Corn Dollies, Wicker Men, and Harvest Rituals | Various Sources

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Corn Dollies

This article from 1970 recounts Adelman's trip from America to England where she saw corn dollies, wheat sheaves, crowns, and idols hanging in a shop window. This reminded her of her village church when it was decorated for the Harvest Festival, and so she wanted to seek out a corn dolly maker and learn more.

She recounts how she learnt that even through variations according to culture and time period, there is a common thread that corn dollies were made to house the corn spirit so that they were not thrashed during the harvest. The corn dolly and spirit would stay in the home of the hardest worker until the following year, when the dolly would be buried or burnt and the spirit would be returned to the field to ensure prosperous growth of the crops.

Jill Adelman

Corn Dollies For Harvest Time, 1970

The New York Times Archives

Digitised version available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/20 /archives/corn-dollies-for-harvest-time.html

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Wicker Men

This article discusses the history of Wicker Men and how their representation in Media isn't necessarily the truth. Wicker Men are burnt as part of a Beltane ritual; Beltane was a festival marking a significant point in the Celtic year. In this case Beltane marked the period where the cattle were sent out to pasture for the summer, often driven out with fire for protection both from physical and supernatural dangers.

The perception of this tradition has become skewed throughout history, mainly due to the Romans who saw the Gauls and Druids performing ritual with Wicker Man effigies. Julius Caesar needed to remain in control and saw an opportunity to dehumanise the Gauls and unlawfully punish them by recounting that he had seen then using Wicker Men as vessels to conduct human sacrifice. Only Julius Caesar and the geographer Strabo are ever recorded as having claimed hat the Celts and Druids used these rituals for Sacrifice. Nowadays, Wicker Men are burnt for Beltane as part of a cleansing ritual and celebration of the seasons, and to connect to the land.

The Wickerman

Beltain Festival, 2019

Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire

Image courtesy of Butser Ancient Farm via: https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/blog/2021/5/1/whats-beltain-all-about

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The Chestnut Harvest Festival

One of the few memories I have from living in Portugal when I was 7 or 8 years old was of taking time out of class to have an assembly, at the end of which every student and teacher was given a corn dolly on their way out. I remember not knowing what was going on (as I didn't speak Portuguese and so wasn't aware of the context that the assembly no doubt provided), and being ushered to the playground which had a massive fire pit in the middle of it that was usually not there.

We were encouraged to throw our corn dollies onto the fire and watch as Chestnuts were thrown on top. Once the flames had died down and the adults collected and salted the now roasted Chestnuts into paper funnels, the children ran through the ashes and made a game of smearing the ash onto each other's faces. We then ate our chestnuts with the smell of the massive pot of soup ready for us to eat next coming over to us.

For years since leaving Portugal I had thought that this was just something unique to my school that I had experienced as I couldn't find any information about it. I thought perhaps my childhood mind had embellished or created this elaborate memory. It wasn't until doing this project that I began to research all aspect of ritual and came across information on the Feira da Castanha (Chestnut festival).

This blog, about the author's parents who retired from England and moved to Portugal, described in detail and confirmed this distant memory as a Festival that takes place across Portugal during November to mark the Chestnut harvest season and the Story of São Martinho (Saint Martin)'s conversion to Christianity.

Laura Bailey

Fiera Da Castanha, 2013

Image courtesy of Laura Bailey via: https://myhomeinportugal.com/feira-da-castanha-chestnut-festival/

Researching these topics helped me to contexualise and better understand a distant memory of a strange festival I had that informed the shape of the work I was making but not entirely the meaning. I wanted to learn more about the figure I remembered and the circumstances surrounding being given the corn dolly, beyond the fact that I associated it with religious and cultural tradition (ritual). Learning the history surrounding corn dollies and wicker men has helped inform my practice as I understand the differences and similarities, as well as the histories behind their use. These concepts have formed the basis of my project. This has allowed me to expand upon the theme of ritual in a way that feels authentic to my history and to the intention of healing, protection, and survival that I want amplify with my work.