Straw Bear festival is usually around the second Sat in Jan. It's the translated celebrations of Plough Monday, the day after Distaff Day, the first Sunday after 12th Night (Jan 6th), the day when the women would go back to work. Plough Monday, when all the men would go back to work, is the first Monday after 12th Night. They didn't actually do much work though, they stood around after making a ceremonial cutting of the field with the newly blessed and probably decorated plough, threw lots of beer or cider around the place to bless the new crops to be planted in the fields and then buggered off to the pub for more singing and dancing. It's definately a field blessing, related more to the old fertility rites and religions which is why the church never really adopted it as part of the Christmas season - except to muscle in on the plough blessing bit. There are several churches up and down the country that still do plough blessings, but not so often now, as it's a bit difficult to get a Massey Ferguson through the church doors, especially in London.

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