12/21/10
One Solitary Life - Bing Crosby
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
Then, for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never had a family or owned a home.
He never set foot inside a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
He never held and office or did any of the things that usually accompany greatness.
While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him.
His friends deserted Him.
He was turned over to his enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had-His coat.
When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.
Two thousand years have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever sailed and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this “One Solitary Life".
by Dr. James Allen Francis
12/16/10
Christmas Is
Christmas is more than trees and twinkling lights, more than toys and gifts and baubles of a hundred varieties.
It is love. It is the love of the Son of God for all mankind. It reaches out beyond our power to comprehend. It is magnificent and beautiful.
It is peace. It is the peace which comforts, which sustains, which blesses all who accept it.
It is faith. It is faith in God and His Eternal Son. It is faith in His wondrous ways and message. It is faith in Him as our Redeemer and our Lord. We testify of His living reality.
We testify of the divinity of His nature. In our times of grateful meditation, we acknowledge His priceless gift to us and pledge our love and faith.
This is what Christmas is really about.
- Gordon B. Hinckley
12/15/10
12/14/10
12/13/10
Handel's "Messiah"
One of the greatest works of Christmas music ever written was the celebration of our Savior in Handel's "Messiah". We all have heard the "Hallelujah Chorus", but the oratorio it comes from has so much more great music. Here's some background on the composer and his work:
Excerpt from "Handel and the Gift of Messiah", by Spencer J. Condie
George Frideric Handel seemed to have been born a musician. As a young lad in Germany, he became proficient on both the violin and the organ. After composing his first opera in Germany, he moved to Italy, the operatic center of the world, to try his hand at musical composition in the Italian style. There he achieved some success in composing operas and chamber music.
In 1711, at age 26, Handel decided to move to England, where his operas and oratorios initially gained acceptance. By the late 1730s, however, British audiences had become less enthusiastic about operas sung in German or Italian; instead, they favored comedic performances such as The Beggar’s Opera. Thus, for several years Handel struggled to keep the wolves—his creditors—away from the door.
In 1737, after pushing himself to his physical limits by composing four operas within 12 months, the 52-year-old composer suffered a stroke, leaving his right arm temporarily paralyzed. A doctor told Handel’s faithful secretary: “We may save the man—but the musician is lost forever. It seems to me that his brain has been permanently injured.”
The composer defied the diagnosis. Over time his body responded to treatment in the thermal springs at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen, Germany), and he recovered his physical strength. After testing his ability to play the organ at a nearby cathedral, he jubilantly proclaimed, “I have come back from Hades.”
When he returned to London and resumed composing operas, his work was not well received, and creditors began to hound him again. In the depths of despondency, he began to wonder, “Why did God permit my resurrection, only to allow my fellow-men to bury me again?” In April 1741 Handel held what he assumed would be a farewell concert. His creativity was spent. A biographer wrote: “There was nothing to begin or to finish. Handel was faced with emptiness.”
Late one August afternoon that same year, Handel returned from a long and tiring walk to find that a poet and previous collaborator, Charles Jennens, had left him a manuscript. This libretto quoted liberally from the scriptures, particularly the words of Isaiah, foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ and describing His ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The work was to be an oratorio. Given his previous failures, Handel was apprehensive as he began to read through the text.
“Comfort Ye,” the first words of the manuscript, seemed to leap from the page. They dissipated dark clouds that had been pressing upon Handel for so long. His depression waned and his emotions warmed from interest to excitement as he continued to read of angelic proclamations of the Savior’s birth and of Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah, who would come to earth to be born as other mortal infants. A familiar melody Handel had composed earlier flooded into his mind as he read “For unto Us a Child Is Born.”
The notes distilled upon his mind faster than he could put pencil to paper as he captured the image of the loving Good Shepherd in the aria titled “He Shall Feed His Flock.” Then came the overpowering exultation reflected in the “Hallelujah Chorus,” followed by the soft, supernal testimony of “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.” The work came to its majestic conclusion with “Worthy Is the Lamb.”
After all the music he had composed throughout his lifetime, Handel would eventually beknown worldwide for this singular work, Messiah, largely composed in just three weeks during the late summer of 1741. Upon completing his composition, he humbly acknowledged, “God has visited me.” Those who feel the touch of the Holy Spirit as they experience the overpowering testimony of Handel’s Messiah would agree.
