Parcel wrapping today. I am going for a subtle brown paper and jolly ribbon look this year. I don’t know who invented brown paper (allegedly around in the C17th as seeds were wrapped in it in order to store them) but you’d think they would have made it a little easier to handle. I once papered a room in brown paper. The end result was fine but it stretched all over the place and was decidely the trickiest wall papering I’ve ever done. My wall papering days are now over as the walls in my cottage are too full of lumps and bumps.

25^th December

In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main Christian holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. One of the earliest references to Christmas being celebrated on December 25th appeared in Antioch in the middle of the second century. At that time, Christians were still persecuted. It was not until 350 that Pope Gregory declared 25^th December to be the official date for celebrating Christ’s birth.

Turkey

Before turkey became the traditional Christmas meat, pheasant, swan or goose was eaten. It is believe that the first person to bring turkey to Britain was William Strickland in 1526. He sold the six turkeys he brought back from America in Bristol, for two pence each.

Well, contrary to Mayan opinion, 11.11am has passed and we are all still here. I was prompted to wonder about the effect of the switch to the Gregorian Calendar. May this mean we are eleven days out?

What to do with the rest of the day – apart from spreading Christmas Cheer in the Community Shop? I think it may be an occasion for indexing a few more gravestones – I know how to party!

Tree

The Christmas tree is a C16^th German tradition. Its use was first recorded in England in 1829 and it was popularised by Queen Victoria. It was derived from the ancient pagan traditions of bringing evergreens into the house during winter to symbolise the hope of spring.

 Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night was followed by a day when the home was blessed. The Puritans discontinued this custom and Twelfth Night lost its religious connections. It then became an occasion for over indulgence. It was therefore banned as a feast day in 1870.

‘P’ and ‘E’ now done for the Family Historians’ Enquire Within edit. ‘Emigration’ took some time. Have finished now for the holiday season but did have a quick look at forthcoming ‘C’ and wished I hadn’t.

Events in my village this week have reinforced my belief in the need for proper history teaching. We need to equip people with the ability to gather facts from a variety of sources and to evaluate the accuracy of the evidence. Maybe then ludicrous rumours wouldn’t find their way on to social media sites so easily. Rant over!

Lovely time with Highampton History Society last night. I even sold copies of Coffers, Clysters, Comfrey and Coifs to 40% of the audience! Mistress Agnes is now off duty until the New Year.

Snowmen
Snowmen are thought to be a survival of a totemic pagan ritual. The largest snow person was built in 2008 in Maine and was 122 feet 1 inch tall.

Stable
There is no biblical evidence for Jesus’ birth in a stable. The references to the animals and a manger have led to the association with the stable, although at the time of Jesus’ birth animals would have been brought in to share part of the living accommodation.

Star
The star is another nativity tradition for which there is no biblical evidence. It is, in literal translations, a ‘bright light in the sky’, regarded by some as being a comet.

Have spent the last few days on matters relating to our newly opened community shop. At one point I ended up in the empty shop with no key with which to relock it. Hmm what to do? I had a phone, great – unfortunately I couldn’t remember the phone number of the key holders. I searched in vain for a list of numbers. We are so new that we don’t yet have a telephone directory. Fine I’ll ring Chris and see if he has a telephone directory near to hand. Me: ‘Where are you?’ Chris: ‘Out to sea off Clovelly’ – that would be a no then. Fortunately I then realised that I was staring at the list of phone numbers I needed.

Carol singing round the village last night. As I may have said before, I am strong on enthusiam but less good on tune. Rewarded by a delicious cider punch at my neighbours afterwards – resembled the traditional Lamb’s wool (see my ‘L’ entries). Probably best not consumed if one wishes to be compos mentis the next day though!

Here I am on the said next day, struggling through the last of the ‘P’ entries for my re-edit of Family Historians’ Enquire Within. Who would have thought that so many things could begin with P – my lengthiest letter so far:- from pinfolds and postcards to prisoners of war!

Cakes are now iced, Christmas cards delivered and things are gradually winding down. Tonight, my last talk of the year.

St Nicholas (Santa Claus)

Nicholas was the 4th century Bishop of Myra in modern day Turkey. His feast day is 6th December and he was patron saint of small boys, dockers, boatmen, travellers, pilgrims and those who had unjustly lost law suits. The 6th December remains a gift giving day in parts of Europe but much of the world has moved the tradition of St. Nicholas to 25th December. The modern Santa Claus or Father Christmas combines elements of the gift giving Saint Nicholas and the Viking Old Man Winter.

Saturnalia

This was the feast of the Roman god Saturn that took place from 17th to 23rd December. Many of its traditions were adapted or incorporated by the early Christian church.

Shepherds

The association of shepherds with Christmas is biblical in origin.

Yesterday made a pilgrimage to Cotehele to see their famous Christmas garland. These are truly impressive. This year’s is sixty foot long and contains 30,000 dried flowers. It is subtly pretty rather than traditional red, green and gold and is therefore more like historical garlands. Cotehele, being basically seventeenth century and ‘homely’ is one of my favourite National Trust properties.

We then moved on to a carol service on Dartmoor. A chapel, built in 1833, that was seriously in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant service and really rousing singing, aided by the presence of the Widdecombe singers. They sang the traditional Widdecombe carol or curl (see carols in one of my earlier entries).

