Early Modern Life & Almanac

The 17th Century almanac for December – when ‘Glad Christmas comes, and every hearth makes room to give him welcome now, even want will dry its tears in mirth, and crown him with a holly bough’. In the 17th Century, during December, farm labourers repaired walls, hedged, cut dikes and split wood. December was also a …

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The 17th Century almanac for November – the month of ‘sunshine and shadows, tempest loud, and calms’. The 1st of November was and is All Saints’ Day. It was a cross-quarter day celebrated with pork and souse, sprats and sparlings (or smelt). It was the day when grazing on the meadows ended and horses were …

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The 17th Century almanac for the month of October.