Crispin and Crispinian, the patron saints of shoemakers, gave the trade its great holiday on 25 October. Shoemakers feasted and drank the saint’s memory, and some towns held processions with a King Crispin and his court; the cordwainers of Newcastle crowned their patron and paraded in 1822. Hone retells a story of a cobbler who would not do a stitch of work on St Crispin’s Day, even for the emperor.
St Crispin’s Day
25 October
No longer kept
the shoemakers of the present day are not far behind their predecessors, in the manner of keeping St. Crispin. From the highest to the lowest it is a day of feasting and jollity.
From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, col. 1401; Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, p. 492. Read the original
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