It is also customary for all the Journey-men to make every Year new Paper Windows, whether the old will serve again or no; Because that day they make them, the Master Printer gives them a Waygoose; that is, he makes them a good Feast, and not only entertains them at his own House, but besides, gives them Money to spend at the Ale-house or Tavern at Night; And to this Feast, they invite the Correcter, Founder, Smith, Joyner and Inck-maker, who all of them severally (except the Correcter in his own Civility) open their Purse-strings and add their Benevolence (which Workmen account their duty, because they generally chuse these Workmen) to the Master Printers: But from the Correcter they expect nothing, because the Master Printer chusing him, the Workmen can do him no kindness.
These Way-gooses, are always kept about Bartholemew-tide. And till the Master-Printer have given this Way-goose, the Journey-men do not use to Work by Candle Light.
Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683-4)
Nothing is known of the word waygoose or the variant wayzgoose before Moxon’s use; the more common wayzgoose is probably due to mistaken etymology. While a wayzgoose used to be a dinner, it became a dinner and an outing, and has now come to mean a meeting of printers.
wayzgoose.info is intended to be a one-stop site to help printers and print enthusiasts find their next meeting, fair or wayzgoose, wherever they are in the world, and however far away St Bartholemew’s Day is.
This site is run by Nick Gill, typefounder and letterpress printer at Effra Press, and while costs in maintaining it aren’t high, they’re not zero. If you find this site useful, please consider donating to the PayPal money pool; this will help offset the costs, and help add new features.
If you’re in charge of a wayzgoose or print fair, please submit the details on the Event Submission page, and it’ll go up on the site.