A Wayzgoose was a printers' social outing in the heyday of the printing industry and curiously enough the Wayzgoose is the subject of a free exhibition at Napier University.
Here's the details from the release:
‘Wayzgoose: Scottish Printers’ Outings, Social Activities and Sports Clubs’ exhibition opens at Napier University
‘The rowing teams of Glasgow printers were banned from membership of
the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association because the physical nature of
their daily work gave them an advantage, in terms of building up their
strength, over the students, doctors etc who composed the other teams.’
This and other anecdotes are part of a project looking at Scottish
printers' social activities that forms the basis of a free exhibition -
Wayzgoose: Scottish Printers’ Outings, Social Activities and Sports
Clubs - opening next week. The project was supported by the ESRC
(Economic and Social Research Council).
The Wayzgoose was the distinctive name given to the annual outings
or dinners for printers. Nobody knows where the word came from; a meal
was traditionally given to print employees on St Bartholomew’s Eve,
which marked the end of summer, where goose may have been served, but
this is unconfirmed.
The exhibition recounts the extraordinarily vibrant community life of
those who worked in the printing industry and associated trades –
papermaking, publishing and bookselling – in Scotland in the twentieth
century. It records the activities of various sporting clubs associated
with those trades and details the tradition of the annual work’s day
away for whole families or, in the case of the paper mill villages,
whole communities.
The exhibition contains a number of exhibits, information posters,
and an AV display using home movie footage and the voices of those who
worked in these industries.
The exhibition runs in the Library at Merchiston Campus, Napier
University, 14-18 January 2008 – Mon-Thurs 09.00-20.00, Fri 09.00-17.00
and forms part of the celebration of 500 Years of the Printed Word in
Scotland 1508-2008.