12/8/10
List of Christmas Carols
There are so many new and lesser known carols that are not listed here, but I have attempted to create a fairly comprehensive listing of the better known and favorite Christmas Carols, including some lesser known. Please comment if you have some to add.For histories on some of these carols, check out the posting dated 12/12/08.
All I Want for Christmas
Angels We Have Heard On High
Are My Ears on Straight?
Ave Maria
Away in a Manger
Believe
Blue Christmas
Breath of Heaven
Bring the Torch Jeanette, Isabella
Candlelight Carol
Carol of the Bells
C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S
Christmas Bells Are Ringing
Christmas at Our House
Christmas in Killarney
Christmas Time is Here
Christmas Is
Christmas Is Coming
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Coventry Carol
Cover Him, Joseph
Deck the Halls
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Far, Far Away on Judeas Plain
Feliz Navidad
First Christmas Morning
Frosty the Snowman
From Our House to Yours
Gesu Bambino
Go Tell It On The Mountain
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Good King Wenceslaus
Good Christian Men Rejoice
Grown Up Christmas List
Hallelujah Chorus
Happy Holiday
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
He’ll Be Coming Down the Chimney, Down
Here We Come A-Caroling
Here Comes Santa Claus
Hey Santa
Holly Jolly Christmas
Home for the Holidays
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
I Saw Three Ships
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
I Wonder As I Wander
Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant (French)
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
It Must Have Been Old Santa Claus
It Must Have Been the Mistletoe
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bell Rock
Jolly Old St. Nicholas
Joseph Dear, Joseph Mine
Joy to the World
Let it Snow
Little Drummer Boy
Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming
Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child
Marshmallow World
Mary Did You Know?
Mary's Little Boy Child
Mary’s Lullaby
Masters in This Hall
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Darling
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O Holy Night
O Tannenbaum (Christmas Tree)
O Come All Ye Faithful
Once in Royal David's City
Our First Christmas
Pat a Pan
Pine Cones and Holly Berries
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Santa Baby
Santa Bring My Baby Home
Silent Night
Silver Bells
Sing We Now of Christmas
Sleigh Ride
Still, Still, Still
That Christmas Feeling
The Best Gift
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)
The Christmas Waltz
The First Noel
The First Snowfall of the Year
The Gift
The Holly and the Ivy
The Most Wonderful Time of The Year
The Star Carol
The Twelve Days of Christmas
This Time of Year
Twas the Night Before Christmas
Up on the Housetop
We Three Kings
We Need A Little Christmas
We Are Santa’s Elves
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
What Child is This?
Where Are You Christmas?
Wexford Carol
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
With Wondering Awe
12/6/10
Christmas in Sweden
God Jul och Gott Nytt År!
(Good Yule and Good New Year!)
Christmas in Sweden is a culturally strong event. The season of Christmas lasts a month, starting with the celebration, or procession, of Sankta Lucia on December 13th, and ending the season with "Twentieth Canute", or 20 days after Christmas on January 13th, in a final celebration.
(See previous posting on the celebration of Sankta Lucia.)
Preparations
The julgrann, or Christmas tree, is often set up and decorated following the Santa Lucia celebration. Swedish Christmas trees are often decorated with candles, apples, Swedish flags, small gnomes and straw ornaments. If the room is big enough, the tree will be set in the middle and everyone joins in a circle around it to dance and sing favorite Christmas carols.
The house may be filled with the smell of favorite yuletide baking, including pepparkakor, or gingerbread cookies, shaped round or as a heart, star, or goat and saffron breads and sweet rolls. A lighted star or candle will often be placed in the windows of Swedish homes. The advent candles, lit on the four Sundays prior to Christmas Eve, are also common in many homes.
Christmas Eve
Julafton, or Christmas Eve, is the pinnacle of the Swedish yuletide celebrations. Stores close early and families come together to celebrate. The Christmas Eve dinner is usually a smorgasbord, or buffet with julskinka, or Christmas ham, lutfisk, or dried codfish, and ptoatoes and many vegetables. Dessert involves many different kinds of sweets, including risgryngrot, a special rice porridge with an almond hidden in it. Tradition has it that the person who finds the almond in his or her bowl will marry in the coming year. Yuletide drinks include glogg, a hot and spicy wine, and julmust, a soft-drink somewhat similar to root-beer.
