Early January: a time that, for lots of folks, can be a bit of a letdown. The holidays are over: the parties are done, gifts exchanged, and let’s be honest, most of us are even getting just the slightest bit tired of Christmas cookies. And all that’s before we even think about facing the return to work! 

No matter how much or how little time one may have had off around the holidays, it’s always something of a letdown to settle back into the everyday grind. For members of some English communities, however, some historical traditions have persisted to the modern day that incorporate a bit of fun into the inevitable. 

First things first: some readers may be wondering why, nearly a third of the way through January, I’m talking about finally resuming work after the holidays. Fair enough; most Americans and many around the world have returned to their day jobs a week ago after New Year’s, and those are the lucky ones who could luxuriate in a week off between December 25 and January 1. But there’s an important bit of cultural history to keep in mind. 

Christmas in the Middle Ages and beyond

Remember that song about the Twelve Days of Christmas? The author didn’t just dream those up. Since medieval times and beyond, the celebration of Christmas began not after Thanksgiving (or even earlier), but with Christmas Day itself, and continued on for the next twelve days until Epiphany, or January 6, marked the arrival of the Magi. 

Advent in those days wasn’t a time of joyful parties and festive lead-up that ends rather abruptly on the 25th with a massive dinner and loads of cleanup. Instead it was a period of somber reflection and self-denial, intended to prepare oneself to appreciate the miracle of Christmas and be thankful for one’s blessings. Once Christmas Eve arrived, it was time to decorate the dwelling and suspend all work, save the most basic tasks to keep people and animals warm and fed, until Twelfth Night was celebrated on January 6. 

Back to the grindstone

As the saying goes, all things must come to an end, including midwinter celebrations. The traditional agricultural year, which had paused ever so briefly over the twelve days of Christmas, was set to start over again on the first Monday after Ephiphany. 

That first Monday following January 6th – that’s today, January 10 in 2022 – was called Plough Monday, and it marked the beginning of the new year’s planting season. The practice is recorded back to the 15th century, and while Plough Monday was generally practiced in the northern and eastern parts of England, in some places it is still celebrated today.

How – and why – does one celebrate a plough?

When the custom began, ploughs were extremely expensive and most farmers were not wealthy enough to have their own. Villages generally owned one plough, which was stored in the church and loaned out to the parish’s farmers to turn over their fields. It’s easy to imagine how precious that single piece of farming equipment would have been to those communities, and why its security and upkeep were of vital importance to all. 

Often, the communal plough would have been blessed in church during Sunday services the day before, and then on Plough Monday it was paraded around the village. Those accompanying the plough collected donations from houses they passed, which would go towards the upkeep of the church and the “plough lights,” or candles that were kept burning to bless the field workers throughout the season. 

Even after the Reformation did away with “superstitious” practices like lighting candles for blessings, Plough Monday tradition evolved and continued. Before the Industrial Revolution brought advances in farming mechanization, villages still relied on teams of ploughboys to guide the horses or oxen pulling the plough. These farmhands took on the role of collecting money from villagers on Plough Monday, only that now those donations went to feed and keep the ploughboys themselves. As they made the rounds with their plough, the ploughboys would often act out a play to encourage the generosity of their neighbors. 

Technology ruins the “fun”

By the late 1800s, agricultural technology had advanced to the point where ploughs or tractors were affordable enough for most individual farmers to purchase, and there was no longer a need to hire on roaming teams of fieldhands each spring to ensure the ploughing was done on time. The annual ploughing became less and less a community endeavor, and the practical necessities of the Plough Monday festivities faded away. 

Still, some communities maintain the seasonal revelries, if in a somewhat modernized form. In Whittlesey, for example, the celebrations include a Straw Bear that parades through the town. 

Takeaway: when needed, create your own joy

What can we take from these centuries-old customs to enhance our modern lives today? To some extent, everything we do amounts to what we make of it; if we are determined to turn the ordinary into the spectacular (or at least the somewhat amusing), we can create reasons to celebrate just about anything. Perhaps there’s a new folk tradition – one to beat the blahs of a winter workday – just waiting to be created. 

Sources and Further Reading

https://merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-views/2016/01/plough-monday/

https://www.tudorsociety.com/plough-monday/

http://www.mastermummers.org/atlas/PloughMonday.php

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough_Monday

Hutton, Ronald. Interview with Charles Rowe. The English Heritage Podcast. Podcast audio. December 21, 2021. https://m.soundcloud.com/englishheritage/episode-145-celebrating-englands-post-christmas-winter-traditions