On St Crispin’s Day the shoemakers kept a holiday for their patron that lasted whole days and nights. Poor Robin said that half of them were drunk and half not sober, and called them great friends to the brewers. In 1774 he added that on this day no cobbler could be found who would not have a dish of roast meat, even if it was only eggs or apples.
Crispin’s drunken holiday
25 October · England
No longer kept
Now shoemakers do merry make, Whole days and nights for Crispin's sake; Who was a jolly blade, they say, For whom they do keep holliday: The 25th day of October, Half of them drunk, and half not sober
From Poor Robin's Almanack, An Almanack for 1740, October. Read the original
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