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It is the Yorkshire Traditional Dance Festival once again and these are the Britannia Coco-nut Dancers of Bacup, known to one and all as 'The Nutters'. The custom of blackened faces may appear rather non PC but is said to reflect a pagan or medieval background and was done to disguise the dancers from being recognised by evil spirits. There may also be a mining connections as Bacup was once a Lancashire mining town.
Here they are performing a Garland Dance, each of the Dancers carries a hoop decorated with red, white and blue paper flowers. This is a ritual Spring dance connected with the renewal of crops.
Taking part in Ruby Tuesday
Bizarre!
ReplyDeleteLooks festive! Happy RT2.
ReplyDeleteMine's here.
I'm glad you explained the tradition! It's a bit of a shock to see it, I don't suppose it would go over very well here. But you explained it well.
ReplyDeleteMust be nice to watch them.
ReplyDeleteMy Ruby post.
Have a great evening.
Soooo funny. You made me laugh out loud at this photo. Thank you very much for it! And yes, it must be interesting to watch.
ReplyDelete