Chalk-Back Day at Diss

the first Thursday on or after 14 September · Diss, Norfolk

No longer kept

On the Thursday before the third Friday in September, the eve of the Diss hiring fair, the town’s young people chalked marks on each other’s clothes. They claimed a customary right to be mischievous on Chalk-Back Day. Dyer had it from Notes and Queries.

to mark and disfigure each other's dresses with white chalk, pleading a prescriptive right to be mischievous on "Chalk-Back Day."

From Dyer's British Popular Customs, p. 370. Read the original

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