A national holiday (which may be taken 2nd or 3rd of January if the 1st falls on a weekend).

First footing - dark haired man (holding coal if there is
any) leaves via the back door before the stoke of
midnight on nigh years Eve and comes in via the
front door on New Years Day.

Make and toss pancakes.

Recipe

A day to send anonymous cards to loved ones or potential loved ones.

Hot Cross Buns

Public Holiday from Friday and Monday

Giving and eating Chocolate Eggs (brought by the Easter Bunny), which mainly used to come from Rowntree's Chocolate Factory.  Especially Toffee and Mallow eggs.

A time to perform practical jokes upon the unsuspecting as long as it is before midday.

A public holiday

Now a very Americanised trick or treat affair (Mostly treats than tricks) the traditional carved swede is generally being replaced by the pumpkin.

#We're the Witches of Halloween, oow oow,
The ugliest you've ever seen, oow oow,
We fly around at night and give you such a fright,
We're the Witches of Halloween#

Seems to have died out in the 1980's but it was an evening of the Trick part of Halloween without any of the Treats.  The tradition originates from the fact that it is the day of the gun powder plot (see bonfire night) and Guy Fawkes was brought up in York.

Bonfire parties, fireworks, soup and baked potatoes are now giving way to organised firework displays.

Door to door carolling is very much in the decline.

First footing (see 1st January)

Prior to the start of the 20th century many villages Yorkshire and the North East of England had their own Sword Dance, these are a traditional English dance form collectively known as Morris Dancing.  They are believed to represent fertility rituals for the agricultural year and in general were performed around Christmas time.  The stories possibly relating to Danish folk lore, perhaps brought to Yorkshire from the invading Vikings.  Haxby was no exception the long sword dance was performed against a team of dancers from the neighbouring village of Wigginton on the first Monday in January (Plough Monday).  Original the sword dance was part of the Plough Stott Play (Mummers play) 

In 1918 Cecil J Sharp published several books on these folk dances using only accounts from existing groups or from individuals who used to perform the dance if, as the case was for Haxby the dance was no longer performed. In Haxby Mr Sharp spoke to Mr T Daker who had last performed the Haxby Long Sword Dance around 1890.  The play continued until 1922 when the new local police men told the local lads to stop it because they were begging.

Cecil Sharp’s book (which to this day remains a bible for Morris groups around the world) “The Sword Dances of Northern England Part III” describes the village of Haxby as:

"Haxby is a small village about three miles north of York.  Although it is twenty-three years since the sword dance was performed there, four of the dancers are still living, and it is from these that the following particulars have been obtained."

The all male team of dancers requires eight sword dancers, a Fool/Clown, King William, a Queen, a Besom-Betty, an accordion player and two collectors.  The character of Besom-Betty is similar to a pantomime dame providing the comic relief to the dance along with her husband the Clown.

Dancers wore a white shirt covered front and back with colourful ribbons and a white scarf over their right shoulder.  They had black trousers with red stripe down each leg and upon their head a red cap.

The dance consists of nine movements with no pauses in-between each change.  Most commonly performed to “The Girl I Left Behind” Cecil J Sharp also suggests that it could equally be danced to “Three Jolly Sheepskins” or “The Bonniest O' Them A'"

The dancers stand in a ring facing clockwise with their swords over their right shoulders.  Then in turn perform the following movements:

• The Clash
• The Snake
• Single Sword Over
• Single Sword Under
• Double Sword Over
• Double Sword Under
• Right Shoulder Lock
• The Wheel
• The Rose

The Clash
Each dancer marches clockwise eight steps forward holding their swords in their right hands they then clash the swords altogether in time with the music.  They then turn around swapping the swords into their left hands and march back to where they started then clash their swords together again in time with the music.  Then swap the swords back into their right hands.

The Snake
The leader raises his left hand and jumps over his own sword, dancers 2,3..8 do the same.  Then the leader raises his right hand and he jumps over his left neighbour sword,  Dancers 8, 7, 6..2 do the same.

Single Sword Over
The leader lowers his sword and dancers 8,7,6, 3 jump over it and pass behind those who have already jumped.  As the first dancer jumps over the sword, the leader passes his left hand over his head.  When dancer 3 jumps the sword, dancer 2 jumps over it and turns anticlockwise with a circular sweep of his right arm he guides dancer 3 to his position while passing his sword over the heads of the other dancers.  When dancer 2 is back at his position he lowers his sword and the jumps are repeated.  The remaining dancers has a turn at lower their sword while the others jump over it.

Single Sword Under
Similar to Single Sword Over but instead of lowering the sword the leader raises his sword to dancer 2 to make an arch.  Dancers pass through the arch, the last one is guided back to his place by dancer 2.  Dancer 2 then forms an arch with dancer 3 and the passes under the arch are repeated and each dancer has a turn at creating the arch.

Right Shoulder Lock
Lock of the swords made by passing right hand under left hand of the dancer to the left, and left hand over the right hand of the dancer on the left whilst still moving around.

The Wheel
The lock of swords is passed around from dancer to dancer each grasping the hilt of their own sword.

The Rose
The clown then enters the ring and the swords are placed around his neck.  The Clown then falls down feigning death.  Besom-Betty then runs into the ring and knees down next to the clown.  ‘She’ revives the clown and they walk out of the ring together.