Custom
Garland Day
Flowers on the waves for a good mackerel season.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Golden-stone village near Chesil Beach
- Legend from
- Fishing custom / Hutchins (1867)
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Flower garlands blessed in church, then thrown into the sea for the fish.
On 13 May, Old May Day, Abbotsbury's children carried flower garlands around the village. The custom began with the fishermen's children, whose garlands were blessed in church and thrown into the sea from the boats to bring luck at the start of the mackerel season. Hutchins described it in 1867. After the fishing faded the whole village school took part, with one garland of wild flowers and one of garden flowers. The village website says that by 2005 only eight children took part and that it stopped in the early 2010s, though other guides still describe it.