Teddy bears’ picnic
If you go down to the woods today, you could be in for a big surprise. You’ll see the oddest teddy bears’ picnic that ever met your eyes.
Well, poetry was never my strong point and it’s not woods so much as Knockmore Road, Mosside, Co Antrim which is the site of this particularly odd teddy bears’ shindig, for it is here that a tradition is developing of nailing teddy bears to trees.
This unusual practise started several years ago but has become more and more popular. Yet no-one seems to know why it started or what it means. Some people believe it has some ritual significance, but locals are more sanguine, they think it started as a bit of fun then spread. According to the Belfast Telegraph one resident commented;
Teddy Bears tied to a Tree
"I think that it all started off when folk were dumping there and a teddy bear was tied up on a tree…It kind of started off a trend, and then somebody else just started to do the same…A lot of the local people walk on that road, and I suppose they just put a few up for the craic, and then it just grew into a thing”.
It makes you wonder if any of our revered traditions started as just a craic and if in a hundred years’ time folk will still be tying teddies to the trees along Knockmore Road.
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