Green Man Day 2013 - a photo on Flickriver

Green Man Day 2013

            The Green Man.

Green Man Day, Pilton, Barnstaple, 2013.

The pageant is a bit of a hybrid and as such doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. The Green Man would appear to represent Spring, while the White Queen is presumably winter - in most enactments of the ritual, the Queen kills the Green Man only for him to be resurrected at the end of the display.

This is all very straightforward were it not for the slightly clumsy introduction of Christianity into this pagan ritual, through the character of the Prior (dressed in red). The Prior usually plays a part in resurrecting the Green Man. It appears to represent the co-existence of Christianity alongside pagan beliefs, as the green characters represent the pagan and the red characters the Christian. Upon its first introduction to this country Christianity was little more than a cult, and this old ritual is an interesting historical footnote to show how the new Christian beliefs existed alongside the pagan ones, and part of the success of Christianity in Europe was the way it appropriated ancient beliefs that already existed and slowly transformed them into something Christian. The green man himself is a pre-Christian symbol of fertility, and there are green man carvings to be found in Pilton church.

Pilton itself was a settlement that pre-dated Barnstaple, which itself has now been in existence for over a thousand years. As time has gone on Barnstaple grew and Pilton is not really a separate from the town any more, being less than five minutes' walk from the town centre.

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Pilton (show map)

Taken on: July 20, 2013

Tags:

Green Man Day

pageant

pagan

Christian

Spring

Summer

Winter

Tradition

Good

Evil

Rite

Festival

green

red

Pilton

Barnstaple

Devon

2011

Canon EOS 50D « less

Sets appears in: • Green Man Day • Photos with over 100 views

Camera: Canon EOS 50D, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, 110mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 50D
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	110mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	+0.0858 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Windows
Show full info

Stats: 545 views

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