The party's over. No more three-day weekends, it's time to get back to work.
In European countries, on the day after Epiphany, women would get back to work with their wintertime occupation: spinning fiber into yarn using a distaff. It became known as Distaff Day.
A woman possessed? Apparently letting an unfortunate fella have it with her distaff loaded with fiber.
Image via A Stitch in Time Blog
The following Monday, Plow (or Plough) Monday, the men apparently returned to working in the fields. When the two occasions fell on the same day, the ladies and gents would play pranks on each other.
Some long-gone jokester parodied the medieval European calendard of saints' days by calling it St. Distaff's Day, although I'm sure some salty ladies were more likely to curse it than praise it.
What's a distaff?
Nowadays, people mark the day by getting together to spin, or work on other fiber crafts– which is how I learned about it.
The Windham Textile & History Museum in northeastern Connecticut is organizing a potluck Distaff Day celebration for fiber artists on January 7.