Well dressings and spring dressings in Derbyshire. Is it a pagan ritual? Read on........
Well dressing :- the art of decorating wells or springs with natural objects to form pictures and designs as a thanksgiving for the continued gift of water, especially in times of drought.
Outside Derbyshire, well - dressing is a mystery. Even in the county it is a mystery, where the skilled craft is practised only by a privileged few initiates. Also its origins are a mystery, as is its subsequent history. So too is the reason why the custom is preserved almost exclusively in Derbyshire.
We can make guesses as to this mysteries, but very little is known because so little has been written about well dressing before the last half century.
Well dressing almost certainly originated in pagan sacrifices to water gods as a thanksgiving for past supplies and an inducement for further favours. Some South American Indian tribes still hang torn strips of coloured cotton for the same purpose.
The Romans made similar offerings to the gods at Saturnalia and other pagan festivals, and there is a theory that they brought the custom to Derbyshire. However, nothing like our own well - dressings survives in modern Italy. The nearest to it is perhaps at Genzano, south of Rome, where, writes Dr. Laura Oliveti "the flowers are arranged in a vast pattern on the street running through the centre of the town, not on a board as in Derbyshire"
Well dressings today have a strong religious link. Probably 75% have a religious theme. A service, usually interdenominational, of blessing the wells is held everywhere. Fifty years ago only 14 places dressed their wells, today that number has increased to 76.
Dressing a well can take a team of people up to 7 days to complete and it will only last for about a week before the clay dries and cracks and the flowers fade.
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The well dressings have now finished for 2008, we look forward to the new season in 2009. Please keep an eye on this page for details of the new season.
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