As you well know, 'tis the season. "The Season" means a little something different to each of us, as it did to our medieval ancestors. Here in this Links List I hope you are able to find information about medieval celebrations for the holiday of your choice: be it Yule, Christmas, Saturnalia, Twelfth Night, Winter Solstice, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year (admittedly a little farther in the year's cycle),or a little bit of each. There are 33 links to explore, a little overkill I'm sure but I wanted to include as many faith's celebrations as possible. If I have forgotten some faith's medieval winter celebration, I'm sure someone will correct me :)
May you be warm and well this holiday season, may you be surrounded by loved ones, and may life bring you joy and abundance in the new year.
Cheers,
Aoife
About.com: Medieval Christmas
http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa120897.htm
(Site Excerpt) Just exactly what Christmas was like depends not only on
where it was observed, but when. In late antiquity, Christmas was a quiet
and solemn occasion, marked by a special mass and calling for prayer and
reflection. Until the fourth century, no fixed date had been formally set by
the Church -- in some places it was observed in April or May, in others in
January and even in November. It was Pope Julius I who officially fixed the
date at December 25th, and why exactly he chose the date is still not clear.
A Boke of Gode Cookery Presents
How to Cook Medieval Christmas Feasts Haill, Yule! Haill!
http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto06.htm
(Site Excerpt) There are some food rules to remember when composing an
authentic medieval feast; as the days leading up to Christmas were the fast,
or fish-days of Advent, fish was eaten in great quantities up to and
including Christmas Eve. (This, therefore, usually meant that fish was not
considered an appropriate food for the post-Advent Christmas period; one
would be considered a poor or offensive host to offer fish for a Christmas
meal!) The practice of serving fish up until Christmas Day survives
enthusiastically today as the modern Italian-American tradition of a large
and extravagant Christmas Eve seafood dinner.
About.com Medieval Christmas Traditions
http://historymedren.about.com/library/blxmas.htm
(Site Excerpt) Among the Pagan traditions that have become part of Christmas
is burning the yule log. This custom springs from many different cultures,
but in all of them its significance seems to lie in the iul or "wheel" of
the year. The Druids would bless a log and keep it burning for 12 days
during the winter solstice; part of the log was kept for the following year,
when it would be used to light the new yule log. For the Vikings, the yule
log was an integral part of their celebration of the solstice, the julfest;
on the log they would carve runes representing unwanted traits (such as ill
fortune or poor honor) that they wanted the gods to take from them.
On Christmas in the Middle Ages
by Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester
http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages/LifeTimes/Christmas.html
(Site Excerpt) Slowly, the emphasis on the nativity in the cycle plays lead
to a rise in interest in Christmas itself. Yule became synonymous with
Christmas, and customs such the Yule log and decorating with evergreens,
despite their non-Christian origins, became associated with this holiday as
well. Holly, ivy, laurel, and other evergreens were often used thenceforth
as metaphors for the infant Christ; even the mistletoe, whose pagan
associations are the clearest, continued to be incorporated into the
celebrations. In the 16th century, garlands of evergreens were sometimes
placed around wire hoops; three of these would then be placed together to
form a sort of ball, which was then hung. Alas, despite the scene in The
Lion in Winter featuring a huge decorated evergreen, Christmas trees were a
much-later addition. Christmas gifts, however, were common well before the
15th century, when in England legislation had to be passed limiting them.
However, gift-giving did not as yet concentrate on Christmas Day, but
occurred throughout the holiday season.
Hisytory Learning Sike-UK
Medieval Christmas
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval_xmas.htm
(Site Excerpt) However, some of the problems experienced at Christmas then
have had a knock-on effect for us. For example, carol singers going from
house to house now is as a result of carols being banned within churches in
Medieval times. Carol singers in Medieval times took the word "carol"
literally - it means to sing and dance in a circle. So many Xmas services
were spoiled by carol signers doing just this, that the Church at the time
banned them and ordered the carol singers into the street. The Christmas
crib originated in Medieval times but in Medieval Italy. In 1223, Saint
Francis of Assisi is said to have used a crib to explain to the local people
of Assisi the Christmas story. It seems that the part played by animals in
the Christmas story also comes from the early 13th century even if the Bible
does not mention them !