After Christmas Eve dinner, a friend or family member dresses up as Jul Tomten or Christmas gnome. Swedish legend says that Tomten rides through the countryside with his julklappar, or gifts, on a sled which is pulled by a goat. Tomten, wearing a white beard and dressed in furry robes, enters the home after knocking on the door and distributes gifts from his sack. Sometimes the gifts are given with a funny rhyme that hints at the contents.
Christmas Day and 2nd Day Christmas
Since the gifts were received and opened the night before, many Swedes will attend Jullotta, a special Christmas church service, held early Christmas morning. The nativity story is told and favorite hymns and carols are sung. The rest of the day is spent in celebration with the family by eating, playing games, etc. Since this is so enjoyable, Swedes have chosen to do it all over again in the celebration of 2nd Day Christmas, also an official holiday.
The Twentieth Day of Christmas
On the 13th of January, which is 20 days after Christmas Eve and one month after the Feast of St. Lucia, was designated by King Canute to be celebrated as the yuletide finale. January 13th is known as Canute's Day, or Twentieth Canute. On this day, the tree will have its final moments of glory, as everyone comes together again to dance and sing around it. Afterwards a feast or party, the tree is taken down and the holidays are officially over.
See also these posts on Swedish Christmas traditions:
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-swedish-christmas.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-around-world-sweden.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/night-time-walks-heavily-round-farm-and.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-santa-lucia-sweden.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/vitae-lux-light-of-life-lux-aurumque.html
12/5/10
Sankta Lucia: A Swedish Christmas Tradition
Imagine this - You're in a small town in Sweden. It is early in the morning of December 13th and darkness prevails. The streets are quiet and deserted, the houses covered in a thick layer of sparkling white snow. The wind is still, but the cold is numbing your frozen feet and fingers. There is no sign of life anywhere. Then suddenly... in the distance, the faint sounds of singing voices. As they grow louder, a shimmering of light moves between the houses.
Then the procession arrives, led by Sankta Lucia, a young woman in a white dress with a red sash. She wears a crown of lingonberry twigs and blazing candles in her long, blonde hair. Lucia is followed by her attendants, girls in white dresses holding lit candles, and the star boys in white robes and star speckled cone hats holding star wands. Everyone joins in singing the Sankta Lucia anthem:
Hark! through the darksome night sounds come a winging:
Lo! 'tis the Queen of Light joyfully singing.
Clad in her garment white, wearing her crown of light,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!
Deep in the northern sky bright stars are beaming;
Christmas is drawing nigh, candles are gleaming.
Welcome thou vision rare, lights glowing in thy hair,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!
Lucia and the attendants sing favorite Christmas carols, often inviting family and friends to join in the singing. Lucia then gives freely of her Christmas treats: lussekatter or sweet rolls, pepparkakor or gingerbread cookies, juice and hot drinks. Lucia and her attendants will also visit places like schools, hospitals, offices and churches.
On this dark and cold winter day, Lucia, the Queen of Light, has brought the promise that light and warmth will return to the land; a celebration of light in the middle of the deep winter darkness. The hope for light and warmth returning with the sun may be more significant in northern lands where daylight at this time of the year only lasts for a few hours around noon. A deeper religious significance of Sankta Lucia can be drawn with the promise of the greater light and hope that will return with the Son of God, whose birth is celebrated in Sweden beginning with the Sankta Lucia procession.
The Swedish Christmas season has now officially begun.
The Sankta Lucia celebration is a tradition that has been practiced in Sweden for over 400 years, originating from the story of the Italian virgin saint who was martyred. The Swedish version goes that during the early days of Christian persecution, St. Lucia risked her life to bring food to fellow Christians in hiding in unlit tunnels. She would light the way with a wreath that she wore on her head containing lit candles.
A thousand years ago, Sweden’s King Canute declared that Christmas would last an entire month beginning on December 13th, the Feast of St. Lucia to January 13th, St. Canute’s Day.
