Things are picking up, with 419 sessions, 234 morris practices, 65 folk club nights, 33 dances and 13 customs on the folk calendar this week, 176 more than last week.
Sessions this week
Here’s how they break down:
- 170 mixed sessions: 41 Traditional, 33 listeners welcome, 30 Irish and 30 Scottish ones.
- 166 tune sessions, with 112 Irish sessions, 45 Scottish sessions, 19 beginner-friendly sessions and 18 Traditional sessions among them.
- 78 song sessions, including 44 singaround, 20 Traditional, 13 Shanties and 13 listeners welcome ones.
- Plus 5 other sessions.
Morris practices this week
Broken down, that’s:
- 116 Cotswold morris practices.
- 65 Border morris practices.
- 48 North-West morris practices.
- 9 Longsword morris practices.
Folk club nights this week
Dances this week
Something for everyone:
Customs this week
Out and about this week:
- Hull Fair, Hull, Monday to Saturday.
- Stratford Mop Fair, Stratford-upon-Avon, on Monday and Sunday.
- Abingdon Runaway Fair, Abingdon, on Monday.
- Pack Monday Fair, Sherborne, on Monday.
- Banbury Michaelmas Fair, Banbury, Wednesday to Saturday.
- Tavistock Goosey Fair, Tavistock, on Wednesday.
- Yarm Fair, Yarm, on Thursday and Friday.
- Warwick Mop, Warwick, on Friday.
- Tewkesbury Mop Fair, Tewkesbury, on Saturday.
- Heathfield Bonfire, Heathfield, on Saturday.
- Ballinasloe October Fair, Ballinasloe, on Sunday.
- World Conker Championships, Southwick, on Sunday.
- Harvest of the Sea at St Mary-at-Hill, London, on Sunday.
Further ahead: Banbury Michaelmas Fair (Saturday 17 October), Marlborough Big Mop (Saturday 17 October) and Hull Fair (Saturday 17 October).
Thursday is the busiest day, with 161 events to pick from.
Folklore from the old calendars
Once upon a time, this week:
- Pack Monday and the horn boys, Saturday, Sherborne, Dorset: Sherborne's great fair was held on the first Monday after 10 October, with cattle, sheep and horses in the fields and shows, stalls and gingerbread in the town.
- A pair of gloves for the new moon, Saturday, Newcastle upon Tyne: A Newcastle reader told Hone of a custom he called very common and very pleasant.
- The New Moon Through Glass, Saturday, Suffolk: A Suffolk correspondent of Chambers kept a night school for rough country lads, and one winter evening they caught sight of the new moon through the schoolroom window.
- Money Spinners, Saturday: To make sure of always having money in your pocket, the 1831 list advised putting in it the small spiders called money spinners, or keeping in your purse a bent coin or one with a hole in it.
- Turning Money at the New Moon, Saturday: A Chelsea reader sent Hone a charm he called well known and almost universal in former days, handed down by grandmothers.
- Greeting the New Moon, Saturday, Herefordshire: In notes made about 1678 and printed by Chambers, John Aubrey recorded that Highland women curtsied to the new moon.
- Ganging Day, Sunday, Hertfordshire: On Old Michaelmas Day young men in Hertfordshire met in the fields, chose a leader and had to follow him wherever he went, through ponds and ditches and over brake and briar.
- Statutes and Mops, Sunday, Studley, Warwickshire: Farm servants in Warwickshire looked for new places at the statute fairs, called mops, held from early September until Old Michaelmas Day, when servants moved to their new masters.
- Crab-apple Initials on Old Michaelmas Day, Sunday: About Michaelmas village girls in the west of England went along the hedges gathering crab apples, carried them home and laid them out in a loft in the shapes of the initials of their supposed suitors.
- Clack Fall Fair and the Mop, Sunday, Clack, Bradenstoke, Wiltshire: Clack's fall fair was kept on Old Michaelmas Day, when farm lads stood about the Mop in clean smock frocks and maid servants waited in a corner to be hired.
- The Fatality of Days, Wednesday: In 1687 John Gibbon, the herald known as Bluemantle, printed a tract arguing that 14 October had always been a lucky day for the princes of England, not least because James II was born on it.
- Pipe Smoke and a Good Scent, Thursday: An almanac writer quoted by Hone claimed that his morning pipe told him whether the day would be good for hunting.
Find the books: Hone's Every-Day Book at Amazon, Bookshop.org or AbeBooks; Chambers's Book of Days at Amazon, Bookshop.org or AbeBooks; Hone's Year Book at Amazon, Bookshop.org or AbeBooks; Hone's Table Book at Amazon, Bookshop.org or AbeBooks; Brand's Popular Antiquities at Amazon, Bookshop.org or AbeBooks. (Affiliate links: we may earn a small commission.)
New on the calendar
New on the calendar since last week:
- Thornford Barn Dance, Thornford, Sherborne
- Wimborne Community Theatre Fundraiser, Holt
- Branksome Folk, Poole, Dorset
- Lifeboat Hooley, Poole RNLI, Poole
- Old Thatch Sessions, Ferndown
- Tyneside Ceilidh Nights, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
- St George’s Ceilidh Fundraiser, Jesmond, Tyne and Wear
- The Hedgehog’s Skin New Year Party, Allendale, Northumberland
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Enjoy your week, and see you at a session, morris practice, folk club night, dance or custom.