Australian Susan on 30 May 2006  •  Link

Ascension Day is commemorated as the day, forty days after the Resurrection when Jesus ascended into heaven - in front of his disciples - as recorded in Acts 1, Luke 24, Mark 16. Jesus left the disciples promising to send them a helper, which arrived on Pentecost (10 days later) - the Holy Spirit.
Ascension Day has long being a holy day and is still a public holiday in some Catholic Christian countries, but not most Protestant ones.

Observance was banned in the Commonwealth period, being restored with the introduction of the new Book of Common Prayer of 1662, thus the 1663 observance was the first since the 1640s. Observance of Ascension Day dates from the 4th century.

language hat on 1 May 2011  •  Link

http://cholesbury.com/beatbounds.…

"Beating the Bounds" on Ascension/Procession Day (link courtesy of Australian Susan).

Terry Foreman on 6 May 2016  •  Link

Beating the bounds is an ancient custom still observed in some English and Welsh parishes. Under the name of the Gangdays the custom of going a-ganging was kept before the Norman Conquest.[1] A group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bea…

San Diego Sarah on 15 May 2020  •  Link

This article explains why the enclosures which took place up until King Charles I severely affected the ability of the common country people to withstand famine, as we see in the Diary. Beating the Bounds was a way to map what belonged to the parish, and happened at this time of year (still does in some places):

https://daily.jstor.org/beating-t…