Plough Monday

Plough Monday is the traditional start of the English agricultural year. It is the first Monday after Epiphany, 6 January. In England, customs associated with the beginning of the ploughing season can be traced back to the medieval period, and by the mid-fifteenth century, they were generally observed on Plough Monday. Before the Reformation, parish churches lit candles called "plough lights" for farmworkers, and in some areas ploughs were taken around the parish to raise money for the church. After the Reformation, religious Plough Monday observances were suppressed, but private customs featuring house-visiting with a plough to collect money continued.

Plough Monday customs declined in the nineteenth century and died out in the early part of the twentieth century, partly due to social changes driven by increased industrialisation and the advent of mechanised farming, and partly due to pressure from the authorities. Various Plough Monday customs have since been revived. As early as 1923 the Goathland Plough Stots, a north Yorkshire longsword dance team, was revived under the influence of Cecil Sharp; since the second British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s East Anglian Plough Monday customs such as molly dancing and the Whittlesea Straw Bear have also been revived.