Plough Monday

 


Attention gardeners and farmers: this post is for you. It’s time to return to work after the Twelve Days of Christmas holiday festivities at the beginning of the new agricultural year.


Today is Plough Monday, a United Kingdom holiday, celebrated on the first Monday following Epiphany (January 6). This tradition honors farmers’ hard work, the importance of rural life, and community spirit.


Teams of men clean, decorate, and take ploughs through their village to church to receive blessings for farm tools, human labor, and the land on Plough Sunday.


The following day, Plough Monday, costumed participants solicit donations. Traditionally, the funds were used to provide a loaner plow to poor farmers. Non-contributors are jokingly threatened that a Plough Boy will plough up their garden or front yard. There are parades, lively performances, and dancing.

The occasion began in the late 15th Century but declined due to mechanization in the 19th Century. There was a folk revival of the custom in Cambridgeshire in the 1960s. Today, there may be a symbolic blessing of a tractor.


If you garden or farm, you may wish to create a small ritual to mark the coming agricultural season, or learn more about local farming history. It’s a time of gratitude for those who toil in the soil.

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