Folklore of East Anglia

2 February

Folklore from the old calendars

The King of Christmas at Norwich No longer kept NorfolkOn a Shrove Tuesday at Norwich a rider crowned as King of Christmas went through the streets on a horse trapped in tin foil, with the twelve months of the year going before him in disguise.
The owl in the Shrovetide pot at North Walsham No longer kept NorfolkAt North Walsham, about forty years before Strutt wrote, some jokers put an owl into the earthen pot used for Shrove Tuesday cock-throwing, and fixed the head and tail of a dead cock so they showed as a live bird's would.
Threshing the fat hen in Essex and Suffolk No longer kept Essex, SuffolkAt Shrovetide in Essex and Suffolk the farm men went shroving and threshed a fat hen, and if a blindfolded man could kill her she was theirs.
Throwing at Cocks No longer kept England, NorfolkThrowing sticks at a tethered cock was an old and cruel Shrove Tuesday sport, which Hone was glad to see dying out among decent people.