A MID-15TH-CENTURY carol attributed to Richard Smart, rector of Plymtree in Devon, had 'Sir Christemas' announcing the birth of Christ and inviting his audience to drink and make good cheer and be right merry and sing with us now joyfully. Nowell! Nowell!'. It is the first documented mention of a metaphorical character in charge of the festivities, the patriarch, who would eventually become our Father Christmas, although the use of Nowel (with one 'l' and derived from old French) was first recorded in English in the 14th century by Chaucer in The Franklin's Tale.
During the Tudor and Stuart periods, the seasonal proceedings were presided over by a variety of figures, including the Lord of Misrule ('All hail the Lord of Misrule', January 4), who re-echoed the chaos of Saturnalia, the old Roman seven-day role-changing romp. Popular pageants featured Captain Christmas or Prince Christmas, with feasting and entertainment in grand houses, university colleges and the Inns of Court being conducted by the Christmas Lord. Except for tending to animals, work on the land ceased from December 25 to January 6-marking the 12 days of Christmas. For the privileged, many seasonal features we embrace today were introduced at this time, including carols, personal gifts, mince pies (with 13 ingredients representing Christ and his apostles) and recognition of the Greek and pagan mistletoe fertility ritual. Henry VIII sampled turkey, as well as the traditional boar's head and goose.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 06, 2023-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
