Where does the saying – I wish you Godspeed – come from?

This dates back to a 15th century song sung by English ploughmen on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Day, the end of the Christmas holidays. Before farm laborers went back to the fields, they dressed all in white and went from door to door drawing a plough and soliciting “plough money” to spend on a last celebration. The song lyric “Godspeed the plough” expressed a wish for success and prosperity and was soon shortened to just “Godspeed”.