Dates in the Village Calendar

The Feast Day of Saint Bodkin

November 6th is the most important date in the church calendar, as it marks the Feast Day of Saint Bodkin, the patron saint of wheeltappers and shunters.

In this time-honoured ceremony which dates back for generations, the entire village gathers together in the afternoon for a large feast.

Once the feasting is over the villagers make their way to the church, where the vicar sacrifices a goat on the altar before retiring to the organ loft in order to provide musical accompaniment to the climax of the day.

As soon as the goat has been slaughted, twelve teenage virgins are paraded down the aisle towards the blood-soaked altar, where they form a line. As the organ music becomes faster and louder, the lord of the manor (currently the 18th Earl of Gypping), bursts out of the vestry, resplendent in his traditional goat’s head mask and long red flowing cloak. As the organ music becomes ever more frenzied, he walks up to the virgins and divests them of their ceremonial robes, one by one.

As the rest of the village watches with bated breath, as the music grows ever more fast and ever more loud and as flickering torches cast strange dancing shadows on the bodies of the twelve virgins, the Earl selects the virgin of his choice by daubing an ancient symbol on her bare chest with blood from the slaughtered goat. As tradition demands, he then takes her in his arms, lifts her up onto the altar and deflowers her in front of the watching congregation, while the vicar comes to a shuddering climax playing with his organ. When all the excitement is over, the evening is rounded off with tea and cakes in the church hall.

Visitors to Saint Bodkin’s may note the fact that the altar shows signs of having been reinforced in recent times. In fact, the legs of the church altar were strengthened in 2004 in preparation for the Feast Day of Saint Bodkin, following an unfortunate incident during the 2003 ceremony when the 18th Earl of Gypping went about his duties with a touch too much enthusiasm. As the ceremony reached its climax, one of the legs of the altar suddenly gave way under the Earl’s repeated thrusting and the Earl’s virgin of choice fell away from under him as the altar collapsed at a most inopportune moment. This resulted in considerable dry cleaning bills for those seated in the front pews. Since then, the Earl’s wife and the members of the parish council have chosen to sit a couple of rows back.

It is sad to note that the future of this historic ceremony is now under threat, due to the fact that in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to find twelve teenage virgins in the village.

The May Day Wicker Bunny Burning

May Day is another important date in the church calendar, and Gypping in the Marsh is renowned for its splendid May Day celebrations. The entire village community gets involved, with morris men, dances around the maypole, fun and games of all description and dancing in the village square until late in the evening.

The highlight of May Day is the traditional “Wicker Bunny” ceremony which takes place at the end of the day. People of all ages come from far and wide to view this unique English spectacle. It always proves particularly popular with animal rights activists.

In this ceremony, the large wicker effigy of a bunny rabbit that is erected in the churchyard at Easter each year is stuffed full of small farm animals – poultry, calves, piglets, lambs, etc – and set alight by the lord of the manor in front of the village folk.

The “Wicker Bunny” ceremony dates back to pagan times, and originally druids would have placed a human sacrifice inside the bunny, alongside the farm animals. Thankfully this practice was discontinued in 1983. Despite this, the 2006 May Day celebrations were unfortunately marred by the discovery of a burned human body in the charred remains of the wicker bunny. Investigations into this matter are continuing.