Pork, souse and sprats at All Saints

1 November · England

No longer kept

All Saints was the season for pork and souse, the pickled parts of the pig, and for laying in sprats and spurlings. The pigs were being killed at Hallowtide, so the farm ate pork. Tusser gave it its place in his rhyming list of the farmer’s food.

All Saints doe laie for porke and souse, / for sprats and spurlings for their house.

From Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, p. 28. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Slaughter time at Hallowtide No longer kept EnglandHallowtide began the season for killing stock, and with it the husbandman's feasting.
Ringing for all Christian souls No longer kept EnglandBefore the Reformation the church bells were rung all night at Allhallowtide for all Christian souls.
The first three days of winter Lore and belief BanffshireThe minister of Kirkmichael in Banffshire reported a Gaelic weather saying about the first three days of winter, which began at Hallowtide.
The Cheshire souling song Still kept CheshireOn the eve of All Souls' Day parties of boys in Cheshire went souling from door to door, singing for apples, pears, plums, beer or money.
Souling in Staffordshire No longer kept StaffordshireTollett noted that on All Saints' Day the poor of Staffordshire went from parish to parish souling, begging and singing for soul cakes or anything else to make them merry.
Seed cake at Allhallows No longer kept WarwickshireBrand's servant, a Warwickshire man, told him that in that county a seed cake was had at Allhallows, marking the end of wheat sowing.
Dole bread in Monmouthshire No longer kept MonmouthshireBritton wrote in his Cathedral Antiquities that in Monmouthshire the poorer people, Catholic and Protestant alike, went begging bread for the souls of the dead on All Saints' Day.
The All Saints’ triplets Lore and belief WalesA correspondent signing himself Gwilym Sais sent Hone seven triplets for the first of November, the Welsh Calan Gaeaf, from William Owen Pughe's translations of the elegies of Llywarch Hen.
All-Hallowtide revels at the Middle Temple No longer kept LondonThe young lawyers of the Middle Temple counted All-Hallowtide as the start of Christmas, and in the reign of Charles I they chose a Master of the Revels for the season.

Pork, souse and sprats at All Saints

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