Hal-an-Tow

(Traditional Maying song from Helston)

CHORUS: Hal-an-Tow, jolly rumble-O, We were up long before the day-O, To welcome in the summer, To welcome in the May-O– For summer is a-coming, And the winter’s gone away-o!   Take no scorn to wear the horns, It was the crest when you were born; Your father’s father wore it, And your father wore it too. CHORUS Robin Hood and Little John Have both gone to the fair-O, And we shall to the merry green wood, To hunt the buck and hare-O! CHORUS What happened to the Spaniards, That made so great a boast, O? They shall eat the grey goose feather, And we shall eat the goose, O! CHORUS God bless Aunt Mary Moses With all her power and might-O; Send us peace in England, Send us peace by day and night-O! CHORUS

May 8th in Helston, Cornwall, UK, marks the Feast of Saint Michael which is also called “Flora Day.” More significantly, May 8th is the date of the famous Furry Dance, which is possibly one of the oldest British customs still practiced today.  The word “Furry” probably derives from Cornish: fer, signifing "fair, feast, jubilee." If May 8th should fall on a Sunday or Monday, then “Furry Day” will take place on the Saturday before May 8th.

The town's celebration involves trips to the local countryside to gather greenery to decorate the town. Scheduled events are organized by a special Committee, and primarily consist of a series of processional dances led by the Town Band playing the well-known Furry Dance tune through the streets of the town. The processional dance is performed five times during the day.  

The Halan-Tow has a less than respectable past. This was a none-too-sober perambulation of the town, singing a song in which the words of the verses are sufficiently obscure to have excited the vivid imaginations of amateur folklorists for decades—concerning as they do Robin Hood, the Spaniards, Saint George, and Aunt Mary Moses—but whose chorus is pretty clear, given the time of year: For we were up as soon as any day, O And for to fetch the summer home The summer and the May, O For summer is a come, O And winter is a gone, O.

Helston Furry Day - Oxford Reference, accessed May 1, 2020.

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1790, says, 'In the morning, very early, some troublesome rogues go round the streets [of Helstone], with drums and other noisy instruments, disturbing their sober neighbours, and singing parts of a song, the whole of which nobody now re-collects, and of which I know no more than that there is mention in it of the 'grey goose quill,' and of going 'to the green wood' to bring home 'the Summer and the May, O!'' During the festival, the gentry, tradespeople, servants, &c., dance through the streets, and thread through certain of the houses to a very old dance tune, given in the appendix to Davies Gilbert's Christmas Carols [1823], and which may also be found in Chappell's Popular Music, and other collections. The source of the following is Robert Bell, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England. John W. Parker and Son, 1857.
The Helston Forey Source: Davies Gilbert, Some Ancient Christmas Carols. London: John Nichols And Son, Second Edition, 1823, p. 79.