TIP #372 - CHRISTMASES PAST Many of my long-time friends know that every Christmas, I post a special message for the season. This year's holiday season takes on a special meaning as many of us try to hug our children a little closer, stay in contact with distant relatives and give thanks and prayers at the same time. So this year, I thought I would tell you about some of the Old World traditions that so influenced our forefathers and established that special blend of the past which evolved into our Christmas celebrations. I was prompted to do this after watching a television tour of the White House with Laura Bush and the beautiful decorations and snow flocked trees with miniatures of many of the former President's houses. The Yule Log: The yule log had its origins in an ancient pagan festival in celebration of the winter solstice. A huge fire was kindled to light and warm the shortest day of the year. A large log was used as a foundation for the fire, which was kindled by a log from the last year's fire. Carefully pick one log from the fire, allow it to cool completely, and then store it in the cellar or yard until next year. Today, it is just a wonderful way to gather the family in front of the fireplace and swap tales of Christmases past! The Gingerbread House: Gingerbread dates back to olden times, but the colorfully decorated gingerbread house so popular at Christmas comes from Jakob Grimm's fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. Lost in the enchanted forest, Hansel and Gretel nibbled at the witch's tasty gingerbread house. The Kissing Ball: The golden bough, thought to be mistletoe, was sacred to the Romans. Nowadays when mistletoe is hung as a Christmas decoration, it is an invitation for a man to kiss a woman. In the mid-1700s in America, traditional kissing balls of boxwood and holly were hung in the windows, suspended from the top by a long red ribbon. Artificial mistletoe is much easier to find these days, but the tradition continues! Advent Wreath: Advent, meaning the approach or coming, refers to the four Sundays preceding Christmas. Advent is celebrated in church, and in many homes as well. Some people keep an Advent wreath with candles; one is lit on each of the Sundays in Advent to mark the approach of Christmas, Use a store-bought or homemade evergreen wreath (white fir and Colorado spruce bold their needles best) and embellish it with dried flowers. Place four large red candles in it, and in the middle a white candle. Light a red candle on each of the Sundays of Advent and the white one on Christmas day. Some families use the occasion of the lighting of the candles to add figures to the creche. Then on Christmas Day, the youngest in the family gets to place the Christ Child in the manger. The History of Christmas: Author Unknown: The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals(parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, the holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians. Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, and as their chief god - Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in his struggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year's festival that lasted for 12 days. The Mesopotamian king would return to the temple of Marduk and swear his faithfulness to the god. The traditions called for the king to die at the end of the year and to return with Marduk to battle at his side. To spare their king, the Mesopotamians used the idea of a "mock" king. A criminal was chosen and dressed in royal clothes. He was given all the respect and privileges of a real king. At the end of the celebration the "mock" king was stripped of the royal clothes and slain, sparing the life of the real king. The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated a similar festival called the Sacaea. Part of that celebration included the exchanging of places, the slaves would become the masters and the masters were to obey. Early Europeans believed in evil spirits, witches, ghosts and trolls. As the Winter Solstice approached, with its long cold nights and short days, many people feared the sun would not return. Special rituals and celebrations were held to welcome back the sun. In Scandinavia during the winter months the sun would disappear for many days. After thirty-five days scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to look for the return of the sun. When the first light was seen the scouts would return with the good news. A great festival would be held, called the Yuletide, and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. Great bonfires would also be lit to celebrate the return of the sun. In some areas people would tie apples to branches of trees to remind themselves that spring and summer would return. The ancient Greeks held a festival similar to that of the Zagmuk/Sacaea festivals to assist their god Kronos who would battle the god Zeus and his Titans. The Romans celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was