CHAPTER XVII

CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH CERTAIN DAYS AND SEASONS

Beside the customs connected with the changes and chances of man’s mortal life, which we have considered in the foregoing chapter, there are those which belong to certain fixed days of the year, Saints’ Days, and other church seasons and festivals. To give an account of each and all of the customs and pastimes which would come under this category would indeed be a tremendous task, so great is their number, and so varied their nature. I shall only attempt here to give a small selection, arranged according to the sequence of the dates to which they belong.

We are all of us familiar with the usual ceremonies which usher in the New Year--the sitting up to watch the Old Year out and the New Year in, the ringing of the church bells immediately after the last stroke of twelve, the handshaking, and exchange of greetings. But in England generally, New Year’s Day is of little account as a festival, being overshadowed by Christmas. In Scotland, on the other hand, New Year’s Day holds the more important place, and consequently New Year’s Eve, as a day of preparatory observances, ranks above Christmas Eve. New Year’s Eve in Scotland is known as _Hogmanay_, a term which is also applied to the customary gift for which children go round and beg on this day. The name and the custom are not, however, confined to Scotland, being also found in certain of the northern counties of England (Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks.). Much has been written about the history of this word, but beyond the generally accepted statement that it is of French origin, its precise derivation still remains obscure; cp. Norm. dial. _hoquinano_, _haguinelo_, cries on New Year’s Eve; _hoguilanno_, a New Year’s gift. On the last day of the year, children go in companies chiefly to the houses of the better class, singing some such rhyme as: Rise up, gude-wife, and shake your feathers, Dinna think that we are beggars, We’re girls and boys come out to-day, For to get our Hogmanay, Hogmanay, trol-lol-lay. Give us of your white bread, and not of your grey, Or else we’ll knock at your door a’ day (w.Sc.); or in shorter form: Hogamanay, hogamanay, Gi’s wor breed-an’-cheese, an’ set’s away (Nhb.). In earlier times it was also customary for youths to go round dressed up as _guisers_, performing at their neighbours’ houses a Hogmanay masque. Sometimes they went round just after midnight to enter the houses in the capacity of _first-foot_.

[Sidenote: _New Year’s Day_]

The superstitious practice of _first-footing_ belongs also to Scotland and northern England. The first person who crosses the threshold after midnight on New Year’s Eve is the _first-foot_ or _lucky-bird_, and the prosperity or misfortune of the household during the ensuing year depends on what manner of man is then admitted. On no account must the _first-foot_ be a woman. In most places the luckiest kind of _first-foot_ is a fair-haired man. A man of dark complexion, a flat-footed man, or one afflicted with a squint brings bad luck. But in some parts of Yorkshire where the _lucky-bird_ is the first person who enters the house on Christmas Day, if it is a dark-haired man who thus ‘lets Christmas in’, he is welcomed as a bringer of good luck, whilst a red-haired man is esteemed a harbinger of ill-luck. On the whole, the safest plan was that of engaging some recognized lucky person to undertake the office of _first-foot_, instead of leaving the matter in the hands of wayward chance.

Another old Hogmanay-night custom was that of fetching the _ream-water_ (Sc.) from the well. This could only be done by a woman, in some places only by a spinster. As soon as the clock had finished striking twelve, some female member of the household would hurry pitcher in hand to the nearest well, in order to be the first to skim off the water lying near the surface and bring it home; for whoever could secure this, the _ream_, _crap_ or _floo’er_ of the water, would bring in good fortune for the whole of the year.

A writer in _Notes and Queries_ for Jan. 3, 1852, quotes the following song sung by children in South Wales on New Year’s morning, when carrying a jug full of water newly drawn from the well:

Here we bring new water From the well so clear, For to worship God with This happy New Year. Sing levez dew, sing levez dew, The water and the wine; The seven bright gold wires And the bugles they do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid With gold upon her toe, Open you the West Door, And let the Old Year go. Sing reign of Fair Maid, With gold upon her chin, Open you the East Door, And let the New Year in.

