High Days and Holy Days 1
Eloi – a patron saint for the euro? It’s
now been nearly two years since Eloi’s
craftmanship and friendship with the king made him very
wealthy. He gave much of his money to the poor, built a
number of churches, ransomed slaves, and founded a
convent in Parish and a monastery in Solignac. 3
Francis Xavier - the seasick missionary who struggled
with languages Ignatius
Loyala sent his friend and follower Francis Xavier (born
1506) to the Orient as a missionary. What a missionary!
Imagine David Livingstone, Billy Graham and the Alpha
Courses rolled into one. His mass conversions became
legendary – he baptised 10,000 people in one month
and in just ten years of work was credited with 700,000
conversions. Xavier
certainly became the most famous Jesuit missionary of all
time, working so hard that he had only a few hours’
sleep each night. He was known as ‘the Apostle of
the For the
next seven years he worked among the Paravas in southern In 1549
he ventured on to Wherever
Xavier sailed, he left after him numerous organised
Christian communities. Not bad for a man who suffered
seasickness and had trouble in learning foreign
languages! Xavier
died in 1551, on his way to 6 St
Nicholas Father
Christmas is as old as Since
the 6th century St Nicholas has been venerated in both
East and West, though virtually nothing is known of his
life. Some believe he may have been one of the fathers at
the Council of Nicea (325), imprisoned during the Emperor
Diocletian’s persecution. According
to legend, Nicholas was an extremely generous man. He
revived three schoolboys murdered by an innkeeper in a
tub of pickles. He rescued three young women from
prostitution by giving their poverty-stricken father
three bags of gold. (Hence the use of three gold balls as
the pawnbroker’s signs.) Over
the centuries many, including children, sailors,
unmarried girls, pawnbrokers and moneylenders have
claimed him as their patron. (Moneylenders?) Still true
today – just think what will be on your Visa card by
Christmas!) Perhaps
it was on account of S Nicholas’ generosity that
that in recent centuries children began to write little
notes sometime before 6 December, to tell him about the
toys they specially wanted. These notes were then left on
the windowsill at night - or else on a ledge in the
chimney. But St
Nicholas Day chanced to lie in the magnetic field of a
much more potent festival.... and after awhile his
activities were moved towards Christmas. Then in A wag
once described a modern northern European/North American
man’s life as having three stages: He does believe
in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus,
he is Santa Claus. 22
Winter Solstice A
Midwinter festival has been a part of life since
pre-Christian times. When the hours of daylight are
fewest, the warmth of the sun weakest, and life itself
seemingly at a standstill, our ancestors, the pagan
peoples of Perhaps
they believed that the dying sun could be enheartened by
fire, and the life of the buried seed assured by the
presence of evergreen branches. With
the advent of Christianity, the Spring Gods became
identified with Christ, and the birthday of the sun with
the birthday of the Light of the World. The
early church father Tertullian did not approve of
Christmas decorations. “Let those who have no light
in themselves light candles!... You are the light of the
world, you are the tree ever green....” But by the
time of St Gregory and By 1598
one John Stow of 24
Christmas Eve: Christmas Trees Traditionally,
the day that we put up our Christmas trees. (Though these
days most of us have begun long before this!) Christmas
trees began as a German custom. In 1841 Prince Albert,
the husband of Queen Victoria, was one of the earliest to
introduce Christmas trees into England, though not the
first - German merchants in Manchester had had Christmas
trees for several years by this time, for one William
Howitt reported in 1840 “it is spreading fast among
the English there - pine tops being brought to market for
the purpose, which are generally illuminated with
tapers....” But
with Each
winter after this, more trees appeared in the castle.
Soon there was one for the Queen, one for the Prince, one
for the children, and several for other members of the
household, and two in the dining room. There were 6 to 8
feet high, all fully decorated and loaded with trinkets,
carefully arranged by Mr Mawditt, the Queen’s
confectioner. A
charming lithograph of 1848 shows the six royal children
with their mother and father grouped around their tree,
over six feet high, which stands on a table covered with
white damask. About the roots the larger toys are
arranged - soldiers on horseback and dolls. The six tiers
of branches are crowded with candles and with sweetmeats,
bells and paper toys. On the apex floats an angel with
spread wings, holding a wreath in each hand. In 1850
is was still to Dickens “the new German toy”,
but by 1854 there were hundreds for sale in Covent Garden
Market, and a prodigious glittering fir tree on view at
the Crystal Palace. Christmas
stockings These
were not found in The
Writing of Silent Night Christmas
Eve morning, 1818, the little Bavarian Mice
had eaten through the bellows of the great organ. There
would be no music for that Christmas Eve service. The
organist Franz Gruber rushed to tell Father Joseph Mohr,
and both men paced the floor in consternation. Then
Father Mohr stopped and pulled himself and his faith
together. “What can we do?” he asked. “We
can PRAY.” And so the two men prayed before Father
Mohr trudged off in the heavy snow on his rounds of
visits to the poor and ill of the village. In one
poor, humble cottage on the outskirts of the village, a
woodcutter’s wife had just given birth to a child.
