12 Days of Medieval Christmas

 

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In medieval times, Christmas was ardently Christian, but there were naturally Pagan traditions aplenty to be found hidden within the celebration. Some of these ancient traditions, like the German "Bad Santa" Krampus, still have plenty of fans.

The Twelve Days of Christmas themselves are both a memory of the Roman Saturnalia (Rome, which was The Empire of its time) as well as the even more ancient human observance of our planetary trip round the sun. The Sun's rebirth --that shortest day, when the sun is weakest, Winter Solstice--became, in Christian calendar, Jesus's natal day. We use the 25th now, but that had to do, I believe, with 18th Century adjustments to the western calendar. 

Those twelve days are no longer observed with the same pomp as in medieval times. Some years, after a bad harvest,  the poorest villagers might have been hard pressed to have enough to eat for the rest of the winter.  During famine years, it must have been a feat to manage any kind of "feast," but the custom of pre-Christmas fasting always helped to shore up supplies. 

Imagine twelve whole days of celebration! During that time, a peasant farmer or craftsman was not supposed to so much as lift a tool, although they were allowed to feed their livestock. This means that a great deal of planning necessarily went into preparation for this prolonged "vacation" at each year's end. Extra wood had to be cut and stacked close by houses. Stores of hay and grain laid into barns so that it would be a minimal task to feed the animals. Just like today, however, nothing changed for the "essential workers" of the time. Cooks, housewives and scullery boys, or the servants at the Castle. All these people remained on the job.

The 24 days preceding Christmas is called Advent and was the occasion of this fast. In the Late Middle Ages, this meant no meat, cheese, or eggs could be eaten--although this particular tradition is no longer part of our (consumption-driven) culture. In the past, there was a belief that a person must prepare themselves both physically and mentally for the upcoming ritual experience of the Divine Mystery that was to come. 

If you were a peasant, however, there was a practical reason to consume less before Christmas--simply to conserve enough of what food stores you had in order to provide for those festive 12 days.  The poorest villagers lived hand-to-mouth upon a diet of beans, barley or oat porridge, and near-beer, their menu filled out with whatever green stuff they could scrounge from the edges of their Lord's forest.   

Besides food for man and beast, other supplies had to be stocked as well. Wood for fuel was a necessity, of course, but specific types of wood was split and stacked together--hazel, beech, oak and ash all being used at different times during the cooking process to adequately heat those earthen or brick ovens for the baking of meat, bread and pies.  Hazel twigs burned hot and were fire-starters; beech and ash supplied a steady heat, while oak lasted longest of all and burned the slowest.

Rush lights were made by soaking rushes in left-over cooking fat and pan scrapings. These would burn for about an hour, hot, and bright, but smoking heavily and carrying the odor of whatever fat had been used, and this was the way a medieval peasant "kept the lights on" during the long, dark winter nights. This was making of rush lights would have been going on in late summer, July and August, while the reeds (species: Juncus Effusus) were still growing, and the pith which would absorb the fat, was well-developed.     

                                                             he farming year of 4 Seasons
      

Pork was the traditional food of Christmas in the British Isles, a custom with pagan roots.   The wild Boar was hunted to extinction in Britain by the 13th Century, so the Christmas pork then on would have to have been domestic. Those medieval pigs would have looked rough, though, feral and unfamiliar.

Pagan associations of the pig feast at midwinter are many. One of the most interesting discoveries at the famous Neolithic sites of Woodhenge and Stonehenge  were mountainous heaps of pig bones. Such feasts are a well-attested-to-tradition in many Germanic, Slavic and Norse cultures.

                                              Freya and her brother Freyr, Gods of the Vanir.*

                                                   Here, Frey is shape-shifted into a Boar.

Getting the boar's head -- the centerpiece of any prosperous farmer's feast -- ready for the table was laborious task which began with slaughtering, scraping, and butchering, followed by a bustle of preservation. Sausage was made from the blood and the hide readied to be tanned. Every bit of that pig would be consumed in one way or another. 

                                                                       Semi-feral hog

Pig's are "thrifty" animals, and in medieval times fed well in the woods upon acorns as well as the standard remains of human cooking. Then as now, the pig gave his all! Removing the skull from the meat and flesh was no easy feat. After this careful dressing out, the remaining flesh and ears had to be carefully preserved for eventual presentation at Christmas Eve Supper. 

