Plough Monday Celebrations 2007

Held in Doddington early in the new year, a procession pulling & following 'the plough' through the village to The Chequers Inn .

Further celebrations at the Chequers follow, including Morris dancing.

The festival was revived in the village in recent years and has proved very popular.

History
Adapted from a newsletter article written by Paula Jardine-Rose

The plough was connected with the Earth Goddess, the agricultural Goddess of the Grain and Fertility.

At this time of year the ploughing and sowing goddess of was venerated in the form of Brigit or Bridie.

She was seen as the first glimpse of new shoots and the returning warmth of the Sun.

Her festival was that of Imbolc at the begining of February and her associated flowers were the snowdrops that bring a cheer to us all after the winter.

In the past a 'Bridie Star' has been made for the Chequers Inn each Imbolc, this is an equal armed cross wovern into a Sun-Wheel that celebrates Bridie and Imbolc.

It is brought to the festivities and process with it along The Street in Doddington. Bridie is also linked to smithcraft and therefore with the more effective agricultural tools including the plough.

The folk figure of 'Bessy' (a man dressed in womens clothing) who holds and steers the plough in the procession is a remnant of Goddess worship and appears in vaarious folk plays and rural pageants thoughout Britain. It appears the Church assimulated some of the ancient plough celebrations and attached them to Epiphany, a date which has previously been used to calculate when to hold Plough Monday.