Abbots Bromley Horn Dance

 

As you hear this tune, think of the moon rising on a dense forest in ancient England at Winter Solstice. As the light increases, six to eight antlered figures and several companions become visible. Standing in two lines facing, they begin a dance punctuated by the click of antlers meeting.

In the Christmas Revels, this haunting tune is played for the ancient ceremony of "deer running," once a mid-winter ritual dance of the hunt and cycling of the year. It is still danced in the Village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire. In the revels enactment, eight men, holding reindeer antlers above their heads, and accompanied by the traditional folk Fool, the Man-Woman, Hobby Horse and Boy Hunter, symbollically process through the village and outlying farms, "bringing in the luck."