[Sidenote: _God-cakes, Blessing-cakes_]

An ancient custom in the city of Coventry is the sending of _god-cakes_ on New Year’s Day. The _god-cake_ is a particular kind of cake sent by godparents to their godchildren. It varies in price, but its shape is invariably triangular, it is about one inch thick, and is filled with mincemeat. A similar custom exists in Kidderminster, where the head of the family sends out packets of _blessing-cakes_ to the scattered representatives of the original stock, wherever they may be. Each householder who receives a gift of cakes must again distribute them among the members of his household, servants included, so that every one under his roof may receive the family blessing. The cakes are like long oval buns, rather thin, coated on the top with melted sugar, and ornamented with seven sultanas. As my father came from Kidderminster, I have eaten _blessing-cakes_ every New Year’s Day as far back as my memory carries me, but I was never clear as to the significance of the seven sultanas. I think they are intended to symbolize a sevenfold blessing. The recipe for making the cakes is supposed to be a trade secret in the possession of a certain confectioner, though some of us think that the secret has been lost, and that the _blessing-cakes_ now savour of the common penny bun mixture. But we should never dare to carry the comparison further, for from our earliest youth we were made to feel it almost a sacrilegious offence to call a _blessing-cake_ a bun. After all, it is the sentiment that matters, and that remains good and beautiful.[3]

[3] Mr. J. R. G. Aubrey of the Comberton Bakery, Kidderminster, to whom I wrote concerning this custom, kindly furnished me with the following information: ‘As far as I know round here the custom is dead or nearly so. I make perhaps 300 to 400 ... I think up North the custom is fairly brisk, but they call theirs the Twelfth Cakes. Coventry makes a fair quantity.’ July 24, 1912.

A curious New Year ceremony observed in Durham is known as _crowning_. The Mayor and Mayoress visit the Workhouse, and there _crown_ the eldest of the inmates by placing a five-shilling piece in each hand.

[Sidenote: _Handsel-Monday_]

The first Monday in the New Year is called Handsel-Monday (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Lakel.). Anything which comes into your possession that day, such as a child, a calf, a lamb, or money, augurs good luck for the rest of the year. Formerly it was the custom for presents to be given on this day by mistresses to servants, and by parents to children. At the Trinity House, Newcastle, on Handsel-Monday, every free brother who answers to his name is entitled to five shillings in money, a quarter of a pound of tobacco, a glass of wine, and as much bread and cheese and ale as he pleases.

[Sidenote: _Wassailing the Apples_]

The sixth of January is Twelfth Day, or Old Christmas Day, the church festival of the Epiphany. To this date belongs the ceremony--now nearly obsolete--of _wassailing_ the apple-trees (Sus. Som. Dev.), also known as _howling_, or _hollering_. In some districts the performance took place on the day itself, and in others on Jan. 5, the Eve of the Epiphany. Herrick mentions the custom among _Ceremonies for Christmas_:

Wassail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum and many a pear; For more or less fruits they will bring As you do give them wassailing.--_Hesperides_, 1648.

Boys called _howlers_ used to go round _wassailing_ the orchards. Within doors, toasted bread and sugar were soaked in new cider and made hot, part to be drunk by the farmer’s family and the _howlers_, and part to be poured upon the best bearing apple-tree. The tree was then encircled by the _wassailers_, singing a special song. Mrs. Hewitt describes the ceremony thus: ‘On Old Christmas Eve it is customary for farmers to pour large quantities of cyder on the roots of the primest apple-trees in the orchard, and to place toast sops on the branches, all the while singing the following:

Yer’s tü thee, old apple-tree, Be zure yü bud, be zure yü blaw, And bring voth apples güde enough, Hats vul! Caps vul! Dree-bushel bags vul, Pockets vul and awl! Urrah! Urrah! Aw ’ess, hats vul, caps vul, And dree-bushel bags vul, Urrah! Urrah!

When enough of this serenading has been accomplished, guns are fired into the branches,’ _Peasant Speech of Devon_, 2nd edit. 1892.

