Ever Hear of Plough Monday? Me Neither.

Perhaps if my Great-great-great-grandmother Hull or her descendants had kept the 15th century, northeast England tradition going when she came to America I would have known about Plough (Plow) Monday. Gr-gr-gr-grandmother Rosina was from Seton, East Riding, Yorkshire, England, born there in 1825.

The Farmer's Almanac gives the best explanation for Plough Monday, which is today:

The first Monday after Epiphany was the day for the menfolk to return to work after the holidays — although no work was actually done on this day. Dressed in clean white smocks decorated with ribbons, the men dragged a plow (plough) through the village and collected money for the “plow light” that was kept burning in the church all year. Often men from several farms joined together to pull the plow through all their villages. They sang and danced their way from village to village to the accompaniment of music. In the evening, each farmer provided a Plough Monday supper for his workers, with plentiful beef and ale for all.

Learning something new, especially old traditions with links to forebearers, is one of my favorite things. Naturally it leads to my own recollections of growing up on the farm and plows.

The oldest plow on our farm was one like this - a horse drawn moldboard. I half-remember my mother once saying it had been 'grandpa's', though I don't know which grandpa.

When we moved back to the farm, I used it for decorative purposes, much like this borrowed photo - though not perched on a porch.

There were several pieces of old abandoned machinery lined up along the south orchard fence in my younger days. I think there was a horse drawn, two bottom plow like this one. Dad farmed with a team of horses for several years before getting his first tractor. I don't know what imaginary game we were playing, but I do remember sitting on one of those old iron seats, pretending....

My older brother and me on Dad's John Deere which was parked next to the gas barrel either waiting to be gassed or just filled.

The plow that I remember best was a two bottom John Deere, probably bought used about the same time as the tractor.

And here is Dad watching our neighbor's working on their plow. I don't know if they had come up to help with the plowing or for Dad's advice on some problem with their plow.

It's just the best photo I have of a plow and those bygone days.

I imagine Plough Monday would only have meant that it happened to be a Monday and they happened to be plowing that day. They certainly wouldn't have been plowing on January 10 in Iowa.