Does anyone remember Caking night?

[rubydazzler]

I think that somewhere along the line cakin night and penny for the guy got mixed up because I remember a similar song when we used to go out with our guy fawkes trying to get money to buy fireworks.

The carol singing one was on the same lines, sing a couple of carols, do the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year chant, and then ...

Hole in me stocking

Hole in me shoe

Please can you spare us a copper or two

If you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will do

If you've only got a farthing, God Bless You!

 

or there was

 

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,

Please to put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do

If you've only got a farthing, then God Bless You!

 

We weren't actually allowed to do the Guy Fawkes thing But I don't remember anyone saying anything but "Penny for the Guy, please, mester!"

 

eta: Just remembered another carolling one ...

We wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer

A horse and a gig and a good fat pig to kill next year

[chimay]

The carol singing one was on the same lines, sing a couple of carols, do the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year chant, and then ...

Hole in me stocking

Hole in me shoe

Please can you spare us a copper or two

If you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will do

If you've only got a farthing, God Bless You!

 

or there was

 

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,

Please to put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do

If you've only got a farthing, then God Bless You!

 

We weren't actually allowed to do the Guy Fawkes thing But I don't remember anyone saying anything but "Penny for the Guy, please, mester!"

 

eta: Just remembered another carolling one ...

We wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer

A horse and a gig and a good fat pig to kill next year

 

We used to put our guy fawkes in a home made go-cart and wheel it around. I was with my older cousins and they could have just adapted the rhyme.

 

Do you remember the rhyme sang by the first footers at midnight on New Years Eve? I remember my cousins singing a rhyme when they went first footing with lumps pf coal. I'm beginning to wonder if they were more clever than they looked when it came to making money.

[rubydazzler]

Do you remember the rhyme sang by the first footers at midnight on New Years Eve? I remember my cousins singing a rhyme when they went first footing with lumps pf coal. I'm beginning to wonder if they were more clever than they looked when it came to making money.

Looking for mumming or guising songs for NYE I came across this one for caking ..

 

A soul, a soul, a soul-cake.

Please, good missus, a soul-cake.

An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry,

Or any good thing to make us merry ...

On 2 November, All Souls Day, men dressed in disguise, (Guisers) and also children, would walk from village to village begging for 'soul cakes', made out of square pieces of bread with currants or sometimes oatcakes. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

 

It has been suggested that in pre-Christian times, soul cakes were baked in order to chose a sacrificial victim to ensure good crops. One soul cake was blackened on the fire and the person who chose that one was ritually killed.

 

You learn something new everyday! I'd never even heard of caking day before

[rubydazzler]

Do you remember the rhyme sang by the first footers at midnight on New Years Eve? I remember my cousins singing a rhyme when they went first footing with lumps pf coal. I'm beginning to wonder if they were more clever than they looked when it came to making money.

Being tall and dark my father was always in demand as a first foot. The quote is what he used to sing at the doors, it's taken from the 'Miner's Dream' I think which is a lot longer, and there was a traditional guising rhyme as well, but I can't remember it, sadly.

Last night I lay dreaming a wonderful dream,

One that seemed to bring distant friends near,

I dream of Old England, the land of my birth,

To the heart of her sons ever dear.

I saw the old homestead and faces I love,

I saw England's valleys and dells,

I listen'd with joy, as I did when a boy,

To the sound of the old village bells.

The log was burning brightly,

'Twas a night that would banish all sin,

For the bells were ringing the Old Year out,

And the New Year in.

 

Then he'd recite a traditional guising NYE rhyme and come in with bread and coal and be given a tot of whisky.

[chimay]

Being tall and dark my father was always in demand as a first foot. The quote is what he used to sing at the doors, it's taken from the 'Miner's Dream' I think which is a lot longer, and there was a traditional guising rhyme as well, but I can't remember it, sadly.

 

 

Then he'd recite a traditional guising NYE rhyme and come in with bread and coal and be given a tot of whisky.

 

At the time I'm thinking about my cosuins were teenagers so I guess they went for a short but snappy rhyme so maybe they went for the guising NYE rhyme.

[teddie]

I was brought up in Stannington and we used to go out 'cakin'' - can't remember if it was the 30th or 31st October.

 

If I remember rightly, it was mischief night on the 30th and cakin' night on the 31st

[chimay]

If I remember rightly, it was mischief night on the 30th and cakin' night on the 31st

 

Oh yes. Mischief night. Blimey I'd forgotten that one. A lot of the kids used to play knock a door run but my mam kept us in and we didn't answer the door when someone knocked on it. It used to scare my little brother because I'd tell him it were ghosts knocking at the door and they were after him. Big sisters can be so cruelllllll :hihi: