| |
Deck the Hall: Yuletide Customs and Traditions
|
The Lecture
Christmas, as a time of celebration, has a very long
pedigree. The great mid-winter festival known to the Romans as Saturnalia,
is still greeted with feasting and drinking throughout the 12 Days of
Christmas. Wassail bowls and bobs, boars' heads stuck with apples,
carolling, mumming, riotous games in hall - all presided over by the Lord
of Misrule. Twelfth Night signalled an end to the merry anarchy with great
pies and rich fruit cakes concealing a bean and a pea. Using contemporary
illustrations, this lecture explores the sources and significance of these
ancient customs and traditions.
Table decoration |
|
Our Chairman, Terry Wallwork, Area Chaiman Jill Richardson, Deputy Area
Chairman Deirdre Booth with friends enjoying the Christmas meal.
The Lecturer - David
Bostwick
David is a lecturer and consultant
in the Cultural History of the Medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods. He is a
specialist in medieval imagery and interior furnishings and decoration
from 1400 to 1700. He teaches for the University of Glasgow and leads
study tours. He was a former Keeper of the Social History Collections at
Sheffield City Museums. He runs lecture tours to USA and Australia and is
a consultant on historic buildings and their interpretation to the
National Trust, English Heritage and Historic Scotland. |
|
The Feast of Saturnalia
which centred around the statue of Saturn at his
Temple. |
|
The statue was hollow and filled
with olive oil (a symbol of his, pardon the pun, 'roots'). The feet of
the statue were bound with woollen strips that were unbound for the
festival. After the rituals, the Senators would begin the celebrating
with the cry of "lo, Saturnalia!" which seemed to sum it up just fine.
They also had a Lord of Misrule, borrowed from the Persians. Saturnalites
would decorate their houses, walls, and doors with great swaths of
greenery, and outside plants with festive ornaments of sun faces, stars,
and the faces of the god Janus. Gold was the colour of choice, and
everything and everyone was bedecked in gilded beads, sun heads, stars,
and the occasional hapless napper! Small gifts of silver, wax tapers, and
little poppets were exchanged, and families came together for private
celebrations |
|