The housewife would store the fleshy remains in a simple pickling liquid (vinegar, mustard seeds) until it was time to prepare it for the feast. Then she would remove it from the pickle and stitch it back together--a sort of taxidermy job-- and fill the pouch with a stuffing mixture of raisin paste and nuts, after which it would be roasted. Serving the boar's head on a platter surrounded by greenery traditionally began that first festive meal of the Christmas holiday.  

The medieval farmhouse had been decorated with Holly and Ivy. Sometimes, a Christmas Crown, an open wattle basket decorated with sprigs of Holly and Ivy was woven by the men and hoisted up high above the rising smoke of the central hearth where it would remain for the next twelve days. Holly and Ivy--representing of male and female--was a custom left over from more ancient religious observances. In medieval times, though, it was often said that if there was more ivy than holly among the decorations, the house would be ruled by the wife during the next year.  

Pastry for pies, both sweet and savory, had to be sturdy enough to stand up by themselves, as this was before people had a great many kinds of differentiated cookware, such as today's pie pans. Frumenty was a sort of yogurty smoothy made of cracked wheat and milk and flavored with dried fruit, nutmeg and cloves. These exotic spices arrived in a medieval kitchen after a 7000+ mile trader-to-trader journey. Other dishes served might be a sweetened milk gelatin or a gelatin cone of meat scraps, called a "Shred Pie." 

There would be church services every day. Masses were celebrated in honor of the birth of Jesus and in honor of the many saint's days which cluster throughout the twelve days. St. Stephen's Day is next (known in the UK and her still extant colonies) as "Boxing Day." December 27th celebrates the feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. On the 28th comes the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which commemorates the slaughter of new born boys ordered by King Herod. The memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and martyr, a "turbulent priest" murdered by order of King Henry II of England, comes on the 29th. Next comes the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, which often falls upon December 30th. The last day of the year is the feast of Saint Sylvester. The following day, January 1 of the new year, is celebrated as "the Solemnity of the Nativity of Mary, Mother of God" in Christ's mother Mary is honored.  In some denominations, this last is said to be in honor of the Circumcision of Jesus, falling as it would, eight days following any proper Hebrew boy-child's birth.  

Twelfth Night, the final celebration, had many traditions. One of them was Wassailing, which could be a parade around the village or just around the kitchen, accompanied by singing, piping, banter, and still more food and drink. Villagers would visit one another's homes and sing carols. Sometimes drink was offered by the homeowner as a thank-you. In some places, the tradition of Mummers, men and women in costume, was a time-honored part of the Twelfth Night celebration.

                                                  Mummers singing and dancing in costume

In apple orchards, offerings of toast soaked in punch might be placed in the branches of the trees, or glasses of cider were poured into the orchard earth, as a thank-you offering to the fruit trees for their cider. At the Twelfth Night feast, a Lord of Misrule was chosen by passing a large freshly baked loaf of bread around the table. As everyone tore off a piece and put it into their mouths, one of them would discover the single pea that had been baked inside. This person became Lord of Misrule, crowned with a garland. His office was to devise party games and tell jokes and tales. Often these feasts would dissolve into riot, with people pelting one another with bread and leftovers and rowdy, drunken dancing. This was the night when the Magi found Jesus and worshiped him as "King of Kings."

 

                                                                   The Four Seasons

Then, like a bucket of cold water emptied upon everyone's head, came "Plough Monday," the day when farmers returned to their fields and women cleaned house and began to card wool, and spin and weave again. Another Christmas had gone and the toil of the year had once more begun. 

~~Juliet Waldron

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Sources:

Life in a Medieval Village by Francis Gies and Joseph Gies        http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004HIX4GS

*Vanir-the original Norse gods, overshadowed in surviving stories by the later arrivals--the Aesir gods with whom people now are more familiar--Thor, Odin, Frigg, Balder etc.

How to Celebrate Christmas Medieval Style:

https://youtu.be/BY2TN8E5yAs

Using Your Intuition by Diane Bator

 

  

Using Your Intuition

I'm one of those people who sometimes seems to know things before they happen. Not always. I don't profess to be psychic or a medium or anything of that sort. But there are times where "coincidences" have popped up and left me a bit rattled. Since I'm still working from home for the foreseeable future (no pun intended there!), I have delved a little deeper into honing some skills and trying to see if it's all a series of coincidences or if I really am tuned into something larger than my creative brain.

