Whitsun Holidays

The Parson in the Pease

Whitsun Holidays or The Parson in the Pease is an English Country Dance. It was published by Walsh in 1719 in The Compleat Country Dancing-Master, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2002 and published in The She Favourite. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: G Major.

Playford also published this dance in 1718.

Walsh writes:

Note: The first Strain twice, and the last but once.

The first Man cast down, and the 2d Wo. cast up at the same Time, then back again The first Wo. cast down, and the 2d Man up at the same Time; then back again The first Cu. lead up, and the 2d lead down at the same Time; then the first and 2d Men lead to the Wall, and the We. lead to the Wall at the same Time; then Hands all four quite and turn single and Right and Left half round

Whitsun, for those of us who are secular, is the seventh Sunday after Easter and celebrates the descent of the Holy Ghost to the followers of Christ.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: circle, cast, lead, hey, circular hey (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=WhitsunHolidays

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2002 by Andrew Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.