Easter eggs and hot cross buns

Easter eggs (photo: Ikonact)

We had a session in spite of it being Good Friday; it takes more than that to cancel a Dragon Folk Club Session as long as the pub makes our room available. Officially there was no theme but Colin, also playing MC, kept to Easter-related songs and Derek up to Easter through several other self-set themes while the others present mixed things up a bit more.

It was with great pleasure that we welcomed first time visitors Debbie and Hazel.  Debbie, from the Isle of Wight was keen to point out how much folk there is on the island and that if we visit we must consul her folkonwight website. As usual with first timers, I will mention all of the songs they sang through the evening.

Colin was MC and started us off straight into Easter with The Old Rugged Cross (George Bennard, Roud 22417).

Deaths, Resurrections and a Rising

Photo: Jarosław Pocztarski

This week’s session was rather curtailed, not by the small number present, but because of the discovery by the landlord of an ancient piece of pub lore which apparently reads:

If it be Good Friday, then
We shut at half-past bloody ten!

So with the pressure of attempting a record number of songs in a night taken from our shoulders, and without the Regular Scribe to produce definitive answers from the Internet, the conversation was able to range wide – as wide in fact as from Fred Jordan’s opinion of George Stubbs to discrepancies between the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls as to the number of apostles.

Good Friday to Easter

This week's session was held on Good Friday. In the Christian tradition this commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and is therefore a sombre day, preceding his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. We only have one session a week though, so this one has to cover the whole week-end. We had songs representing, more or less literally, the events of the whole weekend, and some with no particular relevance at all.

Mike started off the evening with the Pace Egging song. The Pace Egg Plays are traditional village plays, with a rebirth theme, in which St George smites all challengers and the fool, Toss Pot, rejoices. The drama takes the form of a combat between the hero and villain, in which the hero is killed and brought to life, often by a quack doctor. The plays take place in England during Easter, indeed the word 'Pace' comes from the old English word 'pasch' literally meaning 'Easter'. They are a tradition that was once widespread throughout England, but is now only practiced in a few areas, particularly Lancashire and West Yorkshire.

Last train for Easter

Graeme Miles

Officially the theme this week was Easter, since the session was on Good Friday. Visitors were Jan and Ian. Also an occasional irregular regular was Jan (yes, there were two Jans!). Gary also made his first appearance for several weeks.

Mike kicked off the evening as usual. He initially thought he didn't have a song on the subject of Easter but Kevin pointed out that he could sing the Pace Egging Song, which he duly did.