Medieval World Christmas Links
http://www.geocities.com/MedievalWorld/LinksChristmas.html
A List of informational Links
Christmas in 1376
http://www.camlann.org/1376%20Yule.htm
(Site Excerpt) On Christmas day, 1376, King Edward holds a great and solemn
feast, to which all the prelates, earls, barons, and knights are invited to
attend. In theory every person who represents the king in the realm is
expected, as a show of loyalty. But as there are so many minor knights this
is not practical, and for lesser provincials one attendance during a
lifetime is considered sufficient, but anyone of distinction or within a
day's journey of Westminster is expected to attend this annual event, and
absence would be noted and studied, probably with disfavor.
Medieval Illuminations: Christmas
http://www.kb.nl/kb/manuscripts/highlights/73B13_uk.html
12 images with descriptions
Christmas courts in medieval and Tudor periods.
The festivities and customs of the royal courts at Christmas.
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/medieval/christmas.htm
(Site Excerpt) One of the hallmarks of the medieval era was the emergence of
the court as the hub of political clout and social influence. As the
nobility became more cultured and worldly, their posturing for power became
more sophisticated. Great store was set on display, pageantry, courtly
manners and formal behavior. The role of the courtier evolved from that of
the king's brutish henchman, to that of the suave manipulator, as gifted in
the subtleties of ceremony and protocol as in the hard, cold strategies of
empire-building.
The Origin and Meaning of the Christmas Tree
http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/chrtree.htm
(Site Excerpt) Indeed, the earliest record of an evergreen tree being used
and decorated (but without lights) for Christmas is 1521 in the German
region of Alsace.7 Another useful description has been found among the notes
of an unknown resident of Strasbourg in 1605, who writes that "At Christmas
they set up fir trees in the parlors at Strasburg and hang thereon roses cut
of many- coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold-foil, sweets . . ."8 Some
fifty years later (about 1650) the great Lutheran theologian Johann
Dannhauer wrote in his The Milk of the Catechism that "the Christmas or fir
tree, which people set up in their houses, hang with dolls and sweets, and
afterwards shake and deflower. . . Whence comes this custom I know not; it
is child's play . . . Far better were it to point the children to the
spiritual cedar-tree, Jesus Christ."9
History of Ramadan
http://www.islaam.com/ramadan/ramadan_in_history.htm
(Site Excerpt) In the first year after the Hijrah, the Prophet, sallallahu
`alaihi wa sallam, sent Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib with thirty Muslim riders
to Saif al Bahr to investigate three hundred riders from Quraish who had
camped suspiciously in that area. The Muslims were about to engage the
disbelievers, but they were separated byMajdy ibn Umar al-Juhany. The
Hypocrites of Madinah, hoping to oppose the unity of the Muslims, built
their own masjid (called Masjid ad-Dirar). The Prophet, sallallahu `alaihi
wa sallam, ordered this masjid to be destroyed in Ramadan.
Winter Solstice Celebrations
http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html#others
(Site Excerpt) No one's really sure how long ago humans recognized the
winter solstice and began heralding it as a turning point -- the day that
marks the return of the sun. One delightful little book written in 1948,
4,000 Years of Christmas, puts its theory right up in the title. The
Mesopotamians were first, it claims, with a 12-day festival of renewal,
designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more
year. It's a charming theory. But who knows how accurate it is? Cultural
anthropology has advanced a lot in the last 50 years! .....And now a book,
The Sun in the Church reveals that many medieval Catholic churches were also
built as solar observatories. The church, once again reinforcing the close
ties between religious celebration and seasonal passages, needed astronomy
to predict the date of Easter. And so observatories were built into
cathedrals and churches throughout Europe. Typically, a small hole in the
roof admitted a beam of sunlight, which would trace a path along the floor.
