Still celebrate Whitsuntide?

I ve never heard of this before Bradfordlass so wondering if it was your area, but perhaps I m wrong and I m the only one who didn’t do it ?
No I never got new clothing at Whitsun in fact I don’t think I even acknowledge it as an event except at school ( I was a non Catholic at a Catholic school) and I think we walked round the school singing Ava Maria at Whitsun

I remember it exactly as you do BradfordLass here in Manchester in the late 50’s and very early 60’s. If mum was still with us I’d ask her about it. ?

I think it was more to do with ‘workers’ literally ‘banding’ together. There must have been a church element to it as my sister and I marched behind a banner, up Deansgate to the sound of the band. We were regulars at Sunday school at the time. White cotton gloves, straw bonnets, a new dress each. Happy times.

I was raised as a Catholic and the only significance of Whitsun was the religious commemoration of the beginnings of the Christian church.

It was definitely not a 'far more important time than Easter', being hardly marked outside of the church apart from it being in those days a public holiday. We certainly never got a new clothes with threepenny bits in the pockets, and there were never processions with brass bands, and people all dressed in white. This is all new to me!

I'm inclined to wonder if these traditions you mention were local to you.

Maybe it was a ‘northern’ thing Bathsheba
Something to do with the industrial revolution perhaps?
Anyone else from ‘oop north remember the marches.
I might Google it later. Isn’t it great how we can just do that? I think for me at my age technology still has that ‘wow’ factor. So much better than looking stuff up in an out of date encyclopaedia!

Exactly as you describe it in the 1950s/1960s, Urmstongran. I remember being taken to Silvana Mill in manchester to be kitted out with a new dress and coat for the Whit Walks. The dress was always kept "for best" and so 6 months later, it didn't fit you! New underwear and socks were bought and either new sandals or decent white pumps that had been whitened with that stuff that made them as stiff as cardboard when it dried. It was the only time of the year that we were given a bath on a Saturday night, ready for the walks on the Sunday.
The kudos of being in the walks, and being given a ribbon on the banner to hold as you walked, hasneverbeen matched since!

I was a Baptist and we did join with other chapels and walk together on Whitsunday, no bands, no new clothes , we sang hymns . In my teens I joined the Anglican Church, no marching .

Our school end of May half term holiday was always called the Whitsun holiday.
Now it's called the Spring bank holiday, not sure when it changed.

The Manchester and Salford Whit Walk will take place on Monday 26 May starting at 10.00 at Manchester Cathedral and lots on google about it urmstongran!

Ooh thanks for that eGJ I shall immerse myself after breakfast!
Are you new by the way? If so ‘hello and welcome’ as someone on tv used to say .... I’ll have to Google that as well later - one things leads to another and before I know it, it’s lunchtime hehe!

Now it's called the Spring bank holiday, not sure when it changed

Whit Sunday is a moveable feast, just like Easter and Mothering Sunday. Some years ago it was decided to fix the bank holiday as the last Monday in May, and it became known as the Spring Bank Holiday. This year it falls on Monday 27th May, whereas Whit Monday is Monday 10th June.

I can see his face .... ?

Isn't Whit moveable , connected to Easter ? We had processions with Holy statues and Hymns , but just round the Convent grounds

The Manchester and Salford Whit Walk will take place on Monday 26 May starting at 10.00 at Manchester Cathedral and lots on google about it urmstongran!

How odd, considering Whit Monday is 10th June

(And incidentally, 26th May is a Sunday)

Crossed posts Bathsheba

aggie

Had quick Google to see that as Whisun is as moveable feast (depending on Easter)
The government in the 70s changed the school holiday to Spring Bank holiday.

Xed post

I always feel a strange sadness , ennui around these festivals. Something so poignant about the Whit walks, a shared experience, contrast to everyday life.

Now we are shopping and consuming 24/7 and I don't believe in much these days.

Chapels and Churches brought communities together

Hey whatta thread this is turning out to be:

Oxymoron
and
Ennui (I’m going to look that one up now I’ve heard of it/read it but don’t remember what it means!)

Easter was the time for our new clothes-----all chosen by mother and there was no playing out in these clothes or else.

I don't remember much if anything about Whit other than best clothes on again on Sunday and off to auntie's for tea.

Exactly the same for me Bradfordlass. New clothes, whit walks etc. I didn't do the same thing when my children were young as we had moved from Yorkshire to Oxfordshire.
It's great having these memories revived.

I wonder how much this is a northern tradition, I recall Whit Sunday in church, and making flamed hats in Sunday School, but don't recall any new clothes, and certainly no processions?

I've never heard of any of this. Whitsun is a religious festival and we had half term then. New clothes were made by my mother and not at a specific time.