|
If you are a fiber artist you may know about Distaff Day. Celebrated on January 7th, the day after Epiphany (Jan 6th), Saint Distaff Day is about getting back to work after holiday celebrations, but also about having a little fun. The holiday of celebrating Saint Distaff was a joke in medieval England and had to do with the women's return to spinning fibers into thread using a branch-like tool called the distaff. However, the men don't return to work until the Monday after Distaff day and would pull pranks like trying to set the fiber on fire. This was often counteracted with the women throwing water on the men as they made their attempts. The holiday is described by poet Robert Herrick in his poem "St Distaff's Day or the Morrow After Twelfth Night"
"Partly work and partly play
You must on St. Distaff’s Day:
From the plough soon free your team;
Then come home and fother them;
If the maids a-spinning go,
Burn the flax and fire the tow.
Bring in pails of water then,
Let the maids bewash the men.
Give St. Distaff all the right;
Then bid Christmas sport good night,
And next morrow every one
To his own vocation."
| 
