Caroling, or 'wassailing' as it's sometimes known in England, is a Christmas tradition that dates back to the mid-1600's. The word 'wassail' comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word 'waes hael' meaning 'good health'. The word was initially applied to the bowl which held whatever beverage was being consumed at the time, but over time became applied to the beverage itself. A traditional English-style wassail was generally a cider spiked with wine and all manner of fruits and spices. Our spiced apple cider and mulled wines that we drink during the holidays are direct descendants of wassail. But, how did the name for this beverage become a verb?
Christmas carols have been sung in England for centuries, most often as a way to bring cheer and usually sung by minstrels who wandered throughout the fortified city or castle. As England moved away from castles to villages, the tradition of having carols sung at Christmastime moved with them, this time taken up by the villagers themselves, who would wander from house to house singing songs to brighten up someone's holiday and perhaps get a gold coin or two for their troubles. Most carols originally were sung by waits – who were also sometimes called watchmen. They were officially sanctioned by the leaders of the community, and if anyone was caught caroling who was not authorized as a wassailer, they were treated as a beggar and run out of the town. These carolers were called 'waits' or 'watchmen' because they kept an eye open for the Three Wisemen or the Bethlehem star, and would sing songs about the coming nativity. If the owner of the house did not have any money to trade for the singing of a carol, he would instead offer a cup of the house wassail to warm them as they went on their way. And so caroling, or wassailing, was offered up as a way from someone to stay warm during the cold night.
In the early parts of our Christmas heritage, carols were particularly frowned upon by the early church fathers. Solemn hymns or psalms were the only songs allowed during church service. Carols were devised as songs to be sung during the secular celebrations of Christmas, away from the church. They were mostly songs written and sung by commoners, and quickly grew into popular favor, as was the custom of gift-giving.
The giving of gifts was not a common practice among early celebrations. Ancient customs were mainly of a very loud and rowdy "end-of-year" party, full of music, public drunkenness and debauchery – the very reason the church fathers wanted nothing to do with Christmas, and the reason why this celebration was banned for years or sometimes decades! When Oliver Cromwell and the puritans came into power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas was completely snuffed out. Well, not completely. Christmas celebrations were still held privately in homes: stories were told, carols sung, and wassail flowed generously - all in secret. But still no gift giving.
In mid-1800's Victorian England there was a renaissance of an "Old-Fashioned" Christmas due to several decades of Christmas being banned in England. Somewhat in part to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, it is mostly due to Charles Dickens' immortal classic tale, "A Christmas Carol" where we get most of our modern ideas of Christmas, including Christmas being about family, good-will to all men, and the phrase 'Merry Christmas'. It was also at this time that Christmas began to be celebrated in earnest by Americans as well. Americans, up until this point, had pockets of celebrations here and there, mainly dependent on whatever ethnic group had brought their own customs to the region they settled in. The practice of gift giving during this time was originally Dutch in origin, and we owe our annual mayhem to the city of New York who revived this old custom from the original knickerbocker settlers in the area.
New York, Virginia, and of course Pennsylvania - with their German-influenced 'Pennsylvania Dutch - were largely responsible for the revival of the Christmas Holiday in the US, and with them came the additional notion of giving gifts during the holiday, thanks in part to C. Clement Moore's poem, "A Visit From Saint Nicholas", otherwise known as 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. With the image of Kris Kringle placing gifts under the tree, this firmly cemented the idea in our modern celebration.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Christmas Blog 4: Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees. And Little Lambs Eat Ivy.
