St Distaff’s Day
January 7 is so called because the Christmas season in the United Kingdom ended on Epiphany, and on the following day women returned to their distaffs or daily work. It is also called Rock Day, after the antique term for a distaff. A seventeenth-century poem by Thomas Herrick states:
St. Distaff’s Day; Or, the Morrow after Twelfth-day
Partly work and partly play
You must on St. Distaffs Day:
From the plough soon free your team;
Then cane 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.