Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1902 — Ancient Easter Customs. [ARTICLE]

Ancient Easter Customs.

A custom called “clipping the church” was kept up in Warwickshire, England, on Easter Monday, until the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was pjerformed by the children of the different charity schools, who at a certain hour flocked together for the purpose. The first comers placed themselves hand in hand, with their backs against the church, and were joined by their companions, who gradually increased in number, till at last the chain was of sufficient length to surround the sacred edifice. As soon as the hand of the last of the train had grasped that of the first, the party broke up, and walked in procession to the other church (for in those days Birmingham boasted of but two churches), where the ceremony was repeated. An ancient custom still observed by the boy* of Christ hospital, London, on Easter Tuesday, is that of paying a visit to the Mansion House to receive from the lord mayor what are known as the Easter Bolts. The ceremony annually attracts a good deal of public attention, as the boys march “in fours" through the streets of the city to the Mansion Ilouse, where they are forthwith regaled with two buns apiece. Thus fortified, they silo before the lord mayor, who, from sundry piles of new money on the table before him, presents each Grecian with a sovereign, and all the other boys, according to their standing, with coin* of lesser value. Before they retire, the boys have a glass of lemonade. At one time the alternative of sherry wa* permitted. This form of "local option," however, ha* been abolished.