called Saturnalia which began the middle of December and ended January 1st. With cries of "Jo Saturnalia!" the celebration would include masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting friends, and the exchange of good-luck gifts called Strenae (lucky fruits). The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and green trees lit with candles. Again the masters and slaves would exchange places. "Jo Saturnalia!" was a fun and festive time for the Romans, but the Christians though it an abomination to honor the pagan god. The early Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ child a solemn and religious holiday, not one of cheer and merriment as was the pagan Saturnalia. But as Christianity spread they were alarmed by the continuing celebration of pagan customs and Saturnalia among their converts. At first the Church forbid this kind of celebration. But it was to no avail. Eventually it was decided that the celebration would be tamed and made into a celebration fit for the Christian Son of God. Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the celebration of Christmas. The exact day of the Christ child's birth has never been pinpointed. Traditions say that it has been celebrated since the year 98 AD. In 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the observance of Christmas. http://www.ogenki.com/living/stories/index.php?id=3,1 A Victorian Christmas Menu from Godey's Lady's Book, December 1890 Raw Oysters: Have blue-point oysters; serve upon the half shell, the shells being laid upon oyster plates filled with cracked ice; six oysters and a thick slice of lemon being served upon each plate. Bouillon: Put into a pot three pounds of shin beef, one pound of knuckle of veal, and three quarts of water, and simmer gently. As soon as the scum begins to rise, skim carefully until it quite ceases to appear. Then add salt, two carrots, the same of onions, turnips, and a little celery. Simmer gently four hours, strain, and serve in buillon cups to each guest. Fried smelts - Sauce tartare: Clean about two dozen smelts, cut off the gills, wash them well in cold water, and then dry them thoroughly. Put in a pinch of salt and pepper in a little milk, into which dip your smelts, and then roll them in cracker dust. Put into a frying pan some lard, in which, when very hot, fry your smelts a light brown. Also fry some parsley, which place around your fish, and serve with sauce tartare. Put the yolks of two eggs in a bowl with salt, pepper, the juice of a lemon, and one teaspoonful of dry mustard. Stir with a wooden spoon, and add by degrees-- in very small quantities, and stirring continuously-- a tablespoonful of vinegar; then, a few drops at a time, some good oil, stirring rapidly all the time, until your sauce thicken, and a half a pint of oil has been absorbed. Chop one pickle and a tablespoonful of capers, also chop a green onion and a few taragon leaves, and mix with your sauce. Potatoes a la Maitre d' Hotel: Wash eight potatoes, and boil them in cold water with a pinch of salt. When thoroughly done, peel them cut them in thin round slices; put them--with three ounces of butter, a pinch of salt, pepper and a nutmeg, the juice of a lemon, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley--in a saucepan on the fire, and, when very hot, serve. Sweetbread Pates & Peas: Boil four sweetbreads, and let them become cold; then chop them very fine, add about ten mushrooms, also chopped fine. Mix with these a quarter pound of butter, half a pint of milk, a little flour, pepper, salt, and a little grated nutmeg. Put upon the fire, stir until it begins to thicken, then put in puff-paste that has been prepared, and bake until light brown. Open a can of peas, soak in clear water for half an hour, then put upon the fire in clean water, let them boil up hard, drain well and serve with butter, pepper and salt. Roast Turkey & Cranberry Sauce: Clean and prepare a medium sized turkey for roasting. Cut two onions in pieces, and put them in a saucepan with two ounces of butter, and color them slightly. Grate a pound of bread into fine crumbs, add the bread to your onions, the turkey's heart and liver chopped very fine, quarter of a pound of butter, salt, pepper, a pinch of thyme, and mix all well together. Stuff the turkey with this mixture, sew up the opening through which you have introduced the stuffing, and put it to roast, with a little butter on top and a wine glassful of water; roast an hour and a half; strain your liquor in the pan, pour over your turkey, and serve. Take one quart of cranberries, pick and wash carefully, put upon the fire with half a teacupful of water, let them stew until thoroughly broken up, then strain and add one pound and a quarter of sugar; put into a mould and turn out when cold. Roman Punch: Put in a saucepan on the fire three-quarters of a pound of sugar with three pints of water, boil ten minutes, then put aside to become cold. Put in a