Plough Monday is the traditional start of the English agricultural year. Plough Monday is the first Monday after Epiphany, 6 January. [1] [2] References to Plough Monday date back to the late 15th century. [2] The day before Plough Monday is referred to as Plough Sunday, in which a ploughshare is brought into the local Christian church (such as the Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican traditions) with prayers for the blessing of human labour, tools, as well as the land. [3] [4]
The day traditionally saw the resumption of work after the Christmas period in some areas, particularly in northern England and East England. [6] Though mostly associated with the East of England, Plough Monday celebrations are also known elsewhere in the country, for instance in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Cornwall. [7] The customs observed on Plough Monday varied by region, but a common feature to a lesser or greater extent was for a plough to be hauled from house to house in a procession, collecting money. They were often accompanied by musicians, an old woman or a boy dressed as an old woman, called the "Bessy," and a man in the role of the "fool." 'Plough Pudding' is a boiled suet pudding, containing meat and onions. It is from Norfolk and is eaten on Plough Monday. [1]
In the fifteenth century, churches lit candles called "plough lights" to bless farmworkers. Some parishes kept a plough in the church for those who did not own one, and in some parishes, the plough was paraded around the village to raise money for the church. This practice seems to have died out after the Reformation. [8]
While religious Plough Monday celebrations were suppressed, private observances continued. The most common custom involved dragging a plough and collecting money. [9] The Plough Monday celebrants were known by a variety of regional names, including Plough Boys, Bullocks, Lads, Jacks, Stots, and Witches. The Plough Boys usually dressed in costume, often with one or more in female clothing. [10]
William Hone made use of Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Including the Whole of Mr. Bourne's Antiquitates Vulgares (1777) by the antiquary John Brand. Brand's work (with additions by Henry Ellis) mentions a northern English Plough Monday custom also observed in the beginning of Lent. Evidently the Plough dance depicted by Phiz in his illustrations for Harrison Ainsworth's 1858 novel Mervyn Clitheroe, and Ainsworth's description, is based on this or a similar account: [11]
The FOOL PLOUGH goes about: a pageant consisting of a number of sword dancers dragging a plough, with music; one, sometimes two, in very strange attire; the Bessy, in the grotesque habit of an old woman, and the Fool, almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on, and the tail of some animal hanging from his back. The office of one of these characters, in which he is very assiduous, is to go about rattling a box amongst the spectators of the dance, in which he receives their little donations. [12]
In the Isles of Scilly, locals would cross-dress and then visit their neighbours to joke about local occurrences. There would be guise dancing and considerable drinking and revelry. [13]
Plough Monday customs declined in the 19th century. The advent of mechanised farming meant that agricultural workers were less numerous and relatively better paid, and thus did not have to beg for money in the winter. Though some Plough Monday customs continued into the 1930s, they did not continue past the beginning of the Second World War. From the 1960s, Plough Monday customs began to be revived following the second British folk revival. [14] In 1972, the tradition of traveling around the village with a plough to collect money was revived at Balsham in Cambridgeshire. [15] Subsequently, the Cambridge Morris Men revived the practice of Plough Monday molly dancing in 1977. [16] They are now mainly associated with Molly dancing and a good example can be seen each year at Maldon in Essex. Livery Companies in the City of London, notably the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers hold a traditional banquet with a medieval sung grace, with the response from those gathered of 'God speed the plough'.
In the Cambridgeshire villages of Ramsey and Whittlesey during the nineteenth century, men or boys would dress in a layer of straw and were known as straw bears, who went door to door dancing for money. The tradition, which died out around the time of the First World War, was revived in 1980 at Whittlesey. [17] The revived straw bear tradition is practiced annually on the Saturday before Plough Monday, when a straw bear is paraded through the village's streets. [18]
Based in Goathland, North Yorkshire, on every Plough Monday, the Goathland Plough Stots perform a Long Sword dance. [19]
Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrelated English folkloric tradition. The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in the late Victorian period, but Christmas had been personified for centuries before then.
Ziemassvētki, also Ziemsvētki is an annual festival in Latvia which observes the winter solstice and birth of Jesus Christ. Latvians around the world celebrate it from 24 to 25 December. 24 December is Ziemassvētku vakars, 24 December is Ziemassvētku vakars, while 25 December is Pirmie Ziemassvētki, 26 December Otrie Ziemassvētki. Christianity traditionally celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ on 25 December, according to the Julian calendar, but Orthodox churches follow the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar and, as a result, the majority of Orthodox churches celebrate Ziemassvētki on 6, 7 and 8 January.
Whitsun is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the Spirit of Truth upon Christ's disciples. Whitsuntide, the week following Whitsunday, was one of three holiday weeks for the medieval villein; on most manors he was free from service on the lord's demesne this week, which marked a pause in the agricultural year. Whit Monday, the day after Whitsun, remained a holiday in Britain until 1971 when, with effect from 1972, the ruling Conservative Government decided to permanently replace it, following a five-year trial period, with a Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May. Whit had been the occasion for many varied forms of celebration, and was of significant cultural importance. It was a custom for children to receive a new set of clothes, even among the poorest families, a tradition which continued well into the 20th century.
