Until 1949 Mayor's Day in Harwich was 21st December and it became the custom for the newly elected Mayor to shower his blessings on the children by throwing kitchels to them from a window at the Guildhall. When this began is not known but it has long been the custom in some parts, and particularly Suffolk, for children to visit their god-parents at Christmas time and ask for their blessings. This was given, together with a small cake called a God's kitchel which was specially made for visting god-children. There was an old saying - 'Ask me a blessing and I will give you a kitchel' - and in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in 1386, we find these lines: 'Give us a bushel, wheat, malt or rye, A God's kitchel, or a trip of cheese.' In 1905 a guide book described it as a 'curious custom, hundreds of years old', and thought the cakes were called 'catch-alls'. The ceremony is now held on the third Thursday in May and starts at approximately 12 noon at St. Nicholas' Church.