British Druid Order

Yep, folks, it's getting near time for the annual
Druid Blessing Ceremony for the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival & Re-enactors' Market
Sunday, 11th July 2010
Every year we team up with members of the Cornovii Grove, OBOD and others to provide a Druid blessing ceremony for the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, the largest such event in Europe. As well as commemorating the Battle of Tewkesbury that took place during the Wars of the Roses in 1471, there are acres of stalls selling all manner of amazing items from all periods of history from the Bronze Age to the Victorian era, including clothing, boots and shoes, leatherwork, jewellery, swords, bows, armour, hand-tools, musical instruments, craft supplies, food, drinking horns, toys, games, etc, etc. There's also live music, roaming entertainers, many food stalls, and a beer tent. It's a brilliant day (or weekend) out for all the family and what's more - it's FREE! (though donations are gratefully accepted...)
This year's Festival takes place on July 10th-11th. On the Sunday morning, we will make our Druid Ceremony of Blessing for the reenactors and stall-holders. It will be simple, beautiful and fun ... all the things a Druid ceremony should be. Oh, effective too, in that the weather forecast last year had been for persistent rain all weekend. We managed to re-direct it so that the days were mostly dry and it only rained fairly lightly and overnight. Two years earlier, we managed to engineer pretty well the only sunny weekend in a summer of floods. If you'd like to join us for the ceremony this year and then enjoy a wonderful day at the Festival, please e-mail Elaine eln.greg@virgin.net for details and so that she can arrange a parking space for you. You'll need to be able to get to the Festival, park and find us before 10am. For more info on the Festival itself, go to their website. http://www.tewkesburymedievalfestival.org/
By the way, you may be wondering why there should be a Druid blessing for an event commemorating a battle that took place in 1471, a period when there were not a lot of Druids about in England. Well, the Festival organisers are aware that a number of re-enactors and stall-holders are Pagan, plus they feel that, as Druids, we attune well with the spirits of the land. As said, our earlier blessings do seem to have been beneficial and we are pleased to offer them.
Peace,
Greywolf /|\

We had a good one ... a few more people every year ... some from the US this year ... ceremony went well ... fine weather and, as ever, an amazing array of stalls selling everything from bone flutes to Victorian hats via swords, psychedelic shirts, jewellery, parchment and quill pens, Goth gear, medieval spectacles and full suits of armour. Wonderful.
It's a really enjoyable family day out, attended by thousands of people, and we're happy to do our annual bit to help ensure their enjoyment, for the safety of the re-enactors and the prosperity of the craftspeople and traders.
Maybe see you there next year?
Many blessings,
Greywolf /|\

I'll come and have a pint next year and enjoy the festivities.

Greywolf's idea of coloured shirts - is - black! Although he did buy a dark green one by mistake... didn't you Sunshne?? giggle... XE

I see you had a wonderful time

I regret I couldn't take part in the great 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald. The Polish event has actually been Tewkesbury's competition for years now, as they are comparable both in size and grandeur, and Grunwald is also a reenactment of a 15th century epic battle.

The Battle of Grunwald is also listed by many strategists and historians among the top 10 most important battles in European history (the United Kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania against the Teutonic Order). It is worth mentioning that it was the first legal (meaning authorised by the pope and European kingdoms) war to be fought by a Christian nation alongside pagans (Lithuania was at that time mostly pagan) against a Christian order that was proven to be uncivilized against pagans. It was a great step in the evolution of International Law and Human Rights made by the Polish jurists Paulus Vladimiri and Stanislaus of Skarbimierz:



It is worth knowing that even in the darkest times of the Medieval world there were brilliant individuals who had the courage to stand up for the natural human rights. Today, as modern pagans, I think we owe these two jurists at least the honour of mentioning what they've done.

This year the reenactment was real to the extreme: even the legendary heat that made the plate-armored Teutonic Knights weary before the battle was here to do the same in 2010: with 35-37°C you could fry eggs on their breastplates

See info in English here.

That is fascinating Tin... my wife is currently doing a masters in International Human Rights Law, and it's history is fascinating indeed, but I knew none of that... thank you...

Send my regards to your wife, it is a fascinating subject. I am doing my masters in International Law too, focusing on the topic of Human Rights in relation to New Wars. I believe it is a very druid thing to do

My wife dropped out yesterday that she enjoyed the Tewkesbury festival when we went along a couple of years ago. Of course this was after the fact! But Taking this on board there is the possibility of being able to attend next year.

Wassail
Singe