What To Look For At The New York Faerie Festival

Sometime around a hundred years ago, the foliated faces adorning medieval cathedrals were joined with the leaf-clad fellows adorning medieval pub signs to fashion a modern mythic figure known as the Greenman. The Greenman is said to represent rejuvenation or rebirth and symbolizes human connection to the plant world or to the Wild. The Greenman has become one of the symbols of the modern ecology movement which promotes everyone ‘going green’.

The Beneficent Order of Greenmen (BOG) is an organization given over to promoting the stories, legends, and symbolic meanings of the fellow known in folklore as the Greenman.  This is accomplished through embodying the character at festivals or faires, clad in leaves, and processing as a group while chanting, telling stories, gifting nuts and acorns, and offering blessings. The founder and ‘Abbot’ of the Order, Shane Odom, refers to BOG as a ‘marching order’ because the point is to move all around these festivals as a group and in costume, enhancing the overall environment.  Traditionally, this is exactly what “Greenmen” did throughout Europe and England in the past. They led processions and parades during various rustic celebrations, especially during spring festivals and in early summer. Harkening back to those times the New York Faerie Festival features a daily parade called The Queen’s Procession which the verdant members of BOG proudly lead, marching ahead and announcing the imminent arrival of the Faerie Queen and her court.

While the Greenman seems to have a certain timeless appeal, the archetype itself is notably gender-specific.  Not surprisingly, the Beneficent Order of Greenmen is a fraternal order in character and structure, and its membership is therefore comprised of men.  There are women associated with the order, but they are referred to as dryads and seen mostly as adjuncts or supporting crew. 

Many people who love plants and live green do not associate plants with walking around, let alone marching. As it turns out, a number of those people are also not men.  For these people, as for others, there is an alternative to BOG known as LOG; the Loyal Order of Greenfolk. Log members can be of any gender (or none) and are a rooting order rather than a marching order.

E.L. Downey is an artist and leather mask maker who is also a founding member of LOG.  “I make foliated leather masks for both women and men and for those in between as well.” She said. “I love to wear foliated masks myself, but I don’t identify as a Greenman.“ explained Downey. “Also, as an exhibiting artist at these various mythic arts events such as the New York Faerie Festival, I’m bound to my booth. I have to stay rooted in my space and do my thing. I can’t just go parading around the festival tossing nuts.” Downey says that she is quite content to watch the daily Procession and cheer them as they pass by.  “We ‘root’ for the Greenmen when we see them.” she says with a smirk. Downey is also quick to add that she appreciates the blessings for growth and prosperity and makes creative things out of the acorns she’s received.

LOG members often dress up in leaves of green, or clothes of green, or even just with something green on somewhere, and are often seen carrying a branch in their hand. …or a beverage.

“The Loyal Order of Greenfolk have not been an organized group for as long as the Beneficent Order of Greenmen,” said Marianne Bauer, another artist whose creations in metal include leaf-adorned masks and who prefers her parades from the sidelines. “but we’ve been sitting around longer and we’ve been growing for quite some time.” She, too, is a founding member of LOG.

Billy Bardo is the Pryor of the Central Northeastern (or Susquenango Region) Chapter of BOG. He is also a member of LOG. “Well sure, I’m a man,” he states, “but I’m not MERELY a man. Plus, the daily parade and the continuing Greenman March can be tiring.”  Bardo confides that since all the men of BOG dress pretty much alike and are all covered in leaves, it’s hard to tell when one or two are missing from the line-up. Sometimes he sneaks off into (or as) the undergrowth.  “I’m a good candidate for membership in both organizations.”, states Bardo, “because both orders fundamentally complement each other and I like a full range of experiences and options.”