Jan. 7.] ST. DISTAFF’S DAY.—ROCK DAY.
Reading edition
Jan. 7.]
ST. DISTAFF’S DAY.—ROCK DAY.
The day after Twelfth Day was called Rock Day[8] and St. Distaff’s Day, because on that day women resumed their spinning, which had been interrupted by the sports of Christmas; for our ancestors, it seems, returned to their work in a very leisurely manner. From Herrick’s Hesperides (p. 374) we learn that the men, in boisterous merriment, burned the women’s flax, and that they in retaliation dashed pails of water upon the men:
“Partly work, and partly play Ye must on St. Distaff’s Day: From the plough soone free your teame, Then home and fother them; If the maides a spinning goe, Burn the flax and fire the tow. **** Bring in pails of water, then Let the maides bewash the men; Give St. Distaff all the night, Then bid Christmas sport good night; Then next morning, every one To his own vocation.” Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 138.