Molly dancing is a form of English Morris dance, traditionally done by out-of-work ploughboys in midwinter in the 19th century. It was largely ignored by folk dance collectors, who recorded only a handful of dances before the practice died out in the 1930s. The practice was revived in the 1970s.
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is a folk dance which takes place each September in the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, England. It is performed by ten dancers, accompanied by a musician playing an accordion and a youth with a triangle. Six of the dancers carry reindeer horns; the remaining four take the roles of a hobby horse, Maid Marian, a fool, and a youth with a bow and arrow. On Wakes Monday the performers dance around the parish all day, beginning early in the morning at the parish church where the horns are stored.
Whittlesey is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. Whittlesey is 6 miles (10 km) east of Peterborough. The population of the parish was 17,667 at the 2021 Census.
The Long Sword dance is a hilt-and-point sword dance recorded mainly in Yorkshire, England. The dances are usually performed around Christmas time and were believed to derive from a rite performed to enable a fruitful harvest.
Plough Sunday is a traditional English celebration of the beginning of the agricultural year that has seen some revival over recent years. Plough Sunday celebrations usually involve bringing a ploughshare into a church with prayers for the blessing of the land. It is traditionally held on the Sunday after Epiphany, the Sunday between 7 January and 13 January. Accordingly, work in the fields did not begin until the day after Plough Sunday: Plough Monday. Although the nature of farming has changed over the centuries, Plough Sunday is seen as a way of generally celebrating farming and the work of farmers. In the Church of England book of liturgy, Common Worship: Times and Seasons, there is a suggested prayer for the "Blessing of the Plough", for the "Blessing of Seed" and passages of Scripture related to the agricultural theme.
Jack in the Green, also known as Jack o' the Green, is an English folk custom associated with the celebration of May Day. It involves a pyramidal or conical wicker or wooden framework that is decorated with foliage being worn by a person as part of a procession, often accompanied by musicians.
Goathland is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is in the North York Moors national park due north of Pickering, off the A169 to Whitby. It has a station on the steam-operated North Yorkshire Moors Railway line.
Steve Roud is the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index and an expert on folklore and superstition. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society.
A Mighty River of Song was a unique concert performance by various members of the Waterson family on 12 May 2007 at the Royal Albert Hall in the South Kensington area of London, England.
A soul cake, also known as a soulmass-cake, is a small round cake with sweet spices, which resembles a shortbread biscuit. It is traditionally made for Halloween, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day to commemorate the dead in many Christian traditions. The cakes, often simply referred to as souls, are given out to soulers who go from door to door during the days of Allhallowtide, singing and saying prayers "for the souls of the givers and their friends", especially the souls of deceased relatives, thought to be in the intermediate state between Earth and Heaven. In England, the practice dates to the medieval period, and it continued there until the 1930s by both Protestant and Catholic Christians. In Sheffield and Cheshire, the custom has continued into modern times. In Lancashire and in the North-east of England, soul cakes were known as Harcakes, a kind of thin parkin.
A straw bear is a traditional character that appears in carnival processions or as a separate seasonal custom in parts of Germany, mainly at Shrovetide but sometimes at Candlemas or Christmas Eve.
In folklore, a hobby horse is a costumed character that features in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around the world. In England, they are particularly associated with May Day celebrations, mummers' plays and the Morris dance.
Dancing England was a series of showcase traditional dance concerts held at the Derby Assembly Rooms from 1979 to 1987. They were devised and curated by Phil Heaton and John Shaw, members of the Black Cap Sword Dancers, and two very notable characters on the Nottingham and Derby folk and dance scene of the 1970s. Dancing England was set up to showcase the best of traditional dance in the UK, along with unique and/or interesting folk customs to celebrate the UK's wide cultural heritage.
Old Tup, sometimes termed the Derby Tup or the Derby Ram, is a folk custom found in an area of the East Midlands of England. Geographically, the custom was found on the borders of Derbyshire and Yorkshire and stretched into part of Nottinghamshire. The tradition entails the use of a hobby horse with a goat's head that is mounted on a pole and carried by an individual hidden under a sackcloth. It represents a regional variation of a "hooded animal" tradition that appears in various forms throughout the British Isles. In geographical location and style it displays strong similarities with the Old Horse custom, but in the latter the hobby horse was presented as a horse rather than a ram.
England traditionally celebrates a number of Christian and secular festivals. Most are observed throughout the country but some, such as Oak Apple Day, Souling, Rushbearing, Bawming the Thorn, and Hocktide, are local to certain regions.
Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers. Historically, mummers' plays consisted of informal groups of costumed community members that visited from house to house on various holidays. Today the term refers especially to a play in which a number of characters are called on stage, two of whom engage in a combat, the loser being revived by a doctor character. This play is sometimes found associated with a sword dance though both also exist in Britain independently.
The Goathland Plough Stots are a team of Long Sword Dancers based in the village of Goathland, North Yorkshire, England. The traditional dance that they perform had died out by the start of the twentieth century but was revived in 1922. The team were expelled from the Morris Ring for allowing women to be trained in the art of the dance, the tradition being that it is a male-only dance. The Goathland Plough Stots dance is recognised as one of the oldest in England, with a history dating back more than a thousand years.
Sunday celebrations usually involved bringing a ploughshare into a church with prayers for the blessing of the land.
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