The path, called the meridian line, was often marked by inlays and zodiacal
motifs. The position at noon throughout the year, including the extremes of
the solstices, was also carefully marked.
Sacaea-Saturnalia
http://www.candlegrove.com/sacaea.html
(Site Excerpt) Four thousand years ago or so, ancient Egyptians celebrated
the rebirth of the sun at this time of year. They set the length of the
festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar. They
decorated with greenery, using palms with 12 shoots as a symbol of the
completed year, since a palm was thought to put forth a shoot each
month....The annual renewal festival of the Babylonians was adopted by the
Persians. One of the themes of these festivals was the temporary subversion
of order. Masters and slaves exchanged places. A mock king was crowned.
Masquerades spilled into the streets. As the old year died, rules of
ordinary living were relaxed.
Hanukkah:
The History of Hanukkah
Prepared by Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
http://www.ridgenet.org/szaflik/hanukkah.htm
(Site Excerpt) The Hebrew word Hanukkah means "dedication." The roots of
this name, and the Hanukkah holiday, come from the second century B.C.E.
(Before the Common Era). Chafing under foreign domination, a band of Jews
led by Mattathias took to the hills of Judea in open revolt against the
Seleucid regime of Antiochus IV.
Chinese New Year History
http://www.web-holidays.com/lunar/
(Site Excerpt) Legend tells of a village in China, thousands of years ago,
that was ravaged by an evil monster one winter's eve. The following year the
monster returned and again ravaged the village. Before it could happen a
third time, the villagers devised a plan to scare the monster away. Red
banners were hung everywhere; the color red has long been believed to
protect against evil. Firecrackers, drums and gongs were used to create loud
noises to scare the beast away. The plan worked and the celebration lasted
several days during which people visited with each other, exchanged gifts,
danced and ate tasty comestibles.
Winter Holidays
http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/general/calendar.htm
This site lists major holidays of many cultures including those with fixed
dates and those with dates that are not fixed. Links to some of the
holidays (click on the highlited name) will take you to fun pages with a
little information on all aspects of those holidays.
Create a Medieval Holiday Feast
http://www.stoneclave.com/tavern/food/xmasfoods.asp
A series of Links to other articles
Richard III Society: Medieval Christmas celebrations (Acrobat Reader
required)
http://www.richardiiiworcs.co.uk/di42/christmas.pdf
A short PDF article with sources.
A Medieval Christmas Feast as adapted by Absinthe Yronwode
http://www.daos.org/oracle/MedXmasMain2.html
(Site Excerpt---be sure to check out the recipes link at the bottom of the
page) Medieval England is touted with a most important contribution to the
festivities, centuries after the date was established, namely.it's name. The
words Cristes Maesse - literally, Mass of Christ - appears as early as 1038,
and a chronicle from the year 1134 reads: "This yere heald se kyng Heanri
his hird (court) aet Cristes masesse on Windlesoure (Windsor)." Thus, our
modern Christmas is derived from somehow keeping the original pronunciation
of Crist (that rhymed with mist) and slurring our 't' into the mass, which
brought about the unusual phonetic Crissmuss.a word that no longer quite
conjures the image of the original meaning.