Now a few words about the Holly and the Ivy, and other evergreens of the Christmastime tradition: In ancient times the Celts and other Northern peoples believed the holly was sacred. The very name "Holly" stems from the word 'holy'. These peoples thought this plant stayed green year round because it was especially favored by the sun. As discussed in the last blog, mistletoe has apparently been used as a decoration in homes for thousands of years and because of this, it has been associated with many pagan rituals. The early church forbade the use of mistletoe in any form because of these pagan associations, so as a substitute holly was suggested because the sharply pointed leaves were to symbolize the thorns in Jesus's crown and the red berries drops of his blood. Holly soon became a holiday tradition. Christian legend says one winter night, the holly miraculously grew leaves out of season in order to hide the Holy Family from Herod's soldiers. Since then, it has been an evergreen as a token of Jesus's gratitude. Another legend about this Christmas plant says that a little orphan boy was living with the shepherds when the angels came to announce the birth of the newborn king. Having no gift for the baby, the child wove a crown of holly branches for its head. But when he lay it before the child, he became ashamed of it's poverty and began to cry. Miraculously, Jesus touched the crown and it began to sparkle while the orphan's tears turned into beautiful scarlet berries. Many superstitions surround the holly. For many ancient cultures It was considered to be a man's plant and is believed to bring good luck and protection to men, while ivy brings the same to women. It is thought that whoever brings the first sprig of Christmas holly into the home will wear the pants that year. It was hung about the doors and windows to keep away witches, spells, evil spirits, goblins, and lightning; ironically though, holly has recently been found to act as a sort of natural "lightning rod"!
Ivy, another evergreen plant, has always been associated with holly as far back as records have been kept. Not only as just a typical evergreen, but as mentioned above, it was considered by ancient cultures as symbolizing the feminine spirit of the holiday because of its smooth and soft leaves, while holly leaves are rough and prickly, and of course would symbolize the masculine spirit. Ivy was also the symbol for the Roman god Bacchus, the god of merriment and wine - which were a huge part of Saturnalia and Sol Invictus, and therefore transcribed to Christmas as well, especially in England.
The Christmas Tree is one of the most cherished images that we have of our modern Christmas. But putting up a tree for the holidays is almost as old as the holiday itself. Long before Saturnalia or even Jul, the ancient Egyptians would put up palm trees in their homes and temples during this time of year to symbolize the triumph of life over death, as the sun has always been viewed as life itself. As has been discussed in earlier blogs, the winter months tended to be harshest in the northern parts of our world, where vegetation withers and "dies" during this time. All vegetation, that is, except for evergreens such as the pine or fir trees. Decorating one's home with evergreen branches was a cheerful reminder of greener times to come in the coming months, once the bleak mid-winter has passed.
As much a tradition of installing a Christmas tree is the tradition of decorating it as well. Some of the earliest decorations on Christmas trees were mostly fruits and nuts. Apples were frequently chosen for their symbolism tied to Adam and Eve. There are many, many legends and stories tied to the symbolic tree. One such story is attributed to Martin Luther, the German leader of the Protestant Revolution. As the story goes, Luther was walking home one evening when he paused to look at the stars. So overcome was he with the beauty of the those stars shining through the branches of the fir trees, that he decided to recreate what he saw. And so doing, he chopped down a fir tree, dragged it home, and decorated the tree with candles - thus beginning a time honored tradition of lights on a tree.
You will be interested to know that Christmas trees came to the US by way of Victorian England. In 1846, the Illustrated London News featured an illustration of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their children gathered around a fully decorated Christmas tree. Prince Albert, who was German by birth, brought the custom that had flourished for so many years in Germany. Before this illustration came out, the thought of decorating a tree - and indoors - was not something that was done in England. But soon after that, families on both sides of the Atlantic wanted to copy this "new tradition". By the 1880's, with the advent of electric lights, our modern "old-fashioned" Christmas was finally established.
