The Origins Of The Morris

To answer the question 'what are you doing?' we have to look back into the  mists of time. And mists they certainly are; no one took a serious interest in Morris dancing until about one hundred years ago - when it had almost died out - so it is not surprising that little is known of its history or origins. Where facts are lacking, theories flourish, however, and what follows is distilled from these theories.

Morris dancing is very old indeed. Although no doubt very different from what you can watch today, some form of dance was undoubtedly performed by teams of men as a religious ritual in pre-Christian times. These dances would almost certainly be concerned with fertility; their performance helping to ensure that the barren time of winter was indeed followed by the growing season of spring and summer - a process of vital and magical significance to primitive peoples.

Still today, the Morris has links with these ancient rituals. For instance, it is strongly associated with the coming of spring: Greensleeves are one of the many sides who observe the ritual of rising early to dance at dawn on the First of May - traditionally the start of spring. The primitive rite may well have involved an animal being killed and eaten by dancers, and in parts of England where the Morris takes the form of sword dances, an echo of this ritual survives in some dances which involve a mock sacrifice, with one of the dancers feigning death until, awoken by a kiss from a pretty girl. Eating a meal together is an important part of the traditions which Morris dancers observe; after a long day dancing we will sit down together, with due solemnity, to enjoy a 'feast'.

In spite of the coming of civilisation and Christianity, ceremonial dances managed to survive - obviously they fulfilled a deep-felt need in local communities - and over the centuries they acquired the name Morris. We can only now guess at the meaning of the word. Perhaps it came from 'moorish', a name at one time given to anything which - like the Moorish race of North Africa - was considered strange and rather primitive. Did the Crusaders bring this dance back with them, only to be adopted eventually by the common people? Or perhaps it came from the word 'mores', meaning customs and traditions considered vital by a social group.