The Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County welcomes the Northern Prairie Fiber Artists, as they will be demonstrating the art of spinning and other fiber arts on Saturday, Jan. 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the atrium of the Hjemkomst Center. Admission to the demonstration is free, but those who wish to see the museum exhibits must pay admission. The group celebrates St. Distaff Day or "Rock Day" each year at this time, as it represents an old European custom of returning to the daily chores, such as spinning, after the twelve days of Christmas.
According to a website, “In pre-industrial Europe many of the agricultural and household chores that marked the turning of the seasons attached themselves to saints’ days. All across Europe, for example, people slaughtered animals and celebrated the harvest on St. Martin’s Day. In England, folk tradition carried this tendency one step further, inventing St. Distaff’s Day to mark women’s return to work after the Christmas holiday.
St. Distaff’s Day fell on January 7, the day after Epiphany. On this day, folk tradition advised women to return to the daily chores they had put aside during the twelve days of Christmas. Before the invention of factory-made cloth, the task of spinning constituted perhaps the most representative of all female chores. Women of all ages, ranks, and incomes spun thread. Thus, English folk tradition commemorated women’s return to work on the day after Epiphany by inventing a joke holiday called St. Distaff’s Day. There never was a saint named Distaff. The word “distaff” refers to one of the principal tools women used in spinning, a rod upon which flax or wool was tied and out of which thread was pulled. This tool was also known as a “rock,” hence the day was also known as ‘Rock Day’” (http://christmas-celebrations.org/207-st-distaffs-day.html).
For more information on the event, visit the Website at www.hcscconline.org or www.facebook.com/hcscc. The Hjemkomst Center is located at 202 First Avenue North in Moorhead.