[Sidenote: _Plough Monday_]

The first Monday after Twelfth Day is Plough Monday, once celebrated throughout the greater part of England. A company of men wearing white shirts over their jackets, decorated with ribbons, drew a plough through the village or town. They were variously designated in different localities as: _Plough-bullocks_, or _-bullockers_, _Plough-jags_, _Plough-slots_, and _Plough-witchers_. Among them were usually two special characters, the Fool, and a man dressed up in showy female costume called the Bessy; but in some places there were two, and even four female characters with names such as Sweet Sis, Old Joan, Maid Marian, or collectively named Bessybabs, Ladymadams, Queens. This troupe performed some kind of morris-dance or sword-dance, and collected money from the onlookers. Gradually the old ceremonies fell into disuse, the plough no longer appeared in the procession, and instead of the original ploughmen, a band of children paraded the streets to keep up the memory of Plough Monday, a day which Tusser includes among the ‘ploughmans feasting daies’, which no good housewife should forget:

Good huswiues, whom God hath enriched ynough, forget not the feastes that belong to the plough. The meaning is onelie to ioie and be glad, for comfort with labour is fit to be had.

The _Daily Mail_ of Nov. 16, 1897, mentions the observance of Plough Monday in Warwickshire at that date; and three years later the _Standard_ of Oct. 11, 1900, has: ‘“Plough Monday” is still kept up by children and “hobbledehoys”, who go round with blackened faces, and ribbons, &c., in their hats, expecting that the heads of the houses visited will “Remember the ploughboys”, though it is questionable if the party are now following the plough.’

A convivial custom in Cornwall gives the name of Paul Pitcher’s Day to Jan. 24, the Eve of the Conversion of St. Paul, a day observed as a miners’ holiday. A water-pitcher is set up and pelted with stones till it is broken to pieces. A new one is then bought and carried to a public-house by the stone-throwing miners, to be filled and refilled with beer till the whole company is drunk. On the other hand, some people say that the name Paul Pitcher’s Day originates with the custom of throwing broken pitchers against the doors of dwelling-houses. Parties of lads used to go round to the different houses, shouting as they threw the sherds: Paul’s Eve, and here’s a heave. A mischievous game similar to certain Shrove Tuesday pastimes.

Candlemas Day, February 2, the festival of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was reckoned the termination of the Christmas season. Herrick wrote: ‘End now the white loaf and the pie, And let all sports with Christmas die.’ The same poet also tells us that all the Christmas evergreens used for decorations must be taken down on Candlemas Eve. This custom was observed in Shropshire houses and churches within the last thirty years, if not still later. At this date, according to a common proverb: gooid geese all lay; New Candlemas Day, good goose will lay, Old Candlemas Day any goose will lay. There is a saying in Kent: Candlemas Day, Half your fodder and half your hay, meaning that the winter is only then half gone, and you ought not to have exhausted more than half the keep for the cattle. The same saying is also associated with Valentine’s Day. Old folks used to say that so far as the sun shone into the house on Candlemas Day, so far would the snow drive in before the winter was out (Sur.).

[Sidenote: _Valentine’s Day_]

Old Candlemas Day is February 14, better known as Valentine’s Day. The custom of writing and of sending valentines is out of fashion, and there remains little to mark the day. In some country places it is still said that the first man you meet in the morning is your valentine; and it is a common saying that the birds on this day select their mates for nesting. Formerly it was customary for parties of children to _go valentining_ (Nhp. Rut.). They went from house to house singing and begging, their song being usually a form of salutation, differing slightly in different localities: Good morrow, Valentine! Plaze to give me a Valentine, I’ll be yourn, if ye’ll be mine, Good morrow, Valentine!; or, Morrow, morrow, Valentine! First ’tis yours, and then ’tis mine, So please to give me a Valentine, Holly and ivy tickle my toe, Give me red apple and let me go. In Berkshire the following words were sung:

Knock the kittle agin the pan, Gie us a penny if ’e can; We be ragged an’ you be vine, Plaze to gie us a Valentine. Up wi’ the kittle, down wi’ the spout, Gie us a penny an’ we’ll gie out [cease].

In the northern part of Northamptonshire sweet currant buns were formerly made called _Valentine buns_, and given by godparents to their godchildren on the Sunday preceding and the Sunday following Valentine’s Day. A like custom once prevailed in Rutland, where a lozenge-shaped bun called a _Shittle_ was given to children and old people on Valentine’s Day.

For the farmer, Valentine’s Day means that half your firing and half your hay is already consumed. In Rutland there is an old saying: Valentine’s Day, sow your beans in the clay. David [Mch. 1] and Chad [Mch. 2], sow your beans be the weather good or bad. Then comes Benedick [Mch. 21], if you ain’t sowed your beans you may keep ’em in the rick.

