St Thomas’s Day for killing fat swine

21 December · Northern England

Lore and belief

St Thomas’s Day, 21 December, was held to be a good day for brewing, baking and killing fat pigs. Denham noted that it was also the shortest day and, in the old reckoning, the first day of the Christmas season. By that reckoning Christmas ran on until Candlemas.

The day of St. Thomas, the blessed divine, Is good for brewing, baking, and killing fat swine.

From The Denham Tracts, vol. 2, p. 92. Read the original

Get a copy: Amazon · Bookshop.org · AbeBooks

We may earn a small commission if you buy through these links.

Also on this day

Folklore from the old calendars

Doleing Day in Staffordshire No longer kept StaffordshireOn St Thomas's Day in a Staffordshire parish, old women, widows and someone from every poorer family went round asking for alms, and the clergyman gave each a shilling.
A turf for Fingan’s Eve No longer kept Isle of ManManx people once went into the mountains before Christmas to catch deer and sheep, and in the evening lit a large fire on top of every cliff.
Five shillings in the Thornton tombstone No longer kept DorsetBefore noon on St Thomas's Day the tenants of the manor of Thornton put five shillings into a hole in a certain tombstone in the churchyard.
Going a-Thomasing for wheat No longer kept YorkshireOn St Thomas's Day poor widows in the West Riding went round the farms asking for Christmas gifts, and were usually given a small measure of wheat.
Broughton for St Thomas’s night No longer kept NorthumberlandOn St Thomas's night the old Northumbrian dish of broughton came out again, as it did on Midsummer Eve.
Blowing the Yule-Girth at York No longer kept YorkshireAn old custom book of the city of York, printed by Leland, set down that on St Thomas's Day before Yule the sheriffs heard a mass of St Thomas at All Hallows on the Pavement.
St Thomas’s onion Lore and belief EnglandMother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open, printed under St Thomas's Day, told a girl that this was the best time of year to learn who her husband would be.
Apple wassailing on St Thomas’s Day No longer kept Staffordshire, WorcestershireSt Thomas's Day falls on the shortest day, as the couplet has it, St Thomas gray, St Thomas gray, the longest night and the shortest day.
Going a-gooding No longer kept Kent, Staffordshire, WarwickshireOn St Thomas's Day, the shortest day, poor women went round the parish begging money or food for Christmas, and gave sprigs of holly, mistletoe, palm or primroses in return.

St Thomas’s Day for killing fat swine

Also on this day

Questions and comments

Image credits