Hwitan Sunnandaeg (Whitsun). A parade anyone?

Wesleyan Methodists on parade. Note the uniformed band!

hwit

adj: white, bright, shining (hwitan dat sing neut)

Catholic England

On þisan Eastron com se kyng to Wincestre, & þa wæron Eastra on .x. kalendas Aprilis, & sona æfter þam com Mathild seo hlæfdie hider to land, & Ealdred arcebiscop hig gehalgode to cwene on Westmynstre on Hwitan Sunnandæg.

This Easter came the king to Winchester; and Easter was then on the tenth before the calends of April. Soon after this came the Lady Matilda hither to this land; and Archbishop Eldred hallowed her to queen at Westminster on Whit Sunday. - Anglo-Saxon D Chronicle for 1067

Whitsun, Whitsunday, Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit... an occasion for parading, processing, dancing, feasting. Imagine droves of people celebrating the Faith... publicly... without fear of reprisal.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. - Acts of the Apostles 2:44-47 

WHITSUNDAY | School children joined war veterans, police officers, armed forces personnel, Navy cadets and musicians from the Proserpine Citizen's Band, for the 2014 Anzac Day march in Airlie Beach | Sharon Smallwood, Sunshine Coast Daily

Aleteia

In English countries, the Christian feast of Pentecost is often called by another name: Whitsunday. Why is that?

The English term is principally derived from a practice in the early Church that made the celebration of Pentecost similar to the Easter Vigil. There was a service called “Whitsun Eve” where the catechumens who had not been baptized at Easter received the sacrament on the eve of Pentecost. Similar to the Easter Vigil, it was celebrated in a “night watch” liturgy that included the reading of six prophecies and a solemn blessing of the baptismal font.

After the celebration of Baptism, the newly baptized would be vested in a white alb, symbolizing their new birth in the life of grace.

Oxford Reference

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803122336928

The English name for the Church festival otherwise called Pentecost, held on the seventh Sunday after Easter as the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of the Apostles. The derivation of the word Whitsun is still unclear, despite a great deal of discussion and argument by experts and others for well over a hundred years. The first mention of the word in English is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1067, as ‘hwitan sunnandaeg’.* [The same term exists in Icelandic: Hvitasunnu-dagur*] Whitsun was one of the festivals in the pre-Reformation Church when the biblical story was dramatized to educate the parishioners. 

*ed./corrected by Gilbert 

In English tradition, Whitsun has long been a day of feasting and merrymaking, as befits its time of year as well as its religious origins. Medieval church ales,* wakes, feasts, and revels survived in the fětes, sports days, fairs, and other convivial meetings of later periods, for which Whitsun was well known(.)

*The Parish ale or church ale was a party or festivity in an English parish at which ale was the chief drink. Wikipedia 

 

Whitsun merrymaking had a long-standing and proverbial connection with the morris dance, as evidenced in Shakespeare's Henry V (II. iv). Another widely reported custom, which apparently died out in the late 19th century, was the decoration of churches with boughs of trees, especially birch, placed in holes at the ends of pews and elsewhere, and another decorating custom, Well-dressing starts at Whitsun in some villages, and other customs and beliefs have also clustered around the season. Whitsun was one of those times (the others being New Year and Easter) when it was important to wear new clothes if you could. Opie and Tatem list the earliest reference to this in 1626, and the latest from 1985. This developed into a sort of visiting custom in south Yorkshire, where children would visit neighbours and relatives to show off their new clothes and hope to get a little money in return (L&L 1:3 (1970), 15). The desire for new clothes was also linked to another strong tradition, particularly popular in, but not exclusive to, the Lancashire/Yorkshire area, the custom of Whit Walks. These were organized primarily by churches (of various denominations) and involved the faithful processing around the neighbourhood, in their best clothes and if possible wearing white, led by a local band. At key points there would be mass open-air hymn singing, and an outdoor tea at the end of the day. In many cases it was the Sunday Schools who organized the walks for children, and they could be large affairs indeed, with thousands taking part on the day: Whit-Monday, as usual in Manchester, was a great gala day for Sunday scholars. A procession of all the school children in connection with the Established Church, numbering about 16,000, took place in the morning through all the principal streets of the town. Each school was headed by its band of music … The remaining days of the week will be given up to processions by the children of other denominational schools … ‘(Croydon Chronicle (6 June 1868). 

Whit Walk!

 https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/gallery/1204267

Whit Friday

Whit Friday, meaning "white Friday", is the name given to the first Friday after Pentecost or Whitsun (White Sunday).

The day has a cultural significance in North West England, as the date on which the annual Whit Walks are traditionally held. By convention, the Whit Walks coincide with brass band contests, held in Saddleworth, Oldham, Tameside and other outlying areas of Greater Manchester. Traditionally, children and their supporters from Anglican Sunday Schools 'walked' on Whit Monday, those from RC Sunday Schools on Whit Friday,[1] and there was an element of competition in general display, dresses and banners. Outside Manchester city centre, other Sunday Schools walked on Whit Sunday and in surrounding towns on other days during (or in the weeks following) Whit Week. This period marked the height of their year's activities for many local brass bands. - Wikipedia