Sankta Lucia lyrics, Swedish text:
Natten går tunga fjätt, runt gård och stuva
Kring jord som soln förlätt, skuggorna ruva
Då i vårt mörka hus, stiger med tända ljus
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Natten är stor och stum, ny hör det svingar
I alla tysta rum, sus som av vingar
Se, på vår tröskel står, vitklädd, med ljus i hår
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Mörkret skall flykta snart ur jordens dalar
Så hon ett underbart ord till oss talar
Dagen skall åter ny stiga ur rosig sky
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
English translation of the Swedish text:
Night time walks heavily, ‘round farm and cottage
On earth that sun forgot, shadows are falling
Our dark house then grows bright, she comes with candle light
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Though night is vast and still, hear now a new sound
In all the silent rooms, like wings are rustling
At door and dressed in white, with crown of candle light
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Darkness will soon take flight, from all the earth
These words she speaks to us, wonderful tidings
Daytime will come again, rise in a rosy sky
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
The following photos and videos are from the Young Family Christmas Eve Sankta Lucia, 2007:
See also these posts on Sankta Lucia and Swedish Christmas traditions:
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-santa-lucia-sweden.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-swedish-christmas.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-in-sweden.html
12/4/10
Christmas Prose
Let not the useless sorrow
Pursue you night and morrow:
If e’er you hoped, hope now;
Take heart,—uncloud your faces,
And join in our embraces
Under the Holly Bough.
by Charles Mackay
Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall;
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.
by William Robert Spencer
Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
She yet were far too poor to be,
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
by Martin Luther
We honor on His day of birth,
The Child born to bring peace on earth.
The God who was born in a stable.
from The Lord of Misrule by Norah Lofts
What can I give Him, Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part
Yet what can I give Him?
Give my heart.
by Christina Rossetti
O Father, may that holy Star grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beam afar to fill the world with light.
by William Cullen Bryant
Let's dance and sing, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year!
- from an old ballad
Pursue you night and morrow:
If e’er you hoped, hope now;
Take heart,—uncloud your faces,
And join in our embraces
Under the Holly Bough.
by Charles Mackay
Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall;
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.
by William Robert Spencer
Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
She yet were far too poor to be,
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
by Martin Luther
We honor on His day of birth,
The Child born to bring peace on earth.
The God who was born in a stable.
from The Lord of Misrule by Norah Lofts
What can I give Him, Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part
Yet what can I give Him?
Give my heart.
by Christina Rossetti
O Father, may that holy Star grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beam afar to fill the world with light.
by William Cullen Bryant
Let's dance and sing, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year!
- from an old ballad
12/2/10
Christmas Dinner at Bracebridge Hall
PART 3: Excerpts from "Keeping Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" by Washington Irving
Written in 1820 as a “series of sketches of rural England...with descriptions of rustic customs, and above all of the hearty keeping of Christmas in an old country house...in which the author introduces his readers in so charming a way to the old Yorkshire Hall and his imaginary Christmas visit there.”
The dinner was served up in the great hall, where the squire always held his Christmas banquet. A blazing crackling fire of logs had been heaped on to warm the spacious apartment, and the flame went sparkling and wreathing up the wide-mouthed chimney. ...[there] stood the two Yule candles, beaming like two stars of the first magnitude ; other lights were distributed in branches, and the whole array glittered like a firmament of silver.
We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound of minstrelsy, the old harper being seated on a stool beside the fireplace, and twanging his instrument with a vast deal more power than melody. Never did Christmas board display a more goodly and gracious assemblage of countenances...
The parson said grace, which was not a short familiar one, such as is commonly addressed to the Deity in these unceremonious days; but a long, courtly, well-worded one of the ancient school.
There was now a pause, as if something was expected; when suddenly the butler entered the hall with some degree of bustle: he was attended by a servant on
each side with a large wax-light, and bore a silver dish, on which was an enormous pig’s head, decorated with rosemary, with a lemon in its mouth, which was placed with great formality at the head of the table.
The moment this pageant made its appearance, the harper struck up a flourish; at the conclusion of which the young Oxonian, on receiving a hint from the squire, gave, with an air of the most comic gravity, an old carol, the first verse of which was as follows:
The boar’s head in hand bring I,
With garlands gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merily
I confess, the parade with which so odd a dish was introduced somewhat perplexed me, until I gathered from the conversation of the squire and the parson, that it was meant to represent the bringing in of the boar’s head; a dish formerly served up with much ceremony and the sound of minstrelsy and song, at great tables, on Christmas day.
The table was literally loaded with good cheer, and presented an epitome of country abundance, in this season of overflowing larders. There were several dishes quaintly decorated, and which had evidently something traditional in their embellishments...a pie, magnificently decorated with peacock’s feathers, in imitation of the tail of that bird, which overshadowed a considerable tract of the table.
