Folklore of Midlands

21 December

Folklore from the old calendars

Apple wassailing on St Thomas’s Day No longer kept Staffordshire, WorcestershireSt Thomas's Day falls on the shortest day, as the couplet has it, St Thomas gray, St Thomas gray, the longest night and the shortest day.
Doleing Day in Staffordshire No longer kept StaffordshireOn St Thomas's Day in a Staffordshire parish, old women, widows and someone from every poorer family went round asking for alms, and the clergyman gave each a shilling.
Going a-gooding No longer kept Kent, Staffordshire, WarwickshireOn St Thomas's Day, the shortest day, poor women went round the parish begging money or food for Christmas, and gave sprigs of holly, mistletoe, palm or primroses in return.
Mumping for wheat in Herefordshire No longer kept HerefordshireAt Christmas the Herefordshire poor went mumping, mostly on St Thomas's Day, and the farmers gave each a small dishful of wheat, with smaller gifts from other houses.
The St Thomas’s Day weathercock Lore and belief WorcestershireWorcestershire people looked at the weathercock at noon on St Thomas's Day, believing the wind would stay in that quarter for the next three months.

Folklore from the old calendars

Dives on the serpent’s knee No longer kept WarwickshireAt Christmas the street carol singers of Warwickshire still sang Dives and Lazarus, in which two serpents come out of hell for the rich man's soul and tell him he has a place provided there to sit upon a serpent's knee.
Keeping back the yule-cake Lore and belief LincolnshireOn Christmas Eve in Lincolnshire the yule-clog blazed and the yule-candle burned while the family ate slices of yule-cake toasted and soaked in spiced ale.
The ox cake at Tretire No longer kept HerefordshireOn Christmas Eve at Tretire the farm men made a cake, pushed a stick through it and fixed it on the horn of an ox, saying words that begged a good crop of corn for the master.
The threepenny loaf at Aston Hall No longer kept WarwickshireOn Christmas Eve at the house of the Holt family at Aston, near Birmingham, a table was set in the hall after supper with a brown loaf bearing twenty silver threepences on top, a tankard of ale, pipes and tobacco.
The Yule log that burned Haughmond Abbey No longer kept ShropshireThe Yule logs of old country houses were great trees, big enough to be used as a weapon.