Folklore of South East

Easter Monday

Folklore from the old calendars

Dick and Doll’s Easter Monday walk to Islington No longer kept LondonOn Easter Monday afternoon servants who had been kept at home all week walked out to Islington to court.
Easter Monday football at White Conduit Fields No longer kept LondonOn Easter Monday the London roughs gathered in great numbers in the fields round White Conduit House, near Islington, to play football.
Going a-pudding-pieing No longer kept KentAt Easter young people in Kent went holiday-making to public houses to eat pudding-pies, which they called going a-pudding-pieing.
Greenwich Fair at Easter No longer kept KentEaster Monday and Tuesday were holidays in most London trades, and on the Monday Greenwich Fair began.
Old Vinegar and the Moorfields cudgel players No longer kept LondonIn the old days the cudgel players' sports in Moorfields began on Easter Monday.
The Biddenden Maids Still kept KentTwenty acres at Biddenden, called the Bread and Cheese Lands, paid for a dole at Easter; Hasted in 1790 counted six hundred cakes given to churchgoers and loaves and cheese to parishioners.
The Spital Sermon Still kept LondonOn Easter Monday and Tuesday the boys of Christ's Hospital walked in procession to the Mansion House and went with the Lord Mayor, aldermen and their ladies to Christ Church, where a bishop preached the Spital Sermon and the children sang an anthem.
Tilting on the Thames at Easter No longer kept LondonFitzStephen, writing in the twelfth century and quoted by Stow, describes a water game played by the young men of London in the Easter holidays.

9 April, not tied to the day

10 April, not tied to the day

14 April

Hock Tuesday (second Tuesday after Easter)

Folklore from the old calendars

Hock money at Reading No longer kept BerkshireThe churchwardens' accounts of Reading show hocking there for generations: in 1499 the women of St Laurence's gathered twenty shillings and the men only four.
Hocktide for the church repairs at St Peter in the East No longer kept OxfordshireIn seventeenth-century Oxford a parish that needed money for church repairs would keep a Hocktide, and the takings could be large.
Lambeth wives out-gather the men at Hock-tide No longer kept LondonThe churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth for 1515 and 1516 recorded hock money gathered by both the men and the women for the church.
Men on Monday, women on Tuesday in Hampshire No longer kept HampshireIn several Hampshire manors the men hocked the women on Hock Monday, and on the Tuesday the women took their turn with the men.

Folklore of the South East

Easter Monday

9 April, not tied to the day

10 April, not tied to the day

14 April

Hock Tuesday (second Tuesday after Easter)

18 April, not tied to the day

15 days after Easter

22 April, not tied to the day

23 April, not tied to the day

23 April

27 April, not tied to the day

30 April

Image credits