Morris Dancing

Horsmonden see regular displays of Morris Dancing

A morris dance is a form of folk dance. There are English records mentioning the morris dance dating back to 1448, which is also the year of the first known morris dance performance in England, and dances with similar names and some similar features are mentioned in Renaissance documents in France, Italy, and Spain.

The origins of the term are uncertain, but one of the most widely accepted theories is that the term was ‘moorish dance’ and ‘Moresco’, which was gradually corrupted to “morris dance”.

Another is that it derives from the Romanian ‘morisca’, which means ‘little mill’. Another, perhaps simpler, explanation is that ‘Morris’ comes from the Latin ‘Mores’, meaning ‘a custom’. This is consistent with the word (with various archaic spellings) sometimes being used to describe some other folk customs such as folk plays.