# Rock (distaff) Day



## Flwrbrd (Jan 14, 2007)

Just wishing all fiberholics a happy Rock Day.....
Local yarn shop is celebrating it tomorrow with soup and goodies and lots and lots of spinny things.....
:dance:


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Can you enlighten us further, please?!


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

What on earth is "rock day" ...............please 

hoggie


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## grams (Sep 10, 2004)

Rock day is when women returned to their fibers after the twelve days, and nights, of Christmas.


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## FalconDance (Feb 4, 2007)

> Rock Day
> 
> The day after Twelfthday, when, the Christmas holidays being over, women returned to their rock or distaff.
> Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894


This is what I found.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Very cool! Thanks for sharing that Flwbrd, and Falcon and Grams thanks for the details on today!


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

And don't forget that you must decorate your distaff in ribbons of the right colours - green or blue for maidens, reds & pinks for married ladies and black for men. This is info I got from one of the weaving forums.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

I wonder what color I would use to decorate my distaff with. I'm not married any more and I really don't think I would qualify as a maiden. Do you think I could use purple? It's a combination of blue and pink :shrug:


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

According to the Randall fellow on the weaving forum, married women got to wear reds/pinks because they were more "valuable" than the maidens but the men got to use black because that is the most difficult colour to get thru natural sources and this showed their status. Now since you are quite valuable to all of us I vote you get to wear red, purple and black or any other colour your heart desires! Huzzah! (as they say in Parliament).


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

Now I KNOW I'm being stupid but....... what's a distaff  - sorry 

hoggie


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

:clap: I'll take that Liese thank you! Hmmmm, I wonder if that is where we get the pink is for girls and blue is for boys thing. I never really understood that. My boys wore pink all the time, it looked great on them, still does.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Hoggie you are NOT being stupid. A distaff is the thing that holds up the fibers at a wheel, usually it was used with Flax usually. A way to hold all the fibers and keep them organized until they were spun. Here's are a few links with pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distaff 
http://www.mielkesfarm.com/images/ccraftsman/ccraftsm2.jpg

Here is one with a drop spindle http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/images/maramures/lifeandstyle/Maramures-Life&Style17.jpg


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## FalconDance (Feb 4, 2007)

Well, my wristaff (for my drop spindle) is dark olive green - not exactly appropriate for an old married woman like me, but I don't care .


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

Thanks Marchwind for the explanation  

So if I am getting this right, spinners stopped spinning for the whole twelve days of Christmas ? Is there any reason for that? I was uner the impression that until comparatively recently only Christmas day was really a holiday? Were spinners different - or am I wrong about teh other?

Anyway - happy Rock day (if that's the right thing to say  )

hoggie


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## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

hoggie said:


> Thanks Marchwind for the explanation
> 
> So if I am getting this right, spinners stopped spinning for the whole twelve days of Christmas ? Is there any reason for that? I was uner the impression that until comparatively recently only Christmas day was really a holiday? Were spinners different - or am I wrong about teh other?
> 
> ...


I expect that other obligations traditionally took precedence over spinning during this period. I'm not sure what, exactly, but most likely a lot of them had to do with cooking. LOL

donsgal


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## jkwd (Dec 22, 2002)

Please pardon my intrusion, fellow fiber fanatics. I usually limit myself to lurking, not having that much to contribute. However my guild did host a Saint Distaff's Day (aka Rock Day) spin today. Here is what was in the invitations that were sent out last week: In medieval times, Jan 7th, the first free day after the 12 days of Christmas, was known as St.Distaff's Day. It had no connection to any saint, but celebrated the importance of spinning to society. In those days, before the invention of the spinning wheel, spinning was done on a drop spindle with the fiber held on a distaff. Women returned to their task of spinning on Distaff Day, but men did not return to the plough until Plough Monday after their ploughs had been blessed. The still idle men thought it fine sport to set fire to the flax and tow. Pails of water were kept to hand and as fast as the fires were set, the maidens put them out with liberal 'bewashings'. When everyone was thoroughly drenched, the day had been properaly observed and folks returned to their workaday world after the holiday celebrations. As an aside: I am supposing it was called "rock day" to recall that the earliest spindles were simply rocks. The fall issue of Wild Fibers has a picture of fiber artist Susan Merrill spinning using a rock. But she is using wool. It's hard for me to envision spinning flax with a rock.


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

Thank you for that. Now you ohave me wondering. One of our local traditions which is "cast in stone" (and which no-one seems to know the origins of), is on New Year's day all th ekids gather around the cattle trough in one of the squares iin the oldest part of the town. The fire brigade turn out and EVERYONE who happens to pass anywhere near th esquare is liberally doused, the kids ar ethrown in the trough, and many adults too, with firemen pulling people out of cars etc to throw them in. it has been known for them to even enter one of the nearby houses to get the person hiding inside. Your talk of everyone getting thoroughly soaked makes me wonder if there is some sort of connection hhmmmm.

