Whitsuntide

When I first moved here, thirty plus years ago, I watched the Whitsun walk round the village, most of the girls wearing white.; doesn't happen now.

A new oufit might sound a lot winterwhite but it was literally a new "best" dress and, if we were very lucky, a new pair of shoes. And yes, I suppose we would've got a new hat, if not quite a bonnet for church on Sundays - good Catholic girls as we were.

Primark would have made our heads spin!

Whitsun was morphed into the spring bank holiday in the 1970s or thereabouts in order to give it a fixed date. Don’t think ‘tide’ was ever more than a poetical add on, as Eastertide.
Were all these new clothes a northern tradition? Luckies! Are they compatible with Easter bonnets?

I was thinking exactly the same the other day Nannan2. It shows just how secular a society we've become.

I remember getting a new oufit for what we call Walking Day or the Whit Walks as it's better known in the North West. Two outfits a year, the other one at Christmas!

I remember too being really pleased with myself when I'd properly learnt to sew and paper patterns were produced by Vogue (expensive), Mary Quant (mid budget) and Biba (doable on pocket money) always having to factor in the cost of the fabric of course but it did mean we could make a new dress or suit or whatever more than twice a year

Whit Sunday is on 5th June this year. Whit Monday is still a bank holiday but it’s being tacked onto the Jubilee weekend.