Blaina Annual Sunday Schools Demonstration. June 5th. 1933

This footage was commissioned by William Osborne Lee, manager of the Gaiety Cinema in Blaina, a Valleys town. It shows the Blaina Sunday Schools – attended by men, women and children – cheerfully parading on Whit Monday, men with linked arms leading the procession that includes members of the Salvation Army and a man in a self-propelled wheelchair. 60% of the men – miners almost to a man – would have been unemployed at the time.

Whit Monday was a bank holiday until 1971 when the Spring Bank Holiday was introduced in its stead, on the last Monday in May. Whit Monday follows Whit Sunday (also known as Whitsun), the Christian festival of Pentecost which takes place on the seventh Sunday after Easter and is a celebration of the Holy Spirit. Whitsuntide was traditionally a time for church/chapel parades (Whitsun Walks) in Britain - and for Cheese Rolling in certain areas. In Wales, at least, the walk would precede an often open-air gathering for hymn singing, followed by a good tea in the vestry of each participating chapel/church. Adults would attend Sunday Schools, as well as children, for Bible discussion/lectures etc.