In Sweden Yule is considered to close with the Octave of the Epiphany,
January 13, "St. Knut's Day," the twentieth after Christmas.

"Twentieth day Knut
Driveth Yule out"

sing the old folks as the young people dance in a ring round the festive
Yule board, which is afterwards robbed of the viands that remain on it,
including the Yule boar. On this day a sort of mimic fight used to take
place, the master and servants of the house pretending to drive away the
guests with axe, broom, knife, spoon, and other implements.{56} The
name, "St. Knut's Day," is apparently due to the fact that in the laws of
Canute the Great (1017-36) it is commanded that there is to be no fasting
from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany.{57}

In England the day after the Epiphany was called St. Distaff's or Rock
Day (the word Rock is evidently the same as the German _Rocken_ =
distaff). It was the day when the women resumed their spinning after the
rest and gaiety of Christmas. From a poem of Herrick's it appears that
the men in jest tried to burn the women's flax, and the women in return
poured water on the men:--

"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."{58}

|352| A more notable occasion was Plough Monday, the first after
Twelfth Day. Men's labour then began again after the holidays.{59} We
have already seen that it is sometimes associated with the mummers'
plays. Often, however, its ritual is not developed into actual drama, and
the following account from Derbyshire gives a fairly typical description
of its customs:--

"On Plough Monday the 'Plough bullocks' are occasionally seen; they
consist of a number of young men from various farmhouses, who are
dressed up in ribbons.... These young men yoke themselves to a
plough, which they draw about, preceded by a band of music, from
house to house, collecting money. They are accompanied by the Fool
and Bessy; the fool being dressed in the skin of a calf, with the
tail hanging down behind, and Bessy generally a young man in female
a