Jack in the Green

Common card · No. 381528

Jack in the Green, also known as Jack o' the Green, is an English folk-custom associated with the celebration of May Day. It involves a pyramidal or conical wicker or wooden framework, decorated with foliage, and worn by a person as part of a procession, often accompanied by musicians. The Jack in the Green tradition developed in England during the 18th century. It emerged from an older May-Day tradition—first recorded in the 17th century—in which milkmaids carried milk pails that had been decorated with flowers and other objects as part of a procession. Increasingly, the decorated milk pails were replaced with decorated pyramids of objects worn on the head, and by the latter half of the 18th century the tradition had been adopted by other occupational groups, such as bunters and chimney-sweeps. The earliest known account of a Jack in the Green comes from a description of a London May-Day procession in 1770. By the 19th century, the Jack in the Green tradition had become largely associated...

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