What is "hocktide"

Hockday \Hock"day`\, n. [Cf. AS. h[=o]cor mockery, scorn.] A holiday commemorating the expulsion of the Danes, formerly observed on the second Tuesday after Easter; -- called also hocktide. [Eng.] [Written also hokeday.]

Hocktide, Hock tide or Hoke Day is a very old term used to denote the Monday and Tuesday in the week following the second Tuesday after Easter. It was an English mediaeval festival; it and the preceding Monday were the Hock-days. Together with Whitsuntide and the twelve days of Yuletide the week following Easter marked the only vacations of the husbandman's year, during slack times in the cycle of the year when the villein ceased work on his lord's demesne, and most likely on his own land as well.