Folklore of Northern England

1 April

2 April

Good Friday

Folklore from the old calendars

Charlie Marston’s Good Friday potatoes Lore and belief County Durham, YorkshireIn the North Riding it was held impious to disturb the earth on Good Friday with spade, plough or harrow.
Creeping to the cross at Durham No longer kept County DurhamBefore the Reformation a gold crucifix kept inside the image of Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Abbey was taken out every Good Friday, and everyone in the church crept to it.
Fig-sue on Good Friday No longer kept Northern EnglandMany families across the North of England ate nothing but fig-sue for dinner on Good Friday.
No washing on Good Friday Lore and belief YorkshireIn Cleveland it was said that clothes washed and hung out to dry on Good Friday would come in spotted with blood.
Paste egging at West Derby No longer kept LancashireA Liverpool correspondent wrote to Hone on Good Friday 1826 about paste egging around West Derby, kept up by the young country people.
The Bowaldeth Good Friday dole No longer kept CumberlandEvery Good Friday the interest on forty pounds was given to the poor of Bowaldeth, a quarter of Torpenhow parish.
The Fishlake bell tolled for Good Friday No longer kept YorkshireAt Fishlake, at eight on Good Friday morning, the great church bell was tolled slowly as for a death or funeral, instead of being rung for service as on other holy days.
The passion-dock pudding No longer kept Northern EnglandIn the north of England a herb pudding was a dish nobody went without on Good Friday, and its chief ingredient was the leaves of the passion-dock.
The witches’ Good Friday meeting Lore and belief LancashireGood Friday was believed in Lancashire to be the witches' great day of gathering.

Easter Saturday

Easter Sunday

Folklore from the old calendars

A pennyworth of eggs at Easter in Sebergham No longer kept CumberlandAt Easter every tenant in Sebergham owed the parson a penny, or a pennyworth of eggs, instead of a tithe hen.
Buckles and spurs at Ripon No longer kept YorkshireA Yorkshire clergyman told Brand that on Easter Sunday the young men of the villages took the girls' shoe buckles, and on Easter Monday the young women took the men's shoes and buckles in return.
Jauping paste-eggs Still kept NorthumberlandNewcastle boys spent Easter jauping their dyed paste-eggs, knocking one against another until a shell gave way.
Little Devil Doubt and the pace-eggers Still kept Northern EnglandIn the north of England groups of lads went pace-egging at Easter, singing at doors for eggs and strong beer and promising not to come again until the next year.
Pace eggs Still kept Cheshire, Lancashire, ScotlandThe pace or pasch egg, once given at Easter all over Christendom, was still handed out by children and country people in Lancashire in Chambers's day.
What the hares have laid No longer kept YorkshireThroughout Yorkshire coloured Easter eggs were hidden in little nests out of doors for the children to hunt, and see what eggs the "hares" had been laying.

Easter Monday

Folklore from the old calendars

Cock eggs on the Solway Still kept CumberlandA Maryport man told Hone that Cumberland families sent each other's children presents of eggs at Easter, and the price of eggs rose for weeks before Good Friday.
Easter football on the Roodee No longer kept CheshireAt Easter the mayor and corporation of Chester and the city's twenty guilds went in procession to the Roodee to play football.
Lifting at Easter No longer kept Cheshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, WarwickshireIn Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire, men lifted the women on Easter Monday and the women lifted the men on Easter Tuesday.
Riding the Black Lad No longer kept LancashireEvery Easter Monday a stuffed figure of a man was carried on horseback round the streets of Ashton-under-Lyne, while its followers begged drink at every public house and fired at it.
Taking the shoes at Durham No longer kept County DurhamIn Durham on Easter Monday the men claimed the right to take off the women's shoes, and on Easter Tuesday the women did the same to the men.
The bridegrooms’ silver arrow at Chester No longer kept CheshireEvery man married in Chester who had not yet completed his first year of marriage had to hand the drapers' guild, before the mayor, a silver arrow as the prize for the Easter archery on the Roodee.
The corporation at ball on the Forth No longer kept NorthumberlandCorporations once went out in state to play at ball at Easter.

1 April

2 April

Good Friday

Easter Saturday

Easter Sunday

Easter Monday

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