It’s Whit Sunday anybody remember when you used to get new cloths
of change after they had all given you money towards them or is that too
far back for most of you to remember.
And the Whit walks and marching bands and church flags, next friday it’s Whit friday,so
as a young man lots of beer at the band contests.
Aaahh them where the days.
I’ve never had any special clothes or gifts for Whitsun, and I can’t remember my parents ever saying they used to, but I DO remember it being celebrated as a holiday, and not the secular “Spring Bank Holiday” we now have, at about the same time. My birthday and my father’s, just four days apart, often used to fall at Whitsun.
So I suppose I did get gifts, but only coincidentally - not because it was Whitsun.
It’s a shame recognition of it seems to have died out - presumably so as not to offend other religions, or the irreligious.
The true ‘Whitsun’ moves around - it’s what’s known as a moveable feast, like Easter (but not like Christmas).
I may be wrong, but I think the bank holiday used to move around with it, and wasn’t invariably the last weekend in May - although it often worked out that way.
But now we have “Spring Bank Holiday”, which always falls at the same time, and has got separated from Whitsun altogether.