So Father Mohr paid them a visit, to welcome and bless
the new baby. It was
early evening before he got back to the church, still
deeply moved by the tiny face of the woodcutter’s
‘Christmas Eve child’ nestled happily in its
mother’s arms. Father Mohr thought back all those
centuries to another baby, sleeping soundly in his mother’s
arms…. He longed to share this tender, tranquil
scene with his congregation. On impulse, the priest sat
down at his desk and took up his pen. A short
time later, Father Mohr called for Franz Gruber: “Here
– please write a simple tune to this poem, something
we can sing tonight to a guitar.” Franz Gruber
protested there was not enough time, but as he read the
poem, he began to concentrate. He began to hum, and soon
Father Mohr picked up the simply melody that had come to
him. A few
hours later, that Christmas Eve, the congregation of St
Nicholas, Oberndorf, were taught a new Christmas carol by
candlelight and by guitar. Silent
Night! Holy Night! All is calm, all is bright! Round
yon Virgin, Mother and Child, Holy
Infant so tender and mild, Sleep
in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace. Silent
Night, Holy Night… With
the Angels let us sing, Alleluia to our King; Christ
the Saviour is born, Christ the Saviour is born. This
Christmas, hundreds of millions of people around the
world will sing this lovely answer to a priest and
organist’s prayer for musical help on that Christmas
Eve so long ago. 25
Christmas Day: Why does it begin at The
hour was first chosen at Certainly
in recent times, Holy Communion at What
was in Christmas stockings? Traditionally,
children woke up at dawn with these weighing down their
toes. A lit candle was brought in, and if the family were
“decently traditional” the stocking contained
at the toe, an orange, followed by many objects done up
in foil or coloured paper, including a new silver
sixpence. This was all topped off with an apple on top. What
was the Christmas log? These
huge logs burned in open fireplaces all Christmas day.
Traditionally, they were of ash: ash that burned green,
and was therefore sacred to the sun on whose birthday
nature was reborn. One Devon-based tradition had it that
burning ash had warmed the water for the Christ Child’s
first bath. The Scandinavians believed that ash was the
wood of the world-tree, Yggdrasil, with its roots knotted
in Hell and its boughs supporting Heaven. In the
late 19th century, a time of smaller fire-places, the
ashen faggot became popular in many homes. Sometimes it
would be sprinkled with corn and cider, and sometimes it
would be dragged in with a girl enthroned upon it, and
then there would be glasses raised to her health. In any
event the log (once the girl was removed!) would be
kindled with the last fragment of the previous Christmas
log, kept throughout the year for this purpose – a
rule that was no pretty fancy, but a profound recognition
of continuity. By the time dinner was brought, the
symbolic brand would be ablaze. What
about the menu for Christmas dinners? In In
great houses of the past, the main dish was the boar’s
head, garnished with rosemary and bays for the summer
returning, and still with its mouth propped open on a
solar apple or orange. At But the
dishes proved “too gross and too splendid for the
century of the kitchenette” and in due course they
went the way of the plum pudding and frumenty and
Christmas pie. Traditionally,
it was the goose that appeared on most English tables.
But the turkey, imported into Mince
pies were already popular by the time of Shakespeare’s
As for
our Christmas pudding, it was originally a sort of plum
porridge that finally hardened into a pudding about 1670.
This was made of raisins and spices, together with
breadcrumbs, wine and fruit juice. Every member of the
household took a hand in the stirring and secretly wished
a wish. A silver coin (once a threepenny bit), a ring and
a thimble were stirred in: the coin to bring fortune to
the finder, the ring a wedding, and the thimble a life of
single blessedness. On the Day, a sprig of the reddest
holly was stuck in the top of the pudding, and then
brandy heated above a candle, and poured over it in a
river of fire.
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