(Footnote: The peacock was anciently in great demand for stately entertainments. Sometimes it was made into a pie, at one end of which the head appeared above the crust, in all its plumage, with the beak richly gilt: at the other end the tail was displayed. Such pies were served up at the solemn banquets of chivalry, when knights-errant pledged themselves to under take any perilous enterprise; whence came the ancient oath, used by Justice Shallow, "by cock and pie."
The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast; and Massinger, in his City Madam, gives some idea of the extravagance with which this, as well as other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeous revels of the olden times:
"Men may talk of country Christmasses:
Their thirty pound butter’d eggs their pies of carps tongues:
Their pheasants drench’d with ambergris; the carcases of three fat
wethers bruited for gravy to make sauce for a single peacock!")
When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a huge silver vessel of rare and curious workmanship, which he placed before the squire. Its appearance was hailed with acclamation; being the Wassail Bowl, so renowned in Christmas festivity...being composed of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened, with roasted apples bobbing about the surface.
(Footnote: The Wassail Bowl was sometimes composed of ale instead of wine; with nutmeg, sugar, toast, ginger, and roasted crabs; in this way the nut-brown beverage is still prepared in some old families, and round the hearths of substantial farmers at Christmas. It is also called Lamb’s Wool, and is celebrated by Herrick in his Twelfth Night.
"Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle Lamb’s Wool;
Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too;
And thus ye must doe
To make the Wassaile a swinger.")
The old gentleman s whole countenance beamed with a serene look of indwelling delight, as he stirred this mighty bowl. Having raised it to his lips, with a hearty wish of a merry Christmas to all present, he sent it brimming round the board, for every one to follow his example, according to the primitive style; pronouncing it "the ancient fountain of good-feeling, where all hearts met together."
There was much laughing and rallying as the honest emblem of Christmas joviality circulated, and was kissed rather coyly by the ladies. When it reached Master Simon, he raised it in both hands, and with the air of a boon companion struck up an old Wassail chanson:
The brown bowle,
The merry brown bowle,
As it goes round-about-a,
Fill
Still,
Let the world say what it will,
And drink your fill all out-a.
The deep canne,
The merry deep canne,
As thou dost freely quaff-a
Sing
Fling,
Be as merry as a king,
And sound a lusty laugh-a.
(Footnote: The custom of drinking out of the same cup gave place to each having his cup. When the steward came to the doore with the Wassel, he was to cry three times, ffassel, Wauel, Wassel, and then the chappell(chaplein) was to answer with a song. ARCHEOLOGIA. 3 From Poor Robin’s Almanac.)
I found the tide of wine and wassail fast gaining on the dry land of sober judgment. The company grew merrier and louder as their jokes grew duller.
After the dinner-table was removed, the hall was given up to the younger members of the family, who, prompted to all kind of noisy mirth by the Oxonian and Master Simon, made its old walls ring with their merriment, as they played at romping games. I delight in witnessing the gambols of children, and particularly at this happy holiday season, and could not help stealing out of the drawing-room on hearing one of their peals of laughter.
I found them at the game of blind-man’s-buff. Master Simon, who was the leader of their revels, and seemed on all occasions to fulfil the office of that ancient potentate, the Lord of Misrule, was blinded in the midst of the hall. The little beings were as busy about him as the mock fairies about Falstaff ; pinching him, plucking at the skirts of his coat, and tickling him with straws.
(Footnote: At Christmasse there was in the Kinge’s house, wheresoever hee was lodged, a lorde of misrule, or mayster of merie disportes, and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall. STOWE.)
Whilst we were all attention to the parson s stories, our ears were suddenly assailed by a burst of heterogeneous sounds from the hall, in which were mingled something like the clang of rude minstrelsy, with the uproar of many small voices and girlish laughter. The door suddenly flew open, and a train came trooping into the room, that might almost have been mistaken for the breaking-up of the court of Fairy. That indefatigable spirit, Master Simon, in the faithful discharge of his duties as Lord of Misrule, had conceived the idea of a Christmas mummery or masking...
(Footnote: Maskings or mummeries were favourite sports at Christmas in old times: and the wardrobes at halls and manor-houses were often laid under contribution to furnish dresses and fantastic disguisings.)
