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Why does #OakAppleDay matter? Personally, it isn't the political aspect that interest me but the extraordinary folkloric resonances. It's a sort of feast day of English folklore, a festival for folklorists https://twitter.com/drfrancisyoung/status/1266253976187494400
In the first place, the Restoration was perceived and received by many as a return of mythical 'Merry England', an end to Puritan proscription of folk culture
The fact that the day fell in May meant that it became associated with Maypoles, a particular target of the Puritans and symbol of anti-Puritan resistance. And perhaps also a fitting symbol of Charles II...
And then there's the strange, primal symbolism of the King in the oak tree; the recursive symbolism of a symbol of England becoming the means whereby England is preserved; the King of the greenwood saving the King... The resonances just go on and on...
Although celebrations of Oak Apple Day carried on for a while after the excision of the special service from the Prayer Book in 1859, the Church thereby withdrew from engagement with folk culture. The Puritans, in effect, won
It's interesting how the Gunpowder Plot commemorations (also removed from Church in 1859) proved much more resilient
