On the Village Green

Endon Bear and I had a busy day this Saturday, because we were helping Polar with one of her craft stalls.  It was held in Penkhull, on the day of the Penkhull Mystery Play.  When we arrived, there was a brass band playing, which we liked, then people in white clothes and rags jumping about with sticks, who Polar told us were Morris Dancers.  Apparently, these are traditional things done by English humans, like Mystery Plays.

The Mystery Play isn't a detective story, as I first thought.  It's actually a history play which the local people write and act in, with a different theme every year.  Polar says the original Mystery Plays were performed in medieval times, many hundreds of years ago, and were usually Bible stories.  She never gets to see the Penkhull play properly, because the stalls face away from the green onto a little road, but we were able to peep through the back of the stall towards the end of the show and thought we could see Suffragettes!

A little later, a lady gave us a programme for the other things happening that day, and a sticker with Penkhull's official flag on it.  I have never heard of a village having a flag before!  It's very smart and we will keep it in our bear basket with Hanley's City of Culture flag and other special things.

After the Mystery Play, we had lots more music.  There was a ukulele band, which we liked a lot as they played cheerful songs we could dance to.  We waved at the human cubs as we were dancing, and they brought their mums, dads and nanas over to see Polar's painted things, and we sold lots of pots, spoons and watering cans.  

For some reason, it got very quiet just before three o'clock, and there weren't so many people coming past.  With no human cubs to wave to and no people buying Polar's things, Endon and I started to get bored.  Polar worked out how to open the back of the stall so we could watch what was happening on the green.  There were people teaching circus skills to human cubs, which looked very clever, then there was a tug-of-war.  

Endon and I thought it might be fun to have a bears' tug-of-war with the two small bears, Endon and Hanley, against me, as I am bigger than them, but there were only two of us at the stall. Can you guess why?

That's right - he was at home, with Grizzly, watching the World Cup, where England were playing Sweden in the quarter finals.  That was why it was so quiet at the village green in Penkhull - everyone was watching the match.  Polar was checking the score on her phone, when suddenly there was a huge cheer from the pub nearby.

'I think England have scored!' said Endon.  He was right, and they did it again, just as Grizzly arrived with the car to take us home.  We were home just in time for the last few minutes, so we could celebrate with Hanley Bear.

Here we are towards the end of our day at the Penkhull Mysteries. Can you see how much we've sold?