He was accompanied by the blue-eyed romp, dished up as "Dame Mince Pie," in the venerable magnificence of a faded brocade, long stomacher, peaked hat, and high-heeled shoes. The young officer appeared as Robin Hood, in a sporting dress of Kendal green, and a foraging cap with a gold tassel...The fair Julia hung on his arm in a pretty rustic dress, as "Maid Marian." The rest of the train had been metamorphosed in various ways; the girls trussed up in the finery of the ancient belles of the Bracebridge line, and the striplings bewhiskered with burnt cork, and gravely clad in broad skirts, hanging sleeves, and full-bottomed wigs, to represent the character of Roast Beef, Plum Pudding, and other worthies celebrated in ancient maskings. The whole was under the control of the Oxonian, in the appropriate character of Misrule; and I observed that he exercised rather a mischievous sway with his wand over the smaller personages of the pageant.
The irruption of this motley crew, with beat of drum, according to ancient custom, was the consummation of uproar and merriment. Master Simon covered himself with glory by the stateliness with which, as Ancient Christmas, he walked a minuet with the peerless, though giggling, Dame Mince Pie.
It was followed by a dance of all the characters, which, from its medley of costumes, seemed as though the old family portraits had skipped down from their frames to join in the sport.
The worthy squire contemplated these fantastic sports, and this resurrection of his old wardrobe, with the simple relish of childish delight. He stood chuckling and rubbing his hands, and scarcely hearing a word the parson said, notwithstanding that the latter was discoursing most authentically on the ancient and stately dance at the Paon, or peacock, from which he conceived the minuet to be derived.
(Footnote: Sir John Hawkins, speaking of the dance called the Pavon, from pavo, a peacock, says, "It is a grave and majestic dance ; the method of dancing it anciently was by gentlemen dressed with caps and swords, by those of the long robe in their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by the ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof, in dancing, resembled that of a peacock." HISTORY OF Music.)
...this was, perhaps, the only family in England in which the whole of [the old English holiday customs] were still punctiliously observed. There was a quaintness, too, mingled with all this revelry, that gave it a peculiar zest: it was suited to the time and place ; and as the old manor-house almost reeled with mirth and wassail, it seemed echoing back the joviality of long-departed years.
Christmas Day at Bracebridge Hall
PART 2: Excerpts from "Keeping Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" by Washington Irving
Written in 1820 as a “series of sketches of rural England...with descriptions of rustic customs, and above all of the hearty keeping of Christmas in an old country house...in which the author introduces his readers in so charming a way to the old Yorkshire Hall and his imaginary Christmas visit there.”
When I woke the next morning...I heard the sound of little feet pattering outside of the door, and a whispering consultation. Presently a choir of small voices chanted forth an old Christmas carol, the burden of which was:
Rejoice, our Saviour he was born
On Christmas day in the morning.
I rose softly, slipped on my clothes, opened the door suddenly, and beheld one of the most beautiful little fairy groups that a painter could imagine. It consisted of a boy and two girls, the eldest not more than six, and lovely as seraphs. They were going the rounds of the house, and singing at every chamber door...
The house was surrounded with evergreens, according to the English custom, which would have given almost an appearance of summer; but the morning was extremely frosty; the light vapour of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold, and covered all the trees and every blade of grass with its fine crystallisations.
I had scarcely dressed myself, when a servant appeared to invite me to family prayers. He showed me the way to a small chapel in the old wing of the House. The service was followed by a Christmas carol, which Mr Bracebridge himself had constructed from a poem of his favourite author, Herrick ; and it had been adapted to an old church melody by Master Simon.
Our breakfast consisted of what the squire denominated true old English fare...some tea and toast...though he admitted them to his table to suit the palates of his guests, yet there was a brave display of cold meats, wine, and ale on the sideboard.
...We heard the distant toll of the village bell, and I was told that the squire was a little particular in having his household at church on a Christmas morning; considering it a day of pouring out of thanks and rejoicing ; for, as old Tusser observed,
"At Christmas be merry, and thankful withal
And feast thy poor neighbours, the great with the small."
The parson gave us a most erudite sermon on the rites and ceremonies of Christmas, and the propriety of observing it not merely as a day of thanksgiving, but of rejoicing;...having, in the course of his researches on the subject of Christmas, got completely embroiled in the sectarian controversies of the Revolution, when the Puritans made such a fierce assault upon the ceremonies of the church, and poor old Christmas was driven out of the land by proclamation of Parliament.