And now a word about Christmas Spiders. SPIDERS??? Yep, spiders. A story is told from varying parts of eastern Europe, especially Germany and Russia, of the Christmas spiders. The story goes that one Christmas Eve day, a family was working hard to get the house ready for the visitation of either Saint Nicholas or the Kristkindl, depending on which country this story is being hailed from. At any rate, the house was cleaned top to bottom, thus insuring that no bugs - especially spiders - would be present to scare away the awaited visitor. The tree was set up and lit, and then all of the farmyard animals were brought in to marvel at the beautiful tree. Again, all except the spiders. Once everyone had gone to bed, the spiders finally came out of their hiding place, and at once headed for the beautifully decorated tree. The spiders thought it was so lovely that they also helped in decorating the tree - with spiderwebs. In the morning, when the family woke up, they headed straight for the tree to see what the Midnight Visitor had brought them - and they all gasped in amazement. For there stood their Christmas tree decorated in shiny spiderwebs. To commemorate the beautiful gift of the spiders, we now put shiny tinsel on our trees - a small reminder of a grateful gift from a lowly spider.
Ivy, another evergreen plant, has always been associated with holly as far back as records have been kept. Not only as just a typical evergreen, but as mentioned above, it was considered by ancient cultures as symbolizing the feminine spirit of the holiday because of its smooth and soft leaves, while holly leaves are rough and prickly, and of course would symbolize the masculine spirit. Ivy was also the symbol for the Roman god Bacchus, the god of merriment and wine - which were a huge part of Saturnalia and Sol Invictus, and therefore transcribed to Christmas as well, especially in England.
The Christmas Tree is one of the most cherished images that we have of our modern Christmas. But putting up a tree for the holidays is almost as old as the holiday itself. Long before Saturnalia or even Jul, the ancient Egyptians would put up palm trees in their homes and temples during this time of year to symbolize the triumph of life over death, as the sun has always been viewed as life itself. As has been discussed in earlier blogs, the winter months tended to be harshest in the northern parts of our world, where vegetation withers and "dies" during this time. All vegetation, that is, except for evergreens such as the pine or fir trees. Decorating one's home with evergreen branches was a cheerful reminder of greener times to come in the coming months, once the bleak mid-winter has passed.
As much a tradition of installing a Christmas tree is the tradition of decorating it as well. Some of the earliest decorations on Christmas trees were mostly fruits and nuts. Apples were frequently chosen for their symbolism tied to Adam and Eve. There are many, many legends and stories tied to the symbolic tree. One such story is attributed to Martin Luther, the German leader of the Protestant Revolution. As the story goes, Luther was walking home one evening when he paused to look at the stars. So overcome was he with the beauty of the those stars shining through the branches of the fir trees, that he decided to recreate what he saw. And so doing, he chopped down a fir tree, dragged it home, and decorated the tree with candles - thus beginning a time honored tradition of lights on a tree.
You will be interested to know that Christmas trees came to the US by way of Victorian England. In 1846, the Illustrated London News featured an illustration of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their children gathered around a fully decorated Christmas tree. Prince Albert, who was German by birth, brought the custom that had flourished for so many years in Germany. Before this illustration came out, the thought of decorating a tree - and indoors - was not something that was done in England. But soon after that, families on both sides of the Atlantic wanted to copy this "new tradition". By the 1880's, with the advent of electric lights, our modern "old-fashioned" Christmas was finally established.
And now a word about Christmas Spiders. SPIDERS??? Yep, spiders. A story is told from varying parts of eastern Europe, especially Germany and Russia, of the Christmas spiders. The story goes that one Christmas Eve day, a family was working hard to get the house ready for the visitation of either Saint Nicholas or the Kristkindl, depending on which country this story is being hailed from. At any rate, the house was cleaned top to bottom, thus insuring that no bugs - especially spiders - would be present to scare away the awaited visitor. The tree was set up and lit, and then all of the farmyard animals were brought in to marvel at the beautiful tree. Again, all except the spiders. Once everyone had gone to bed, the spiders finally came out of their hiding place, and at once headed for the beautifully decorated tree. The spiders thought it was so lovely that they also helped in decorating the tree - with spiderwebs. In the morning, when the family woke up, they headed straight for the tree to see what the Midnight Visitor had brought them - and they all gasped in amazement. For there stood their Christmas tree decorated in shiny spiderwebs. To commemorate the beautiful gift of the spiders, we now put shiny tinsel on our trees - a small reminder of a grateful gift from a lowly spider.
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