Christmas-art - 9/9/09
"On Christmas in the Middle Ages" by Mistress Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester.
NOTE: See also the files: Yule-msg, holidays-msg, holiday-gifts-lnks, 12th-nite-msg, Holiday-Celeb-lnks, crusades-msg, religion-msg, pilgrimages-msg, crusades-msg.
************************************************************************
NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************
From: sclark at epas.utoronto.ca (Susan Carroll-Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Nicolaa's articles #11
Date: 18 Jul 1994 20:53:24 GMT
Organization: University of Toronto -- EPAS
A brief overview of the development of Christmas...odd for July,
but interesting in a month or four...
On Christmas in the Middle Ages
--Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester
Christmas as we know it is largely a Victorian development. Such
traditions as the Christmas tree and Santa Claus or Father Christmas
are relatively recent in the grand scheme of things. Yet we can
recognize in the Christmas of the late medieval period the ancestor of
our own celebration. Most of the customs I will discuss are from
England, but some were common throughout Europe.
Until the late Middle Ages, the celebration of Christmas Day ranked
fairly low among the major festivals of the Christian world. Twelfth
Night celebrations far surpassed the rather solemn, low key observance
of the birth of Christ, while more festive Yule celebrations
(originally a pagan observance) persisted into the Christian era.
However, beginning with the rise of the cult of the Virgin Mary in the
twelfth century, a trend can be discerned away from the importance of
local saints and towards emphasis on the major figures of the Church,
especially on the Holy Family. The fourteenth and fifteenth century
cycle plays, presented in English towns by local guilds on or about
Corpus Christi day (a movable feast sometime between May 21 and June
24) were one result of this trend. These plays focusing on the life
of Christ sometimes included elaborate stagings of the nativity. Thus
began the first widespread popularization of the Christmas story in
England. The first Christmas carols were also connected to the
performance of these plays. We don't normally think of Christmas as a
midsummer tradition, but this, indeed, was its roots.
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.
The Christmas season was particularly marked by good cheer.
Households stood open and ready to welcome neighbors and visitors. A
popular custom was mumming, in which revelers put on masks or the
clothes of the opposite sex and, accompanied by minstrels and
musicians, traveled from house to house. Another custom (practiced
particularly in the universities) was the appointment of a Lord of
Misrule, who, dressed in gaudy or outrageous clothing, presided over
the holiday merriment with the pomp due an actual monarch. The Lord
of Misrule sometimes led revelers on wild nighttime processions
through town, which of course angered the resident church leaders.
However, churchmen had their own form of this custom--the appointment
as a young boy as bishop for the holiday season. As you may have
noticed, the holiday season was well-known for role reversal; in
fact, the custom of lords serving their servants for a day was quite
common. Lords usually chose this time to bestow gifts upon their
servants; a common present was a new suit of clothes. The Christmas
season in the Middle Ages and Renaissance was, as it is today, a
welcome escape from everyday cares.
Sources:
Ashton, John. _A Righte Merrie Christmasse _. (New York, 1968)
Brand, John. _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_. (London, 1853.)
The author also thanks Prof. E.R. Rose for his enlightening information.
Copyright 1994 by Susan Carroll-Clark, 10 Markbrook Lane #1106, Etobicoke, ON M9V 5E3 CANADA. Permission granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided author is credited and receives a copy.
<the end>