freezer, and when nearly frozen, stir into it rapidly a gill of rum and the juice of four lemons. Serve in small glasses. Quail with Truffles with Rice Croquettes: Take one cupful of rice, wash and boil it, and let it get thoroughly cold. Beat up with it one egg, a teaspoonful of sugar and the same of melted butter, salt and a little nutmeg. Work this mixture into the rice, stirring until all is well mixed and the lumps worked out. Make, with floured hands, into oblong rolls about three inches in length, and half an inch in diamenter. Coat these thickly with flour, and set them in a cold place until needed. Fry a few at a time in hot lard, rolling them over as they begin to brown to preserve their shape. As each is taken from the fire, put into a colander to drain and dry. Parisian Salad: Cut in small pieces six cold boiled potatoes, the same quantity of beets, and also of boiled celery--both cold. Mix the yolks of four hard boiled eggs with two tablespoonfuls of anchovy sauce, press through a sieve; add, little by little, four tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of mustard, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a few taragon leaves chopped fine, two pinches of salt, two of pepper, and the whites of four hard boiled eggs, cut in pieces, mix all well together, and serve. Crackers and Cheese Nesselrode Pudding..- Fancy Cakes: Remove the shells from two dozen French chestnuts, which put in a saucepan with a little water, then peel off the skin, and put the chestnuts in a saucepan on the fire with a pint of water and one pound of sugar. Boil them until very soft, then press them through a sieve; the put them in a saucepan with one pint of cream, in which you mix the yolks of four eggs. Just before boiling put your mixture through a sieve, add an ounce of stoned raisins, an ounce of currants, two sherry glasses of sherry wine, and freeze it like ice-cream. When frozen, cut four candied apricots, four candied green gages, half an ounce of citron in small pieces, three ounces of candied cherries; mix them thoroughly into the pudding, which is put into a mould, a thick piece of paper on top, and the cover securely shut down upon it. Put some cracked ice, mixed with two handfuls of rock salt, into a bowl, in the middle of which put your mould, covering it entirely with ice and salt; let it remain two hours, then turn it out of the mould, first dipping it into warm water. Put half a pound of almonds in boiling water, remove the skins, then put the almonds in cold water, then put them in the oven to dry. Pound them to a paste, adding the white of an egg; then add a pound and a half of powdered sugar, again pound well, adding the whites of two eggs. Spread on a pan a sheet of white paper, pour the mixture into little rounds somewhat smaller than a fifty cent piece, place them on top of the paper in your pan, about an inch and a half apart. Put them in a gentle oven for twelve minutes, the door of the oven shut; at the end of that time, if they are well colored, remove them from the oven, let them become cold, turn the paper upside down, moisten it with a little water and remove the macaroons. Fruit.- Coffee: Arrange grapes, apples, bananas and oranges upon fancy dishes, with gayly colored leaves and ivy branches around them. http://www.victoriana.com/christmas/menu-99.htm Victorian Age Toys: The children of the older times were rewarded with simpler gifts in the Victorian Age (considered to be those people born in the 1820's who came to maturity in the 30's through the 60's). Doll houses in the Victorian era were very popular. They were elaborately furnished in great detail. Some of the furnishings were: gilded clocks, lamps, dining room sets, fully furnished kitchens and even statuettes. Dolls were available in many different styles. They had a doll that ate a small piece of food and the food was discarded through the sole of her foot. There was also a doll that played music as it raised her hands. Brown eyed dolls were becoming popular, made of bisque and the starting cost was only 65 cents. Alphabet blocks with painted letters made up of different sizes that could be piled one within another were popular. Banks were available, made of animals with open mouths for catching coins. They had large bodies to encase many coins. Walking toys were also popular, they had a cock that crows as it walks, and elephants were also very sought after. Many of us will remember when our stockings were filled with fresh fruit or penny candy! So many things have changed over the years, but one thing never will. The spirit of love, giving, sharing, enjoying, friendship, love and the age old story of the Christ child. Merry Christmas from Sandi in 2001! (c) Copyright 20 December 2001, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. Sandi Gorin, 205 Clements, Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ SCKY resource links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html < >< God Bless America ><>