He forgot that nearly two centuries had elapsed since the fiery persecution of poor mince-pie throughout the land; when plum porridge was denounced as "mere poppery," and roast-beef as anti-Christian; and that Christmas had been brought in again triumphantly with the merry court of King Charles at the Restoration... and concluded by urging his hearers, in the most solemn and affecting manner, to stand to the traditional customs of their fathers, and feast and make merry on this joyful anniversary of the church.
(Footnote: From the Flying Eagle, a small Gazette, published December 24th, 1652 "The House spent much time this day about the business of the Navy, for settling the affairs at sea, and before they rose, were presented with a terrible remonstrance against Christmas day, grounded upon divine Scriptures, 2 Cor. v. 16 ; i Cor. xv. 14, 17 ; and in honour of the Lord s day, grounded upon these Scriptures : John xx. i ; Rev. i. 10 ; Psalms cxviii. 24; Lev. xxiii. 7, 1 1 ; Mark xv. 8; Psalms Ixxxiv. 10 ; in which Christmas is called Anti-Christ s masse, and those Masse-mongers and Papists who observe it, &c. In consequence of which Parliament spent some time in consultation about the abolition of Christmas day, passed orders to that effect, and resolved to sit on the following day, which was commonly called Christmas day.")
I have seldom known a sermon attended apparently with more immediate effects; for on leaving the church the congregation seemed one and all possessed with the gaiety of spirit so earnestly enjoined by their pastor.
The villagers doffed their hats to the squire as he passed, giving him the good wishes of the season with every appearance of heartfelt sincerity, and were invited by him to the hall, to take something to keep out the cold of the weather; and I heard blessings uttered by several of the poor, which convinced me that, in the midst of his enjoyments, the worthy old cavalier had not forgotten the true Christmas virtue of charity.
On our way homeward his heart seemed overflowed with generous and happy feelings. As we passed over a rising ground which commanded something of a prospect, the sounds of rustic merriment now and then reached our ears...There was something truly cheering in this triumph of warmth and verdure over the frosty thraldom of winter; it was, as the squire observed, an emblem of Christmas hospitality, breaking through the chills of ceremony and selfishness, and thawing every heart into a flow.
He pointed with pleasure to the indications of good cheer reeking from the the chimneys of the comfortable farm-houses, and low thatched cottages. I love, said he, "to see this day well kept by rich and poor; it is a great thing to have one day in the year, at least, when you are sure of being welcome wherever you go, and of having, as it were, the world all thrown open to you...
The squire went on to lament the deplorable decay of the games and amusements which were once prevalent at this season among the lower orders, and countenanced by the higher; when the old halls of castles and manor-houses were thrown open at daylight; when the tables were covered with brawn, and beef, and humming ale; when the harp and the curious carol resounded all day long, and when rich and poor were alike welcome to enter and make merry. 1"Our old games and local customs," said he, " had a great effect in making the peasant fond of his home, and the promotion of them by the gentry made him fond of his lord. They made the times merrier, and kinder, and better...
"An English gentleman, at the opening of the great day (i.e. on Christmas day in the morning), had all his tenants and neighbours enter his hall by daybreak. The strong beer was broached, and the black jacks went plentifully about with toast, sugar, and nutmeg, and good Cheshire cheese. The Hackin (the great sausage) must be boiled by daybreak, or else two young men must take the maiden (i.e. the cook) by the arms, and run her round the market-place till the it shamed of her laziness."
We had not been long home when the sound of music was heard from a distance. A band of country lads, without coats, their shirt sleeves fancifully tied with ribands, their hats decorated with greens, and clubs in their hands, were seen advancing up the avenue, followed by a large number of villagers and peasantry. They stopped before the hall door, where the music struck up a peculiar air, and the lads per formed a curious and intricate dance, advancing, retreating, and striking their clubs together, keeping exact time to the music...
After the dance was concluded, the whole party was entertained with brawn and beef, and stout home brewed...The bashfulness of the guests soon gave way before good cheer and affability... The whole house, indeed, seemed abandoned to merriment...
Lo! now is come our joyful feast!
Let every man be jolly;
Eache roome with yvie leaves is drest,
And every post with holly,
Now all our neighbours chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning
Their ovens they with bakt meats choke,
And all their spits are turning.
Without the door let sorrow lie,
And if, for cold, it hap to die,
We’ll bury it in a Christmas pye,
And evermore be merry.
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