The Spital Sermon

Easter Monday · City of London

Still kept

On Easter Monday and Tuesday the boys of Christ’s Hospital walked in procession to the Mansion House and went with the Lord Mayor, aldermen and their ladies to Christ Church, where a bishop preached the Spital Sermon and the children sang an anthem. A civic dinner and a ball followed. The name came from the priory and hospital of St Mary Spital, founded in 1197 in what became Spitalfields, where the sermons were first preached. A Spital Sermon is still preached in the City each year.

On Easter Monday, the boys of Christ's Hospital walk in procession, accompanied by the masters and steward, to the Royal Exchange

From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, cols. 443-444. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Going a-pudding-pieing No longer kept KentAt Easter young people in Kent went holiday-making to public houses to eat pudding-pies, which they called going a-pudding-pieing.
The Epping Hunt No longer kept EssexHenry III confirmed to the citizens of London the right to hunt around their city, and the Lord Mayor and aldermen once rode out to hunt in state.
Riding the Black Lad No longer kept LancashireEvery Easter Monday a stuffed figure of a man was carried on horseback round the streets of Ashton-under-Lyne, while its followers begged drink at every public house and fired at it.
The Coleshill hare No longer kept WarwickshireBy an old custom at Coleshill, if the young men of the town caught a hare and brought it to the parson before ten o'clock on Easter Monday, he had to give them a calf's head, a hundred eggs and a groat for their breakfast.
The Biddenden Maids Still kept KentTwenty acres at Biddenden, called the Bread and Cheese Lands, paid for a dole at Easter; Hasted in 1790 counted six hundred cakes given to churchgoers and loaves and cheese to parishioners.
Clipping the churches No longer kept WarwickshireA Warwickshire correspondent remembered being taken as a child every Easter Monday to watch the charity-school children clip the churches of Birmingham.
Taking the shoes at Durham No longer kept County DurhamIn Durham on Easter Monday the men claimed the right to take off the women's shoes, and on Easter Tuesday the women did the same to the men.
Lifting at Easter No longer kept Cheshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, WarwickshireIn Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire, men lifted the women on Easter Monday and the women lifted the men on Easter Tuesday.

The Spital Sermon

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