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ThePace Egg plays are anEaster custom in ruralNorthern England in the tradition of themedieval mystery plays. The practice was once common throughout Northern England, but largely died out in the nineteenth century before being revived in some areas ofLancashire and theWest Riding of Yorkshire in the twentieth century. The plays, which involved mock combat, were performed byPace Eggers, who sometimes received gifts ofdecorated eggs from villagers. Several closely relatedfolk songs were associated with Pace Egging.
TheOxford English Dictionary gives the formspace egg (first attested in 1579),[1]paste egg (first attested in 1611),[2]pasch egg (first attested in 1677),[3] andpaschal egg (first attested in 1844).[4] The first word of the first three of these names (which on its own is usually spelledpasch) seems to come into English partly from Anglo-Normanpasche (attested to mean both 'Easter' and 'Passover'), whose standard modern French equivalents arepâques 'Easter' andpasque 'Passover'. Anglo-Normanpasche comes in turn from post-classical Latinpascha 'Passover, Passover lamb, Passover meal, Easter', which itself was an earlier source of the English wordpasch. Latinpascha comes from Hellenistic Greek πάσχα 'Passover, Passover lamb, Passover meal, Easter', which comes from Aramaicpisḥā 'Passover festival, Passover sacrifice, Passover meal', which comes from Hebrewpesaḥ 'Passover', itself deriving from the Hebrew verbpāsaḥ 'to pass or spring over'.[5]
The drama takes the form ofmock combat between the hero and villain, in which the hero is killed and brought back to life, often by aquack doctor. In some plays the figure ofSt George smites all challengers, and thefool,Toss Pot, rejoices. In other versions, the antagonist is a Turkish knight. Other characters are called the Noble Youth, the Lady Gay, the Soldier Brave.[6]
The bands of performers, called Pace Eggers, were locals who performed in their surrounding villages.[7] They oftenblacked their faces (as was common in English folk traditions such asBorder Morris) and wore animal skins,[6] ribbons or coloured paper, masks, and sometimes wooden swords.[8]
Traditionally, eggs were wrapped inonion skins and boiled to make their shells look like mottled gold, or wrapped in flowers and leaves first in order to leave a pattern, a custom also practised in traditionalScandinavian culture.[9] Eggs could also be drawn on with a wax candle before staining, often with a person's name and date on the egg.[8] Pace Eggs were generally eaten for breakfast onEaster Sunday breakfast. Alternatively, they could be kept as decorations, used in special games, or given to the Pace Eggers. More recently, eggs have been stained with coffee grains[8] or simply boiled and painted in their shells.[7]
Pace Egging songs are categorised as number614 and 610 in theRoud Folk Song Index.Percy Grainger collected a version inKirkby Lonsdale,Westmoreland in 1905,[10] andAnne Gilchrist collected one in nearbyCasterton in 1909.[11] In the early 1930s, the American folkloristJames Madison Carpenter recorded a version from a man named Herbert James Blades inHunton,Yorkshire, who had learnt the song 40 years prior from a Thomas Thompson (born c.1810); the recording is available on theVaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[12]
Pace egging originally involved young boys collecting money and begging for pace eggs, with the drama being an 18th-centuryLancashire addition. The 'captain' of the group of boys would sing something along the lines of the following:
Here’s two or three jolly boys, all o' one mind,
We've come a pace-egging and I hope you’ll prove kind,
I hope you’ll prove kind, with your eggs and your beer,
For we'll come no more pace-egging until the next year.[8]
Pace Egging is hundreds of years old and its origins are unknown.[7]
Pace Egg plays were most common in Northern England, in the counties ofLancashire,Yorkshire andNorthumberland.[7]
Pace egging was in decline by 1842.[7] Many Pace Egg plays died out after theFirst World War, when many of the men who took part in them were killed in action.[13]
InMiddleton, North Manchester, Pace Egging (performing the Pace Egg Play) was revived in 1967.[14] The Bury Pace Eggers were revived in 1970, and still perform in pubs and squares around the town and surrounding villages in the week before Easter.[15][16]
Midgley Pace Egg was performed by children from the village's primary school, but in recent decades older children from the nearby Calder High School took over. That school is no longer interested in such things, but ex-pupils maintain the tradition, performing in the originalMidgley,West Yorkshire location as well as at the tourist magnet, Heptonstall.
The plays enjoyed a renaissance inHeptonstall,[17][18]West Yorkshire in recent decades. The origins are uncertain, but appear to be based on the Midgley tradition. Some versions of the plays have undoubtedly been performed over many hundreds of years. It has become an establishedGood Friday tradition, and hundreds come to Weavers Square to watch.
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