The Last Straw
“Now carry we Death out of the village,
The new Summer into the village,
Welcome, dear Summer,
Green little corn”
―Czech folk song1
Across Europe, several folk traditions see people wear costumes crafted from straw, leaves, and branches, covering themselves from head to toe in a full-body transformation. Sometimes this is just a costume, but often it is something deeper and sees the wearer become something else—with the else being a variety of things, from animals (bears), hybrids (wild man), or more speculative concepts (such as Death). In some metamorphoses, it’s a single individual, like the Strawbear Festival in England; other times, it’s a group, such as the Wren Boys in Ireland. In both of these cases, the ritual has become something of a unique spectacle, with the practice no longer remaining as widespread as it once was—the Strawbear is actually a return of the tradition after it died out early in the 20th century.2..Read the full article in the printed issue. Get OVER Journal 5
1 Song sung by children in Bohemia after they have carried a straw-man representing Death out of their village and set it alight. Scottish anthropologist James George Frazer details a number of these traditions in his book The Golden Bough (originally published in 1890). This work collates and outlines a number of traditions across Europe, Germany in particular.
2 It returned in 1980 with the original tradition having last been recorded in 1909. At one time the Strawbear festival was of such stature that farmers would often reserve their best straw for making the bear Link
