Handsel Monday

the first Monday on or after 2 January

No longer kept

The first Monday of the year was a great holiday for the Scottish peasantry and for children, the day for giving and receiving presents, or handsel. Young people called on their elders for tips, and postmen, scavengers and newspaper boys looked for their yearly gift. In the country Auld Handsel Monday, the first Monday after 12 January, was kept instead: farmers gave their servants a large breakfast of meat, ale, whisky and cake, and it was the day for leaving a place or hiring new hands. Chambers files it under 4 January because it fell then in 1864.

Even now, when most old fashions are much decayed, Auld Handsel Monday continues to be the holiday of the year to the class of farm-labourers in Scotland.

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 52. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Wassailing the Apple Trees Still kept DevonOn Twelfth Night eve the Devon farmer took his men into the orchard with a pitcher of cider, and they circled one of the best-bearing trees and drank to it three times with a rhyme wishing it hats full, caps full and sacks full of apples.
Twelve Fires and the Ox’s Cake No longer kept Gloucestershire, HerefordshireOn Twelfth Night eve Herefordshire farmers and their servants lit twelve small fires and one large one on the highest part of a wheat field, drank old cider and hallooed, and fifty or sixty other fires might be seen at once across the country.
The Sieve of Candles No longer kept LeinsterSir Henry Piers, describing County Westmeath, wrote that on Twelfth Night eve the people raised a sieve full of oats as high as they could, with twelve candles set round it and a larger one in the middle, all lit.
The Walsall Penny Dole No longer kept StaffordshireThomas Moseley gave lands in Warwickshire in trust for the town of Walsall in 1453, and on Twelfth Night eve, the anniversary for his soul and his wife Margaret's, the bellman went about calling on everyone to kneel and pray for them.
Holly Night at Brough No longer kept WestmorlandOn Twelfth Night the people of Brough in Westmorland carried the holly tree, though by 1827 an ash was used, since ash was plentiful there.
Wassil Eve near Leeds No longer kept YorkshireMr Beckwith remembered in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1784 that near Leeds, when he was a boy, many families asked their relations, friends and neighbours in on the twelfth eve of Christmas for cards and a supper at which mince pies were essential.
The fire for the Magi’s star No longer kept StaffordshireBlount recorded that the people of Staffordshire made a fire on the eve of Twelfth Day in memory of the blazing star that led the three Magi to the manger at Bethlehem.
Drinking to the ox with the crumpled horn No longer kept SomersetOn Twelfth Eve the Somerset ploughmen carried the wassail bowl into the ox-house and drank to the ox with the crumpled horn.
A bean for the king, a pea for the queen No longer kept EnglandOn Twelfth Night a bean and a pea were baked into the cake.
Hansel Monday and the scholars’ king No longer kept Berwickshire, Dumfriesshire, Roxburghshire, SelkirkshireOn the Scottish Borders the Monday after New Year's Day was Hansel Monday, when presents of money were put into people's hands.
Wassail Eve near Leeds No longer kept YorkshireFamilies near Leeds invited relations and neighbours on Twelfth Eve to play cards and eat a supper of minced pies, then passed round a great wassail bowl of sweetened ale and roasted apples.
Rosemary blossoms at midnight in the Forest of Dean Lore and belief GloucestershireThe foresters of Dean held that Old Christmas, not the new, was the true Christmas, and that exactly at midnight that night the rosemary blossomed and the oxen knelt.
Hey, for our town green No longer kept EnglandWhen the king and queen of Twelfth Night had been chosen by the pea and bean in the cake, the company cried out Hey, for our town green.
Joy-sops and a health drunk to the bottom No longer kept EnglandOnce the Twelfth Night king and queen had been found by the bean and the pea in the plum cake, the company made joy-sops with the cake, and every man had to drain a health to the pair from brim to bottom.
Lamb’s-wool for the Twelfth Night king and queen No longer kept EnglandOn Twelfth Night the wassail bowl was crowned with lamb's-wool, ale spiced with sugar, nutmeg and ginger, and passed to the new-chosen king and queen.
Twelve fires against the smut at Pauntley No longer kept GloucestershireOn Twelfth Night eve the farm servants of Pauntley gathered in a field sown with wheat and lit twelve straw fires in a row to keep the smut off the crop.
The Handsel Monday ale that cured a Tillicoultry collier No longer kept ClackmannanshireOn Handsel Monday in 1738 the neighbours of a bedridden collier at Tillicoultry came to make merry with him, and he drank his share of the new ale as it went round.
Handsel Monday by the fireside at Auchterderran No longer kept FifeThe people of Auchterderran kept only one holiday for merry-making in the whole year, Handsel Monday, and spent it at home.

Handsel Monday

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