form of dancing has been taking place for just as long in France and Spain where the defeat and expulsion of the Moors was celebrated with a festival that included the Spanish equivalent.
In England though it has stood the test of time, through the industrial revolution which saw it popularized among the workers in the industrial North West particularly. It did need a revival at the turn of the twentieth century and that revival duly came. Three decades later the Morris Ring was formed but it was not without controversy. Despite the fact that records showed women doing Morris Dancing centuries before, the Morris Ring saw this as purely a male activity. The result in the light of the number of women, who enjoyed the dancing, was the formation of other associations and bodies.
Many festivals and special occasions include Morris Dancing in their list of activities, summer fetes, festivals, Bank Holiday events and fairs, anywhere really where people gather together for enjoyment and celebration, wearing their best clothes and cheaney shoes; cheaney comfort.
England is a quirky place, and there is nothing much more quirky than cheese rolling or Morris dancing. Or, there is of course worm charming, but that's another story for another time. They say in slang there's nothing as queer as folk, English folk that is!
