Worcestershire.
At sunset upon Easter Monday, and at no other period throughout the year, a game is played by the children of Evesham called “thread-my-needle.” From the season of this observance, as well as the cry of the players while elevating their arms arch-wise, which now is:
“Open the gates as high as the sky,
And let Victoria’s troops pass by,”
it is probable, says May in his Hist. of Evesham (1845, p. 319), that the custom originally had reference to the great festival of the church and the triumphant language of the Psalmist, applied to the event commemorated at this period—Psalm xxiv. 9: ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” The accuracy of this supposition, however, may be fairly doubted.