Posted
on August 24, 2014
 |
| This picture is supposed to show a wayzgoose feast. |
On
Wayzgoose Day, master printers used to provide an entertainment to
their workers each day on (or around) August 24.
Now
the term refers to an annual outing and / or dinner for the staff of
a printing house or of a newspaper.
There
are several theories for how a day of merry-making and feasting came
to be called wayzgoose.
It may have been a reference to eating goose, of course, or it may
have been a word that evolved from a Dutch term for “inn” or,
figuratively, “banquet.”
Why
August 24? Aside from the fact that late August is a great time to
mark the end of summer, in the northern hemisphere, today is St.
Bartholomew's feast day, and St. Bart is the patron saint of
bookbinders (as well as others). Also, today is the historical
anniversary of THE most important even in printing history:
On
this date in 1456, the printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.
It's possible that this momentous event was celebrated with the very
first wayzgoose party!
Nowadays
some wayzgoose parties are held on other dates, even in different
months and seasons. In Canada one town holds an annual wayzgoose
festival every April; the festival focuses on handmade paper,
handmade books, and small presses. The Letterpress Guild of New
England meets in September for wayzgoose, and the Hamilton Wood Type
and Printing Museum in Wisconsin holds a wayzgoose in November. The
wayzgoose in Tacoma, Washington, includes a Steamroller Smackdown
competition that gets the community involved in the art of
printmaking, and the University of California, Irvine's wayzgoose is
a medieval fair.
Celebrate
printing and paper making!
Also
on this date:
Plan ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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