Many readers will know the Tavistock Goosey Fair, certainly Nottingham’s Goose Fair but Great Crosby once a small village, now a considerable settlement, seven miles from Liverpool also had its ‘Goose Fair.’
Notes and queries records that the feast took place when the harvest is gathered in about that part of the country, and so it forms a sort of “harvest-home” gathering for the agriculturists of the neighbourhood. Thus, it appears to have developed from a feast day and was associated with St Luke’s Day or rather the nearest Sunday. Notes and queries continues to state that:
“It is said also that, at this particular period, geese are finer and fatter after feeding on the stubble-fields than at any other time.”
And the comments that:
“Curious to say, however, the bird in question is seldom, if ever, eaten at these feasts.”
A reason for this being given that George Henderson’s 1911 Survivals in Belief Among the Celts, states that:
“At ‘Goose Fair’ at Great Crosby, Lancashire, the goose was held as too sacred to eat.”
Whether is true is unclear and it may have been that it was simply a trade fair and once does not eat the profits. Similarly when it demised is not known.
In search of traditional customs and ceremonies 