[Sidenote: _Sports at Shrovetide_]

Shrovetide in olden days was a season of sport and feasting, the occasion for a final burst of jollity before the beginning of Lent. As the name records, it was originally a time for confession and absolution in preparation for the Lenten Fast, whence also the name _Gooddit_ (Lan. Chs. Stf. Der.), a corruption of _Good-tide_. Shrove Tuesday is Fasten’s E’en (Sc. n.Cy. n.Midl.), the Eve of the great Fast of the ecclesiastical year. There still remain in some districts traces of the former carnival gaieties, whilst the popular eating of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday keeps up the memory of the ancient feasting. The day before Shrove Tuesday is Collop Monday (n.Cy.), that is, rasher-of-bacon Monday, so called because the customary dish for this day is bacon and eggs. In parts of Cornwall it is known as Pease-Monday, from the custom of eating pea-soup that day, though such fare would seem rather to be a foretaste of Lent than a festival dainty.

Chief among the Shrovetide sports which have lasted down to modern times is the well-known pastime called _Lent-crocking_ (Som. Dev. Wil. Dor.), or _Drowin’ o’ cloam_, which consists in throwing broken crockery-ware in at doorways on the night before Shrove Tuesday, known as Dappy-door-night, and Lentsherd-night. _Lead-birds_ (Pem.) is a game played by boys as a substitute for the obsolete _cock-throwing_, a barbarous old Shrovetide sport, which is perhaps further to be traced in the name _Lent-cocks_ (Dev.) for daffodils. In the old Grammar Schools it was customary for each scholar to contribute towards a fund for Shrovetide cock-fighting. This contribution was called the _cock-penny_ (Lakel. Yks. Lan.), and it continued to be a recognized fee paid to the Head Master long after the sport itself had died out. Shrovetide ball-games still survive, such as _bung-ball_ (Bdf.); and _kep-ball_, the game of catch-ball which gives the name Kepping-day (e.Yks.) to Shrove Tuesday. There is an old saying: if you don’t have a kepp on kepping-day, you’ll be sick in harvest.

The bell once rung before noon on Shrove Tuesday to summon the penitents to their shrift, came to be looked upon as a signal for preparing the day’s pancakes, and hence it was termed the Pancake bell. The practice of ringing this bell continued certainly into the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In Worcestershire the Pancake bell was said to ring out the words: Pot off, pan on; Pot off, pan on; whilst in Warwickshire the message rung out was: Pan’s a-burning; Pan’s a-burning. In Yorkshire a kind of pancake or fritter with currants in it is eaten on Ash-Wednesday, and the day is called Frutters’ Wednesday.

[Sidenote: _Lenten Customs_]

In parts of Cornwall a straw figure dressed in cast-off clothes and called Jack o’ Lent was formerly carried round and then burned at the beginning of Lent. The effigy was probably originally meant to represent Judas Iscariot. Now the term is applied to a scarecrow, and, as a contemptuous epithet, also to persons (Nhp. Dor.).

The Sundays in Lent, beginning with the second Sunday, are thus enumerated in an old north-country saying: Tid, Mid, Misera, Carlin, Palm, Pace egg day. It is supposed that _Tid_ is a corruption of _Te Deum_, and that _Misera_ is based on the opening words of the penitential Psalm _Miserere mei, Deus_. The fourth Sunday in Lent is, however, more generally known as Mothering Sunday, the day on which it was always customary for the scattered members of the family to visit the mother in the old home, carrying some small present for her in their hands. Special cakes and dishes were associated with this festival, the most popular being simnel cakes, and _frummety_, a dish made of _hulled_ wheat, boiled in milk, and seasoned with sugar and spice. In some places the usual fare was veal and rice pudding; and in others _fig-pie_--made of dried figs, sugar, treacle, and spice--was the standing dish. In Berkshire at the present time it is considered the proper thing to eat fig-pudding on Palm Sunday.

Carl Sunday, or Carling Sunday (Sc. n.Cy.), takes its name from the grey or brown peas prepared and eaten on this day. They must be steeped all night in water, and then fried in butter. To account for this usage one tradition states that it commemorates the action of the disciples, who, going through the corn fields on the Sabbath day, ‘plucked the cars of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands,’ _St. Luke_