Twelfth Night Celebration (The Lions Part)

THE HOLLY MAN FROM THE THAMES – To herald the celebration, the extraordinary Holly Man, the winter guise of the Green Man (from our pub signs, pagan myths and folklore), decked in fantastic green garb and evergreen foliage, is piped over the River Thames, with the devil Beelzebub.

THE BANKSIDE WASSAILS – On Bankside by Shakespeare’s Globe, led by the Bankside Mummers, our London Beadle and the Holly Man will ‘bring in the green’ and toast or ‘Wassail’ the people, the River Thames and the Globe. (Wassailing is an old tradition to encourage good health).

THE MUMMERS’ PLAY – The Mummers then process to the Bankside Jetty, and perform the traditional ‘freestyle’ Folk Combat Play, featuring the Turkey Sniper, Clever Legs, the Old ‘Oss and many others, dressed in spectacular costumes. The play is full of wild verse and boisterous action, a time-honoured custom of the season, recorded since the Crusades.

KING BEAN AND QUEEN PEA – Cakes safely distributed at the end of the play have a bean and a pea hidden in two of them. Those from the crowd who find them are hailed king and queen for the day and crowned with ceremony. They then ‘dance’ the people through the streets to the historic George Inn, Southwark, for a fine warming-up with the Fowlers Troop, storytelling, the Kissing Wishing Tree, dancing and mulled wine.