Out of interest - when is plough Monday. is that the first Monday after the 12 days of Christmas? Or later?

hoggie


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## Liese (Dec 12, 2005)

Now I haven't done much poking around yet on this topic but please recall that the Midwinter celebrations were long in effect before Christianity came along - the conference at Nicaea (have to check the spelling on that) knew the importance of these holidays and in a why beat em, let's join em kind of thought added Christmas to the Christian calendar. But with the harvest finished and the dark closing in there wasn't much else to do but party! And 12 is an important number in a lot of cultures so maybe that's why it's come to be known as the 12 Days. Anyway, it seems from Jkwd that almost everyone got a spot of vacation - tho I would be rather upset to see the flax that had been planted, harvested, retted set aflame, maybe it was more playacting- kind of like pulling the girl's pigtail?


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## jkwd (Dec 22, 2002)

Yes, Plough Monday was the first Monday after the 12th day of Christmas. The Ploughs having been blessed on Sunday, the day before. Your local custom in indeed very interesting. Wonder if there is a link? 

Here is a web site I found which mentions a little bit more:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/ploughMonday.htm


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## jkwd (Dec 22, 2002)

Addition: I see the address I posted did not come thru fully. If you want to view it, please add a p in front of loughMonday! I tried to edit it but that did not seem to work. I appologize for the thread drift. And now if you will excuse me, I'll just slink back over to the corner and pick up my spindle again.


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## jkwd (Dec 22, 2002)

Addition: I see the address I posted did not come thru fully. If you want to view it, please add a p in front of loughMonday! I tried to edit it but that did not seem to work. I appologize for the thread drift. And now if you will excuse me, I'll just slink back over to the corner and pick up my spindle again.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Jkwd your link works fine the way it is. Welcome by the way! I'm not sure why you feel like you would have nothing to offer the group. You have already added a huge amount. Thank you for your valuable input. Please join in more conversations  

I have to say this is so interesting. Hoggie what a blast that sounds like. I just can't imagine getting wet in January though.


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## Cloverbud (Sep 4, 2006)

I'm thinking that January by hoggie is not as backside-freezing cold as it is in frozen northern Minnesota!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Yeah, Cloverbud, if they tried tossing anyone into the water trough where you or I live in January, they'd be completely dry ... bruised from landing hard on the ice, probably, but still dry!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

LOl, Frazzel you are absolutely right. I've spent a few winters in England and it isn't nearly as cold as it is here but they do have snow and cold. Its that damp cold too!

I was just on Ravelry and this link was posted by someone there http://www.tellinghistory.co.uk/resources/distaff.htm


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

LOL - you're right, we don't ge tthe intense cold that you do. But we get a fair bit of wind here in the islands and that adds to the cold. We have a New year's Day swim as well, and I can personally vouch that the sea is COLD in January  having waded barefoot through snow to get to the sea one year  I can assure you that it is LOL

On anothe rnote - the thought of distaff day brought with it an interesting confirmation of something I had been mulling over. The importance placed on fibre craft, and spinning in particular. I had been thinking about this from a smallholding/self sufficiency point of view. With a certain amount of knowledge it would be reasonably easy to feed yourself from a garden and hedgerows. Ok - we might all get very bored of eating potatoes, or beans, or nuts, but we could be fed. But clothing ourselves to keep warm is a MUCH harder task. And the fact that they had a "festival" which sort of celebrated the importance of it speaks volumes.

Just a thought

hoggie


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Hoggie we havwhat is called a Polar Bear swim here during the winter festivities. Yep crazy people actually don swim wear and jump through a hole in the ice to swim. They can't really swim but they sure do get wet. The ice typically is several feet thick. Not for me that's forsure. Maybe it says something that it is help on the college campus  Many years ago when I was in Russia we would regularly see people swimming in the rivers in January and just hanging out on the ice flows. Burrrrrr! I love the cold but I've fallen through the ice before and I never would do it willingly :nono:

Spinning and I imagine weaving and knitting would have all been very important. Not just for clothes but also for blankets and more.


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

LOL - I have seen that on tv where they cut a hole in the ice to swim in Russia. I didn't realise you do it over there as well. That sounds just too much like pain to me 

I thinkn it is amazing how far we have come, and how much we take for granted. The other thing that struck me was the idea of taking th espindle with you if you went out visitng so that you never wasted ANY time. If fyou had a few minutes idle, you picked up your spindle. Those hands had to be busy the WHOLE time.

hhmm - food for thought I think 

hoggie


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