Stir-Up Sunday. In the Anglican Church, the Collect for the Sunday before Advent, or the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity, which occurs some time in late November, commences ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people’, and all over the country this has given the day the colloquial name of Stir-Up Sunday.
Brand reports a verse recited by children: ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, The pudding in the pot, And when we get home, We'll eat it all hot’. The day was taken as a marker to advise the housewife to start her Christmas preparations, and the grocer to see to the Christmas stock of his shop (Sussex Archaeological Collections 33 (1883), 252–3).
Bibliography
Brand, 1849: i. pp.414;
Simpson, 1973: pp.141–2;
‘Winter and the London Poor’ , The Times (25 Nov. 1863), pp.12.
How to cite this entry:
"Stir-Up Sunday" A Dictionary of English Folklore. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 20 November 2011
Bibliography
Brand, 1849: i. pp.414;
Simpson, 1973: pp.141–2;
‘Winter and the London Poor’ , The Times (25 Nov. 1863), pp.12.
How to cite this entry:
"Stir-Up Sunday" A Dictionary of English Folklore. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 20 November 2011
