Once a year, Britons celebrate the rejection of dour political extremism while honouring tradition and history by wearing a sprig of oak.
Oak Apple Day, celebrated by pockets of traditional Britain every year on May 29th, memorialises the incredible escape from an England gripped by revolutionary turmoil of a prince. Narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of radical extremist Oliver Cromwell — according to legend by hiding in an oak tree — that would later execute his father, Charles II was later able to return to England to reclaim his throne.
Repealing interregnum-era laws that severely restricted life, Charles was known as the ‘Merry Monarch’ for the return of things like unfettered celebrations of Christmas and theatre plays.
Remembering Charles II’s life-saving flight and oaken hiding place:
By ancient tradition, sprigs of oak are worn or hung outside houses and other celebrations including processions, meals, and dances take place.
Failing to wear the oak could once have some consequence — going unadorned would signal your support for 17th century English bad guy Oliver Cromwell and was traditionally punished by being thrashed with stinging nettles.
… The oak was already a major signal of English, and later British, identity — and, no doubt boosted by this episode, remains so. The Royal Oak remains one of the most popular names for pubs in the country, often twinned with a hand-painted hanging sign showing a crown among the leaves, and Royal Oak has been the name of several of the nation’s largest battleships.
Fair to say “Oak Apple Day — sometimes called Royal Oak Day — is not quite what it was in an increasingly woke British state obsessed with “decolonising” education and abasing itself for the alleged crimes of the nation’s history. So wear a sprig of oak with pride today, remember the old ways, reject the scolds and wokesters.
Happy Oak Apple Day!