The Corn Baby and the Mell Supper

24 September · North of England

No longer kept

In the north of England the harvest feast was the mell supper. On the last day the reapers raced each other to finish, leaving a handful of corn uncut and laid flat. The prettiest girl cut it, and it was dressed up like a doll, hailed as the corn baby and carried home with fiddles and pipes. It stood at the supper that night and was kept in the farmer’s parlour for the rest of the year, and the girl who cut it was the harvest queen.

the 'bonniest lass' was allowed to cut this final handful, which was presently dressed up with various sewings, tyings, and trimmings, like a doll, and hailed as a Corn Baby.

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, pp. 377-378. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Harvest Home and the Hock Cart No longer kept EnglandIn the southern counties the reapers chose a lord of the harvest to bargain with the farmer and lead the work, and in Buckinghamshire a lady as well, with fines for anyone who got the order of drinking wrong.
Crying the Mare No longer kept Hertfordshire, ShropshireIn Hertfordshire and Shropshire the reapers left the last few stalks standing and tied them up as the mare, then threw their sickles at it until one cut it down.
The Cripple Goat No longer kept Inner HebridesOn Skye the farmer who finished his harvest first sent the last handful he had cut to the next farmer still at work, calling it the cripple goat.
Crying the Neck Still kept Devon, West CountryIn Devon the last handful of standing corn was called the nack or neck.
The Kirn No longer kept ScotlandIn Scotland the words harvest home were unknown, and the feast at the end of harvest was the kirn or kirn supper, thought to be named from the churn of cream served at it.
Crying Largess No longer kept East Anglia, Essex, HertfordshireIn Suffolk the harvest lord would leave the field to ask any passer-by for a largess, then stand his reapers in a ring and call from a gate post while they answered with a groan and then three great shouts.
The Harvest Catch in Norfolk No longer kept Essex, NorfolkThe last thing before parting at a Norfolk harvest supper was a health-drinking catch sung first to the mistress and then to the master.
Burning the Witch No longer kept YorkshireIn the East Riding, on the evening the last of a farmer's corn was cut, the reapers heaped eight or ten small piles of dried peas together in the field and set them alight.
The Norfolk Horkey No longer kept NorfolkIn Norfolk the harvest home was the horkey.
The Harvest Goose No longer kept EnglandTusser advised the farmer that when harvest was in he should give his ploughman a harvest home goose.
Wrexham Honey Fair No longer kept DenbighshireBefore the railways, Wrexham held a honey fair four times a year, and the March fair lasted a fortnight.

The Corn Baby and the Mell Supper

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