- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements and Note
- List of Plates
- List of Maps
- Figure
- 1 The Origins of Christmas
- 2 The Twelve Days
- 3 The Trials of Christmas
- 4 Rites of Celebration and Reassurance
- 5 Rites of Purification and Blessing
- 6 Rites of Hospitality and Charity
- 7 Mummers' Play and Sword Dance
- 8 Hobby-Horse and Horn Dance
- 9 Misrule
- 10 The Reinvention of Christmas
- 11 Speeding the Plough
- 12 Brigid's Night<sup>*</sup>
- 13 Candlemas
- 14 Valentines
- 15 Shrovetide
- 16 Lent
- 17 The Origins of Easter
- 18 Holy Week
- 19 An Egg at Easter
- 20 The Easter Holidays
- 21 England and St George
- 22 Beltane
- 23 The May
- 24 May Games and Whitsun Ales
- 25 Morris and Marian
- 26 Rogationtide and Pentecost
- 27 Royal Oak
- 28 A Merrie May
- 29 Corpus Christi
- 30 The Midsummer Fires
- 31 Sheep, Hay, and Rushes
- 32 First Fruits
- 33 Harvest Home
- 34 Wakes, Revels, and Hoppings
- 35 Samhain
- 36 Saints and Souls
- 37 The Modern Hallowe'en
- 38 Blood Month and Virgin Queen
- 35 Gunpowder Treason
- 40 Conclusions
- Index
The Easter Holidays
The Easter Holidays
- Chapter:
- (p.204) 20 The Easter Holidays
- Source:
- The Stations of the Sun
- Author(s):
Ronald Hutton
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Alfred the Great decreed a cessation of any need to labour in the fortnight on either side of Easter. By the thirteenth century, the period of rest from labour had been curtailed to remove the first part of Holy Week, but extended at the other (festive) end to include the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter. This latter period was known as the Hock or Hoke Days, or Hocktide, the derivation of which is now completely mysterious. This span of leisure remained until the Reformation of Edward VI, one component of which was a severe reduction in what the reformers regarded as an excessive number of holy days. An act of Parliament in 1552 restricted the period of recreation after Easter to the Monday and Tuesday immediately following, and it was generally observed as such until the institution of bank holidays in the late nineteenth century cut it back to the Monday alone.
Keywords: Alfred the Great, labour, Easter, Holy Week, Hoke Days, Hocktide, leisure, Reformation, Edward VI, Parliament
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements and Note
- List of Plates
- List of Maps
- Figure
- 1 The Origins of Christmas
- 2 The Twelve Days
- 3 The Trials of Christmas
- 4 Rites of Celebration and Reassurance
- 5 Rites of Purification and Blessing
- 6 Rites of Hospitality and Charity
- 7 Mummers' Play and Sword Dance
- 8 Hobby-Horse and Horn Dance
- 9 Misrule
- 10 The Reinvention of Christmas
- 11 Speeding the Plough
- 12 Brigid's Night<sup>*</sup>
- 13 Candlemas
- 14 Valentines
- 15 Shrovetide
- 16 Lent
- 17 The Origins of Easter
- 18 Holy Week
- 19 An Egg at Easter
- 20 The Easter Holidays
- 21 England and St George
- 22 Beltane
- 23 The May
- 24 May Games and Whitsun Ales
- 25 Morris and Marian
- 26 Rogationtide and Pentecost
- 27 Royal Oak
- 28 A Merrie May
- 29 Corpus Christi
- 30 The Midsummer Fires
- 31 Sheep, Hay, and Rushes
- 32 First Fruits
- 33 Harvest Home
- 34 Wakes, Revels, and Hoppings
- 35 Samhain
- 36 Saints and Souls
- 37 The Modern Hallowe'en
- 38 Blood Month and Virgin Queen
- 35 Gunpowder Treason
- 40 Conclusions
- Index