Don't get me wrong. I'm as skeptical as the next person but I don't believe things just happen.

I find it interesting that I will write a book then later meet people with the same name as a character or two. Or (and we've all done this) that I will think of a friend and they will text or call out of the blue.

Or if I have a song in my head when I get out of bed in the morning, it will be the first one I hear on the radio that day - like those pesky Christmas carols that get stuck in our heads all day. Those little things.

In my quest to hone my intuitive skills, I've done some fun little exercises. One of them was taking twenty identical recipe cards and writing a single word on each. Ten positive words and ten negative words. Then you fold them and stick them in a bag or a container then draw them out one at a time and see if you know whether they are positive or negative. In my case, I used red ink for negative and purple ink for positive so I could also go with the colors.

I did really well the first few days. I averaged about 13/20 every time. I had a really good session (16/20) and a couple of really bad ones (9/20). I can't say I'm exactly confident about my abilities with this but it has been kind of fun.

The one place I have trusted my intuition is with my writing skills. Part of honing that skill was done by meeting in a writing group and using prompts to free-write for 15-20 minutes at a time. One thing I discovered about my mindset is that I can clear everything else from my mind and just let my mind flow with the prompt. I don't tend to use my imagination, I just let the ideas gush out of my head and onto my paper.

One thing I miss about doing those exercises is that the hive mind (most of the group at times) seemed to either pick the same prompt or had similar elements in their written pieces. It fascinated me how we could all be on the same wavelength while simply sitting in the same room.

Since I've been unable to meet with my usual group, I've had to keep my mind going with other ideas:

• Writing a completely new story for NaNoWriMo helped to keep my ideas from going stale.
• Switching between two different series or even going from writing to needlepoint to give my mind a break.
• Playing mind games, such as the Negative/Positive idea, to create a new challenge.
• Rewarding myself for writing a certain number of words.
• Journaling about the "coincidences" in the day.
• Sometimes even playing with Oracle or tarot cards to see what pops up.
• Playing word games like Best Sellers or flipping pages in books to find the 7th sentence on page 77 or some other random number.

One thing I have found with writing is if you stop trying to force it, the words come more smoothly. The Japanese call it mushin or "no mind." Don't think. Just do.

At the top of my post, you will see The Bakery Lady, which is my only book set at Christmas so far. Oh boy! I have some work to do in the future! Book in my Wild Blue Mystery Series,  The Bakery Lady introduces Leo Blue to Christina Davidson who knocks the confirmed bachelor for a loop!

From the moment Leo Blue meets the tattoo artist 's sister Christina, he's drawn into a web of bread dough and lies. Christina Davidson has returned to Packham with a duffle bag full of secrets. Leo soon discovers her biggest secret is Christina's alter ego and her husband who stands accused of murdering an up-and-coming artist. He promises to help set things straight and plans to bring husband and wife together for Christmas—even if it costs him his sanity and the love of his life.

You can buy this and my other novels by clicking here!  I have also added Helga's 12 Days of Christmas that runs throughout the book below...

Have a Happy Holiday Season!!

Diane Bator

Helga’s Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, someone gave to me a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the second day of Christmas, someone gave to me two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the third day of Christmas, someone gave to me three French horns, two Christmas wreaths, and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas, someone gave to me four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas, someone gave to me five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas, someone gave to me six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas, someone gave to me seven candy canes, six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas, someone gave to me eight Christmas stockings, seven candy canes, six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths, and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas, someone gave to me nine shiny baubles, eight Christmas stockings, seven candy canes, six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths,and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas, someone gave to me ten glowing candles, nine shiny baubles, eight Christmas stockings, seven candy canes, six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, someone gave to me eleven silver bells, ten glowing candles, nine shiny baubles, eight Christmas stockings, seven candy canes, six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, someone gave to me twelfth assorted angels, eleven silver bells, ten glowing candles, nine shiny baubles, eight Christmas stockings, seven candy canes, six boxes of chocolates, five golden things, four plastic snowmen, three French horns, two Christmas wreaths and a partridge in a lit up pine tree.

Merry Christmas!