Have you seen Jack-In-The-Green? Jethro Tull Message Board

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Pastimes : Have you seen Jack-In-The-Green? Jethro Tull

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To: Teddy who wrote ()	11/26/1999 10:41:00 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (3) of 9

Do you know what that Jack-In-The-Green is? He is what is known as a Green Man... a spirit of vegetation, the forest, and nature. You will find the Green Man in a lot of ancient European and British art. He has persisted through the Middle Ages and even to more modern times. The Green Man often appears in the decorative stone work of cathedrals where his face will often be found concealed amongst the foliage or "greenery". It's interesting that a number of "pagan beings" do appear in the art of cathedrals. There is some speculation that stone masons liked to work pagan characters such as the Green Man into their carvings because they still believed in them despite the teachings of Christianity. Often you will have to examine the stonework quite carefully as the green men will be incorporated into the design of the foliage in such a way that you can only see them from certain angles, or if you are looking for them. The Jack-in-the-Green also had a ritual place in the May Day festivities of rural villages, much along the lines of the May King. His part was usually enacted by a chimney sweep or other boy who would wear a kind of wicker cage woven through with living foliage. I don't know precisely what Tull was suggesting when he wrote about Jack-in-the-Green, but I suspect he was questioning whether there is a place for nature and the old ways in our modern world. As we pave over green fields and forests, is there any place left for nature and the Green Man who is its symbolic representative? When Tull writes: "Jack, do you never sleep --- does the green still run deep in your heart? Or will these changing times, motorways, powerlines, keep us apart? Well, I don't think so --- I saw some grass growing through the pavements today." ...he seems to suggest that there is yet a place for the Green Man... that he is never truly gone from us so long as there is a little of nature left...and that nature will struggle to exist even in the modern world. ...well...that's my interpretation... Any others? ...and by the way... I think your dad must be a pretty way cool guy for teaching you this stuff...;-}> Croc

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