1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Horn Dance

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

HORN DANCE, a medieval dance, still celebrated during the September “wakes” at Abbots Bromley, a village on the borders of Needwood Forest, Staffordshire. Six or seven men, each wearing a deer’s skull with antlers, dance through the streets, pursued by a comrade who bestrides a mimic horse, and whips the dancers to keep them on the move. The horn-dance usually takes place on the Monday after Wakes Sunday, which is the Sunday next after the 4th of September. Originally the dance took place on a Sunday.

See Strand Magazine for November 1896; also Folk-lore, vol. vii. (1896), p. 381.