12th Night Feast--Head Cook: Sir Gunthar Jonsson (SCA)
http://www.godecookery.com/scafeast/steps12.htm
(Site excerpt) First Course Bread with Honey | Roast Pork with Assorted
Sauces | Garlic Pepper Sauce | Strawberry Sauce Lombard Brewet in Bread
Bowls | Tart of Parsnips & Skerrits | Saffron Rice | Apple Fritters
Second Course Beef Collops | Chicken in Orange or Lemon Sauce | Mushroom
Pasties | Lentils | Peascods
Boiled Cream Custard Tart Platters Sliced Apples & Peasrs | Dates | Cheese
Toasts | Cuskeynoles
A Medieval Spanish Christmas: Nativity through Epiphany
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/santiago/xmas.html
(Site Excerpt) Sound files, texts, and some of the information on this page
are drawn from the CD, "A Medieval Christmas," by The Boston Camerata, Joel
Cohen, Director (Elektra Nonesuch 9 71315-2, track 1)
Christmas Music from Medieval England
http://www.geocities.com/rupertdamerell/zen401notes.html
A List of Music Files for Download
Medieval Yule
http://www.simnet.is/gardarj/yule3.htm
(Site Excerpt) In early Medieval times, the Yule feasts were continued, even
if the occasion had changed. In the Thirteenth Century several of the most
powerful chieftains in Iceland, such as the historian Snorri Sturluson, his
nemesis Gissur �rvaldsson, Snorri's kinsmen �r�r kakali and �rgils
skar�, all held large feasts at Yule. And so did the Bishops of the
bishopric at H�ar. These were large feasts, which lasted for several days
and included dancing, games and sports and other entertainment.
Stefan's Florilegium--Collected Yule Messages
http://www.florilegium.org/files/CELEBRATIONS/Yule-msg.html
(Site Excerpt of one message) My research into this area (a hard one to try,
since there are
so many books published on the subject which call Victorian customs
"ancient customs") is that evergreens have a very long association with
the holiday season, dating to the pre-Christian era. Many of these
plants were treated symbolically in some of the nativity parts of
th cycle plays and pageants. Holly, mistletoe (which was eventually
banned in churches because of its pagan associations) and roses (Jesus=
the christmas rose) are all good choices, too.
If you want to add a fun touch, put up gold balls. They're
a symbol of St. Nicholas (whose feast day is nigh, by the way).
Candles would not be out of place. They rarely were in the Middle
Ages...:-)
Yule: circa December 21
by Mike Nichols
copyright by MicroMuse Press
http://www.msu.edu/user/rohdemar/earth/sabbats/yule.html
(Article Excerpt) Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how
enthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season. Even though we
prefer to use the word 'Yule', and our celebrations may peak a few days
BEFORE the 25th, we nonetheless follow many of the traditional customs of
the season: decorated trees, carolling, presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe.
We might even go so far as putting up a 'Nativity set', though for us the
three central characters are likely to be interpreted as Mother Nature,
Father Time, and the Baby Sun-God. None of this will come as a surprise to
anyone who knows the true history of the holiday, of course.
Saturnalia
or Brumalia: A Winter Solstice Ritual Apollonius Sophistes (c) 1996 ---Note:
A How-to-celebrate (In a religious way) article
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/Saturnalia.html
(Site Excerpt) This ritual compresses the Consualia (for Consus, God of the
Storage Bin), the Saturnalia (for Saturn, God of Sowing), and the Opalia
(for Ops, Goddess of Plenty) into a single festival, a Brumalia, or Winter
Solstice (Bruma) ritual. The Saturnalia Chants are available on a separate
page, which may be printed for use in the ritual.
Medieval Sourcebook:
The Golden Legend: Epiphany
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GL-vol1-epiphany.html
(Site Excerpt) Here followeth the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord and of
the three kings.
The Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord is adorned of four miracles, and after
them it hath four names. On this day the kings worshipped Jesu Christ, and
S. John Baptist baptized him. And Jesu Christ changed this day water into
wine, and he fed five thousand men with five loaves of bread. When Jesu
Christ was in the age of thirteen days the three kings came to him the way
like as the star led them, and therefore this day is called Epiphany, or the
thiephanye in common language.
THE MEDIEVAL YEAR
The year was reckoned not so much by month or date but by religious and
saints days.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~gedeon/medyear.htm
(Site Excerpt) ADVENT
1st Sunday of Advent: 4th Sunday before Christmas, start of the church year.
2nd Sunday of Advent: John the Baptist proclaims Jesus as the messiah.
3rd Sunday of Advent: 'Gaudetes Sunday', purple hangings changed for Rose
ones in preparation for the incarnation.
