Plow Monday
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Plough Monday is the traditional start of the English agricultural year. It is the first Monday after
Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: Psychology * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany seaso ...
, 6 January. References to Plough Monday date back to the late 15th century. The day before Plough Monday is Plough Sunday, on which a
ploughshare In agriculture, a plowshare ( US) or ploughshare ( UK; ) is a component of a plow (or plough). It is the cutting or leading edge, preceding the moldboard, and it closely follows the coulter (one or more ground-breaking spikes) when plowing. ...
is brought into the local Christian church with prayers for the blessing of human labour, tools, as well as the land.


History

Plough Monday was celebrated on the first Monday after Twelfth Night, and marked the beginning of the ploughing season and the start of the agricultural year in England. Customs associated with the beginning of the ploughing season are known from the medieval period – for example a plough race on 7 January was held at
Carlton in Lindrick Carlton in Lindrick is a village and civil parish about north of Worksop in Nottinghamshire, England. The village comprises three community areas; North Carlton to the centre, South Carlton and Costhorpe to the far north. Separated to the so ...
in Nottinghamshire in the late thirteenth century. By the mid-fifteenth century, these celebrations were generally observed on Plough Monday. The earliest source known to name the day Plough Monday comes from Cambridgeshire in 1529. 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 The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
. While religious Plough Monday celebrations were suppressed, private observances continued. The most common custom involved dragging a plough and collecting money. 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. 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. The customs observed on Plough Monday varied by region, but a common feature to a lesser or greater extent was for a
plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...
(known variously as the "fond plough", "fool plough", "stot plough", or "white 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. In Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland, a kind of
Mummers' play Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as ''rhymers'', ''pace-eggers'', ''soulers'', ''tipteerers'', ''wrenboys'', and ''galoshins''). ...
called a Plough Play was performed.


Modern observances

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. Additionally, the rowdy and threatening behaviour of the plough gangs was increasingly controversial in this period, and there was pressure from authorities to stop, or moderate their excesses. 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. In 1972, the tradition of traveling around the village with a plough to collect money was revived at
Balsham Balsham is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Cambridgeshire, England, which has much expanded since the 1960s and is now one of several bedroom community, dormitory settlements of Cambridge. The village is south east of the cen ...
in Cambridgeshire. Subsequently, the Cambridge Morris Men revived the practice of Plough Monday molly dancing in 1977.


Whittlesey Straw Bear festival

In the Cambridgeshire villages of
Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Companies *Ramsey (retailer), Turkish clothing retailer People * Ramsey (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Ramsey (surname), including a list of people with the surname * Baron de Ramsey, a title i ...
and
Whittlesey Whittlesey (also Whittlesea) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. Whittlesey is east of Peterborough. The population of the parish was 17,667 at the 2021 Census. Toponymy W ...
during the nineteenth century, on Plough Monday or Tuesday 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. The revived tradition is practiced annually on the Saturday before Plough Monday, when a straw bear is paraded through the village's streets.


Goathland Plough Stots

In the village of
Goathland Goathland is a village and civil parish in the county 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 stati ...
in North Yorkshire, Plough Monday was traditionally celebrated with a plough procession, mummers' play, and sword dancing. In 1913
Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England dur ...
visited Goathland but was unable to find anyone who remembered the sword dance, last performed around 1868. Inspired by Sharp's work, the dance was revived for Plough Monday in 1923. Since the revival the sword dance has become the main feature of the tradition, and continues to be performed on the Saturday following Plough Monday. Money collected by the sword dancers at Goathland was originally used to buy food and drink for the "finish-up feast" at the end of the celebration; more recently it has been donated to the local hospital and lifeboat station.


See also

*
Distaff Day Saint Distaff's Day, Distaff Day, or Rock Day, is 7th January, the day after Epiphany, and was the traditional day on which women would start spinning again after Christmas. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of wome ...
, 7 January, the day that household work traditionally resumed after the Christmas season * Hobby horse#Plough Monday mummers * Mummers' play#Local seasonal variants *
Royal Ploughing Ceremony Royal Ploughing Ceremony (, ; , ; , ), also known as The Ploughing Festival, is an ancient royal rite held in many Asian countries to mark the traditional beginning of the rice growing season. The royal ploughing ceremony, called (, ) or (), was ...
, a royal rite in mainland Southeast Asia * Plugușorul, a Romanian ploughing celebration on Saint Basil's Eve (New Year's Eve)


References

{{English festivals Holidays in England January observances English traditions Epiphany (holiday) Christian festivals and holy days Winter in England