Plaze to gie us a Valentine.
Up wi’ the kittle, down wi’ the spout,
Gie us a penny an’ we’ll gie out [cease].
In the northern part of Northamptonshire sweet currant buns were formerly made called Valentine buns, and given by godparents to their godchildren on the Sunday preceding and the Sunday following Valentine’s Day. A like custom once prevailed in Rutland, where a lozenge-shaped bun called a Shittle was given to children and old people on Valentine’s Day.
For the farmer, Valentine’s Day means that half your firing and half your hay is already consumed. In Rutland there is an old saying: Valentine’s Day, sow your beans in the clay. David [Mch. 1] and Chad [Mch. 2], sow your beans be the weather good or bad. Then comes Benedick [Mch. 21], if you ain’t sowed your beans you may keep ’em in the rick.
Sports at Shrovetide
Shrovetide in olden days was a season of sport and feasting, the occasion for a final burst of jollity before the beginning of Lent. As the name records, it was originally a time for confession and absolution in preparation for the Lenten Fast, whence also the name Gooddit (Lan. Chs. Stf. Der.), a corruption of Good-tide. Shrove Tuesday is Fasten’s E’en (Sc. n.Cy. n.Midl.), the Eve of the great Fast of the ecclesiastical year. There still remain in some districts traces of the former carnival gaieties, whilst the popular eating of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday keeps up the memory of the ancient feasting. The day before Shrove Tuesday is Collop Monday (n.Cy.), that is, rasher-of-bacon Monday, so called because the customary dish for this day is bacon and eggs. In parts of Cornwall it is known as Pease-Monday, from the custom of eating pea-soup that day, though such fare would seem rather to be a foretaste of Lent than a festival dainty.
Chief among the Shrovetide sports which have lasted down to modern times is the well-known pastime called Lent-crocking (Som. Dev. Wil. Dor.), or Drowin’ o’ cloam, which consists in throwing broken crockery-ware in at doorways on the night before Shrove Tuesday, known as Dappy-door-night, and Lentsherd-night. Lead-birds (Pem.) is a game played by boys as a substitute for the obsolete cock-throwing, a barbarous old Shrovetide sport, which is perhaps further to be traced in the name Lent-cocks (Dev.) for daffodils. In the old Grammar Schools it was customary for each scholar to contribute towards a fund for Shrovetide cock-fighting. This contribution was called the cock-penny (Lakel. Yks. Lan.), and it continued to be a recognized fee paid to the Head Master long after the sport itself had died out. Shrovetide ball-games still survive, such as bung-ball (Bdf.); and kep-ball, the game of catch-ball which gives the name Kepping-day (e.Yks.) to Shrove Tuesday. There is an old saying: if you don’t have a kepp on kepping-day, you’ll be sick in harvest.
The bell once rung before noon on Shrove Tuesday to summon the penitents to their shrift, came to be looked upon as a signal for preparing the day’s pancakes, and hence it was termed the Pancake bell. The practice of ringing this bell continued certainly into the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In Worcestershire the Pancake bell was said to ring out the words: Pot off, pan on; Pot off, pan on; whilst in Warwickshire the message rung out was: Pan’s a-burning; Pan’s a-burning. In Yorkshire a kind of pancake or fritter with currants in it is eaten on Ash-Wednesday, and the day is called Frutters’ Wednesday.
Lenten Customs