The Haxey Hood is a 700 years old traditional event in at the village of Haxey in North Lincolnshire, England, on the afternoon of 6 January, the Twelfth Day of Christmas.
It's a kind of large rugby football scrum - the "sway" - which pushes a leather tube or "swale" to 1 of several pubs, where it remains until the following year's game.
The story goes that in the fourteenth century, Lady de Mowbray, wife of John De Mowbray, went out riding towards Westwoodside. As she went over a hill her riding hood was blown away in the
wind. Thirteen farm workers in the field rushed to help. They chased the hood all over the field and it was finally caught by one of the men. He was too shy to hand it back to the lady, and he gave it
to one of the other farm workers to hand back to her. She thanked the man who had returned the hood and said that he had acted like a Lord. The worker who had actually caught the hood was a Fool, she
said. So amused was she by this act of chivalry and the resulting chase, that she donated thirteen acres of land on condition that
the chase for the hood would be re-enacted each year. This re-enactment over the centuries has become known as "The Haxey Hood"
below - 'The 'Fool' makes a speech, welcome everyone to the Haxey Good game'
below - The 'Lord' talks to the Unthanks sisters, Rachel & Becky. They sing in the Unthanks folk group and come from Northumberland.