Reindeer

The use of reindeer to pull Santa’s sleigh has its origins in a Finnish legend that says Old Man Winter brings his reindeer down from the mountains as the first snows of winter appear. The names of eight of the reindeer come from the poem by Clement C Moore, now known as ‘The Night Before Christmas’ but originally called ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’. The ninth reindeer, Rudolph, was created by Robert L. May who wrote a poem in 1939 about the teased and bullied reindeer. The song about Rudolph was written in 1949 by Johnny Marks. Various films since have included additional reindeer, often descendants of the original nine.

Robin

Legend has it that a robin relieved Christ’s suffering in the cross. Victorian postmen were known as robins because their uniforms were red. Early Christmas cards often showed robins delivering the cards.

Sorry, late again with yesterday’s entry. Busy with the north Devon branch of Devon Family History Society’s annual Christmas Quiz. Not quite the taxing nature of The Christmas Puzzle but taxing enough. My team came somewhere unshamefully near the middle. Photos have arrived from Thursday’s talk. So here I am, not exactly showing my best side but instructing my victim volunteer in the art of the seventeenth century curtsey.

Today’s entry, or strictly of course yesterday’s, is Puritans – so as Mistress Agnes I shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas at all!

Puritans

The Puritans are notorious for abolishing Christmas. A directive of January 1645/6 stated that only Sundays were to be celebrated as holy days. Increasingly restrictive legislation meant that from 1652-9 businesses were expected to open as usual on Christmas day. In Canterbury, during what became known as the Plum Pudding Riots, market traders refused to open and played a mammoth ball game instead.

Last night’s talk about life in the seventeenth century went well. Folk even survived eating my Jumbles. Well, when I say survived, they were still standing ten minutes after eating them. Sales of Coffers, Clysters were very good too.

Pudding

Christmas pudding, or plum/figgy pudding, is believed to originate from the medieval period when plum pottage was served during festivities. Like Christmas cake, Christmas pudding derives from plum pottage, which contained not plums but meat and vegetables and was thickened with breadcrumbs and suet. Fruit, wine and spices were then added. The broth developed into a thicker pudding during the seventeenth century when pudding cloths were invented; the meat content was later removed and it became more as we know it today. It was requested for the Christmas feast by George I in 1714 but it was more frequently eaten at harvest time. The pudding became specifically associated with Christmas in the 1830s.
It is customarily made on Stir-up Sunday (the Sunday before advent) with 13 different ingredients, symbolising Jesus and his 12 apostles. Some add a silver coin, a thimble or a ring to the pudding. The coin was supposed to bring wealth and the ring marriage, to whoever found them. Now we stir the pudding and make a wish but historically people stirred from east to west to represent the journey of the wise men.

Mistress Agnes got out her pots and pans today to make Jumbles – for the uninitiated these are spicy biscuits, common in the C16th and C17th. I have a C17th talk coming up tonight – one of my regular slots with the branch of Somerset and Dorset Family History Society that meets at Street. As it is their Christmas meeting, I thought I’d give it a whirl. Cook I am not. There are several different Jumble recipies. Some contain rosewater. Hmm where to source rosewater? The community shop clearly wasn’t up to it; neither it seems was M*******s. I wasn’t even quite sure where to expect it to be. My companion went for the condiments shelves whilst I scanned the baking section in vain. I decided I’d have to substitute something, but what? In the end I went for the vanilla essence that was lurking in the back of my larder.

Then came the making part, a typical scenario for my cooking forays – too dry, add some water, too wet add some flour ……. The end result? They look a bit like a pre-schooler’s play dough efforts (they are meant to be figure of 8 shaped), they do smell very nice, I guess the proof of the Jumble….. Now to decide whether they are up to being displayed to a wider public. I can always adopt my usual tactic – if they look burnt on one side turn them over – worked (almost) every time with fish fingers when the girls were small.

Last night, a very interesting talk from Mark Horton of ‘Coast’ fame. With some thought provoking comments on how and indeed whether, we can preserve our natural landscape, whilst providing for our C21st needs.

Pantomime

Pantomimes owe much to the Italian ‘Commedia dell’ Arte’ and in the C16th were performed as entertainment between the acts of an opera. By the early C18th these incorporated the Harlequinade. Pantomime in its modern form was influenced by the Victorian music hall and Augustus Harris, the manager of Drury Lane Theatre in 1870, is credited with its promotion.

Poinsettia

The poinsettia is native to Mexico and was used as a medicinal plant by the Aztecs. The Mexicans call them ‘flowers of the holy night’ and it is seen to represent the Star of Bethlehem.

Today our project to index the gravestones in the local chuchyard bore fruit, as I was called across the road to guide some Australian vistors to their ancestors’ memorials. Bit jolly nippy for dashing round churchyards but at least it was sunny and dry.

Nativity Plays

Tradition believes that the first nativity play was performed in 1223, when St Francis of Assisi held the first service to use carols. Cribs were Christmas symbols before this time and were part of Italian C11^th traditions. Even before this, Byzantine Churches are associated with what were described as Nativity Dramas, however these were oratorios rather than plays.

My first shift in the community shop today. Shades of how things may have been for our ancestors, when communities were self sufficient and everyone knew everyone and had time for a chat. Not for our ancestors though, struggling with a bar code scanner or the idiosyncracies of an epos till. Interesting to see what lines are popular – tooth brushes and scotch eggs are best sellers so far!

Mistletoe
Mistletoe was used by the Druids in rituals and was seen as a fertility symbol; hence the custom of kissing under the mistletoe. It was not allowed in churches because of the pagan significance, the only exception was York Minster.

Mummers Plays
These were performed by groups of travelling players and may have origins in Saturnalia celebrations.