Clipping the church is an ancient custom that is traditionally held on Easter Monday or Shrove Tuesday in the United Kingdom. The word "clipping" is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and is derived from the word "clyppan", meaning "embrace" or "clasp". Clipping the church involves either the church congregation or local children holding hands in an outward-facing ring around the church. Once the circle is completed onlookers will often cheer and sometimes hymns are sung. Often there is dancing. Following the ceremony a sermon is delivered in the church and there are sometimes refreshments. Currently, there are only a few churches left in England that hold this ceremony.
Read more about Clipping The Church: History
Famous quotes containing the words clipping the and/or church:
“Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time,
Tiering the same dull webs of discontent,
Clipping the same sad alnage of the years.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“It is the custom of the Roman Church which I unworthily serve with the help of God, to tolerate some things, to turn a blind eye to some, following the spirit of discretion rather than the rigid letter of the law.”
—Pope Gregory VII (c. 1020–1085)