Ember days: (Wed, Fri, Sat before 4th Sunday): solemn vigils for those to be
ordained.
4th Sunday of Advent: advent is a time of fasting, like lent is before
Easter.
25th December: Christmas Day. Masses at midnight, dawn and, say, vesper-time
(3 masses per day are only allowed on special feasts). The tree symbology
came from St. Boniface, and the crib from St.Francis. Xmas dinner is a
Boar's head (4th Century).
28th December: Childermass day, the Holy innocents. Herod slaughters all
male offspring in Judaea. No new clothes bought, no major new undertakings
on this same day of the week all year until next childermass day.
1st January: The Circumcision. (6th Century). The New Year was of little
significance.
Note that, due to the inaccuracies of the Julian calendar, by the late
medieval period the calendar was several weeks out of sync with the sun.
6th January: Epiphany, the Adoration of the Magi. The three Kings give
presents to Jesus, Gold for kingship, Frankincense for priesthood, and Myrrh
for death.
Twelth Night: end of the Christmas season.
Stefan's Florilegium: Wassail messages
http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/wassail-msg.text
(Site excerpt of one message) I made a lot of wassail for Twelfth Night
events hosted by Southkeep before I moved out of Trimaris. My recipe is
as follows:
1 gallon cyser (I made my own; semi-dry)
1 gallon apple juice
2 sticks cinnamon
5 cloves
1 slice fresh ginger root (thin)
History of the Fool (12th night)
http://www.foolsforhire.com/info/history.html
(Site Excerpt) Traditional forms often dealt with transitional periods in
the life of the countryside: old year/new year, Lent, Mid-Summer, marriage
feasts, funerals, initiation rites and holidays (Christmas, Easter,
Epiphany). Traditional fools played erratic games with these primary
foundations of human experience and expressed how the society either managed
or mismanaged meaning in both everyday and heightened experience.
Twelfth Night: Madness and Folly
From Midsummer Magazine, 1991
http://www.bard.org/SectionEducate/twelfthmadness.html
(Site excerpt) Feste is the most obvious of these fools, belonging to a
class of jesters who, as Anton C. Zijderveld writes in Reality in a Looking
Glass, "were . . . in full command of their wits. . . . They played at being
foolish, often with much wit and ingenuity" (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1982, 92). He is the "allowed fool" who can criticize the two absolute
rulers of the playOlivia and Orsinowith impunity, and he does. He takes
the liberty to prove Olivia a fool for her grief (1.5.56-71) and to chastise
Orsino for his changeability (2.4.73-79). Feste is the only member of this
society who can find fault with his superiors without endangering his
position. When Malvolio rather nastily reproaches Olivia for enjoying Feste'
s jests, Olivia is quick to remind him of his place and to deliver some
criticism of her own: she replies, "You are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and
taste with a distempered appetite" (1.5.90-1).
East Kingdom Twelfth Night Feast
by Phil Troy (Gideanus Adamantius)
http://www.ostgardr.org/cooking/twelfth.night.html
(Site Excerpt) I've elected to bake the fish rather than fry it; from a
medieval standpoint the end results are almost indistinguishable, except
that saute� fish for a few hundred people is messy and impractical.
Also, we'll be using almond milk in our sauce, for, as the Goodman says,
only one thickening is necessary. However, the almond milk will be made with
cow's milk and cream as a base liquid. While this is not the method used in
the recipe above, it was fairly common to produce a particularly rich and
thick almond milk in this way.
School of the Seasons Twelfth Night
http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/twelfthnight.html
(Site Excerpt) This twelfth night of the twelve days of Christmas is the
official end of the winter holiday season and one of the traditional days
for taking down the Christmas decorations (see also Jan 13 and Feb 1). This
is also a traditional day for wassailing apple trees. In southern and
western England, revelers gathered in orchards where they sang to the trees,
drank to their health, poured hot cider over their roots, left cider-soaked
toast in their branches for the birds and scared away evil spirits with a
great shout and the firing of guns.
