A friend of ours was brought up in Hume Manchester in the fifties, Around bonfire night her and her friends went door to door with blackened faces collecting money, I guess for fireworks, and they called it .................. "going out n*ggering"!

At the clear risk of boring the *rse off everybody: I know most people niether know nor care, morris dances are friendly and no harm is meant and no racial intent is implied. It's just that some people are somewher between uncomfortable and offended by the practice and it does have roots to "n*gger minstrelsey" -


<="" span="">href="http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/pd49/morris/bordern/bordern.htm">here

"One tune that was used regularly is 'Not for Joe', or 'Om Si the Gom Si'. This started life as a 'nigger minstrel' song and either took its folk name from, or gave the name to, a particular style of Border Morris Dancing. Some of the versions of the words for this song would be considered mildly obscene even today and it is not surprising that the collectors did not print them, although they often recorded them in manuscript. In an area where few people travelled regularly to the large towns, being able to use the latest popular music-hall songs in a performance must have been somewhat akin to being able to use part of the latest blockbuster movie as an accompaniment to the dancing."

Best wishes

L in C#