PLOUGH SUNDAY in the UK is today

 PLOUGH MONDAY in North America  tomorrow

by the Man in the Tilley Hat

Sunday January 11, 2009

In the UK Plough Sunday is today, the first Sunday after Epiphany, and so we have it Monday here in Canada.  

When the Festival originated the plough (horse or oxen) would be brought into Church to be Blessed before the first cut of the ground after Winter, and then crops were sown.  This Festival goes back to the Middle Ages or before.

Every few years Distaff Day and Plough Monday fall on the same day. It was customary at this time for the farm labourer to draw a plough through the village soliciting money for a 'plough light' which was kept burning in the parish church all year.

Yule is come and Yule is gone,

and we have feasted well

so Jack must to his flail again

and Jenny to her wheel.

Even in Europe it must have been a much warmer period to start ploughing, because now they have cold weather...a few degrees in the minus range, and several soccer matches were cancelled yesterday.

When I was in the agri-/horticulture business in the UK, one of our first crops was sown around Valentine's Day (February 14) and that was onions!

by 'The Man in The Tilley Hat'

(next column)

13/01/2009 04:09 PM

(continued)

SERVICE in the UK

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