It’s Local and Community History Month in the UK, so here’s a post about the local West Yorkshire legend of moonraking.
The moon often plays a large part in mythology and mysticism. The reflection of the moon on water does have an ethereal quality about it and is closely linked with many legends. We often connect moon and water legends with areas that have waterways, and the canals in the valleys of West Yorkshire have their own.
Prepare yourself for some mystifying West Yorkshire quirkiness.
The West Yorkshire village of Slaithwaite (officially pronounced Slath (short “a” sound not “ay”) -wait but pronounced by locals as Slawit (ow sound, like cow)-it) — don’t ask why, just accept it as part of good old Yorkshire ways and all that — a village near Huddersfield, celebrates the moon and the moonraking legend every odd-numbered year with the Moonraking Festival held towards the end of February.
The moon seems to have local significance, for it has appeared as a motif on official village records since the 1500s.
The Moonraking Festival includes an entire week of craft events where people make lanterns using willow frames and paper. On the last day of the festival, which usually has a different theme each time, a moon lantern travels down the canal, is raked from the water by gnomes, and returned to the sky.
Then follows a procession of comic escapades, storytelling, music, and light displaying the lanterns that were made during the week.
But why?
The Moonraking legend in Slaithwaite goes back to the early 1800s when the Napoleonic Wars made luxury goods like alcohol, particularly brandy and rum, very expensive, plus they were steeply taxed. So, to get around it, smuggling was rife.
Accounts vary, but the Slaithwaite moonraking legend tells the story of a local smuggler who was bringing his illicit cargo along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal to Slaithwaite. However, when he spotted “the law” he threw his booty overboard intending to collect it later.
That night, with the light of the full moon to guide them, he sent his associates to retrieve their contraband from the canal using rakes and hooks. While the men were trying to rake the cargo from the canal, the militia (or revenue men) saw them and questioned their actions.
To avoid arrest, the men played the fool, claimed that the moon had fallen into the canal and they were trying to rake it out and return it to the sky.
The militia took them to be drunk or simpletons and left them to their moonraking.
The smugglers then celebrated their narrow escape and ability to hoodwink the militia. Probably by sampling the contents of the barrels they retrieved.
© Copyright Nigel Homer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Since then, the story became a legend, and the Moonraking Festival celebrates playing the fool.
“Light up your lantern, light up your light,
Remember your friends on this cold frosty night
The Moon she has fallen out of the sky
Take her round Slaithwaite and hold her up high
Peace to the village, peace to the town,
Peace to all cities all the world round.”
From Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival
Covid has put the festival on hold, but the organisers plan to bring it back in its original form in 2023.
Here’s a local news clip and video to give you a feel for what the festival is like.
Gill Bond and the Moonshine Festival on ITV Calendar ! – Bing video
Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival 2013 – YouTube
Sources
Kirklees Local History Service
I loved this article I’m very interested in local customs and how they originated
I’m very interested in local customs and how they originated great article to read