Christmas past:
Gavin Weightman and Steve Humphries
Pre
1837 Christmas was not celebrated in the UK. Winter feast days (wassailing, Plough
Monday, etc.) tended to be local and took place between All Hallows on 1st Nov. and
Candlemas on 2nd Feb. Our Christmas ritual was the invention of the Victorian
middle class. For Scots, Christmas was an English festival, resisted partly for
nationalistic reasons, partly as the Presbyterian Church regarded it as
essentially pagan; Scotland and other northern regions celebrated the New Year
or Hogmanay. Until late 19th c., in all regions and social classes, Twelfth
Night was still observed.
As
Christmas developed, it concentrated on just two days of the twelve, Christmas day and
Boxing day. Essentially a domestic, family festival rather than a village
event. As it became more popular, the rural customs died out being
inappropriate to urban life. Victorian middle class not content simply to enjoy
Christmas themselves but took Christmas to the poor. Middle class fashion for
charity giving at Christmas replaced the Christmas box; for centuries masters
and householders had given gifts of money to servants, and tradesmen had
rewarded loyal customers with free goods.
First
Christmas cards 1843, Henry Cole. At that time, annual greetings were exchanged
at New Year. First cards were often pagan with nymphs, etc., and derived from
New Year cards. New Year was never a religious festival. Tom Smith, sweetmaker,
introduced the cracker in 1840 as a sales gimmick, originally as a wrapper with
a bang for his sweets; sold even better when he added paper hats and trinkets.
Christmas tree from 1840’s, a German custom popularised by Prince Albert. When
introduced into UK, turkey took over from swan or goose or beef as the bird for
feasts. Mince pies date from Elizabethan cookery. Christmas cake was originally
the Twelth Night cake.
December
25th became Christmas Day when the Christian church took over winter solstice celebrations.
Evergreens were magical plants that did not die in winter. Many winter
celebrations were raucous and ribald with cross-dressing and temporary social
disorder (eg. boy bishop). Victorian middle classes sought to replace the
excesses with a demure, family-centred celebration. The cross dressing of 12th
night transferred to Pantomime along with the risque jokes.
Victorians
made it a family festival and created the compulsion to return home for it. For
a long time this was not possible for many people. Domestic servants were
needed to keep the household running, transport was limited and weather and
roads bad. At the time, family reunions were mostly in the summer, such as
Whitsun and Michaelmas. Wakes weeks (common in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire
and Staffordshire) were short summer holidays when all the factories, mills or
mines in a village closed; travelling fairs moved in for the local revellers.
Cheaper travel by rail gave the option of spending these holidays away at
Blackpool and Bournemouth, increasingly the family reunion transferred to
Christmas. For urban working class families, Christmas Day dinner unlikely to
involve anyone other than immediate family of Mum, Dad and children.
St.
Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Turkey in 5th c., became patron saint of children;
his name evolved into Santa Claus. Poem ‘The Night before Christmas’ by Clement
Clark Moore of USA in 1822 first described him and the 8 reindeer (Dasher,
Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blixen). Legend developed to
dress him in red bishop’s robes. Pre 1870, Father Christmas was a regular
character in mummers’ plays, representing a general spirit of revelry and
festivity. Santa Claus was more appropriate to family Christmas; the terms are
now interchangeable.
Pre
1830, exchanges of gifts were usually at New Year. From 1840’s increasing emphasis
of 25th Dec. as birthday of Jesus united established tradition of gift giving at
birthdays and New Year. There was also a pre-Cromwellian tradition of giving
sweets and small gifts to children on Christmas day.
Adults
now recalling the magic of their childhood Christmasses imagine that the magic
has been lost. As a rule children do not agree. However, higher standard of
living means the significance of a feast and gift giving are lost. Still
remains the single most important annual festival in Britain today. Being on
your own at Christmas is regarded almost as a tragedy, though this may change
as Christmas has always been changing. Only recently has it been enjoyed by the
mass of the population - this is its most remarkable feature.
Hogmanay and
Tiffany: Gillian Edwards
In
England, only the learned spoke of Epiphany, season commonly called Twelvetide
or Twelftide, and Jan 6th feast as Twelfth day. Dates back to King Alfred, who
is said to have promulgated a law ... with relations to holidays, by virtue of
which the twelve days after the Nativity of our Saviour were made festivals ...
later known as the 12 days of Christmas. In medieval courts and great houses,
feasting and celebrations continued until final revel of Twelfth Night.
Nowadays the superstitious mark Twelfth Day by taking down Christmas
decorations. Twelfth Night precedes Twelfth Day; increasing confusion over this
as we have forgotten the ancient custom of starting day not at midnight but at
six the previous evening. This last great festival of Christmas - eating,
drinking, dancing, mumming, foolery and plays - of Twelfth Night was actually
on what to us would be the night of Jan 5th/6th.
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