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Molly Dancing is
most associated with Plough Monday, the first Monday after
Epiphany. Tradition has it that as a way of filling the gap between
Christmas and the start of the Spring ploughing season, the ploughboys
would tour around the village landowners, offering to dance for money.
Those who refused would be penalised in various ways (see Trick or
treat) including having a furrow ploughed across the offender's lawn.
The
dancers, wishing to gain
employment from those same landowners shortly afterwards, would attempt
to conceal their identities by blacking their faces with soot and
dressing up in a modified version of their Sunday Best, typically black
garments adorned with coloured scarves and other fripperies. It was
originally an all-male tradition but with one of the members - the
Molly - dressed up as a woman.
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