Baddow & Galleywood

December 2021 Speaker

Once again, our meeting was a combination of actual members attending and those who preferred to link in on Zoom. These Hybrid meetings are likely to be the normal presentations for most of our 2022 meetings.

This month we were pleased to welcome Andy Thomas to bring back memories of our Religious Studies and History lessons of many years ago in school, in his talk ‘Christmas : A Festive History’. Andy took us right back to the Romans and Egyptians who celebrated the Winter and Summer Solstice and the Stonehenge alignment for the midwinter with sunrises and sunsets. The Romans celebrated the festivals of Saturnalia 17-23 December and The Kalendae 1-3 January in the Calendar of Philocalus in 354AD. In 576AD the festive cycle of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ evolved.

In 1647 Christmas was outlawed for 12 to 15 years, and people were fined five shillings or sent to prison if they disobeyed this rule!

Around the world countries celebrate this Festive Season in different ways. The Germans celebrate on Christmas Eve. The Norwegians have a Norse Yule Festival which lasts for two weeks, and the Swedish people have a ‘Celebration of Evergreens’ with straw goats and other items to decorate their homes. Some of us probably celebrated these festivals if they had friends or families in these countries.

Another tradition was Wassailing where people would go and visit neighbours and offer them mince pies and spicy mulled wine drinks to wish them good health for the coming year.

In the middle of the 19th Century when The Oxford Movement began and Prince Albert married Queen Victoria, Christmas began to evolve as we have known it up to the present day. Christmas Trees, Decorations, and a Crib for new babies and Religious Celebrations came into being.

People also campaigned for workers, most of who were agricultural labourers to have Christmas day off work. Beef was the Victorian choice of food, then later goose and poultry became available. Turkey was very expensive. Mid 1850’s Christmas Crackers, Christmas cards, sugar almonds all appeared and Charles Dickens wrote his famous book ‘A Christmas Carol’. Other memorable events around Christmas time were Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ song and the Christmas truce between the British and German soldiers in WW1. Following WW2 Christmas became much more commercial with decorations in towns to encourage us to shop.

Andy concluded his talk by mentioning that Christmas can be a sad and lonely time for some people, so maybe we all need to think of these people and possibly help to make their Christmas better. The Carol singing and Church services are a comfort to many people so best wishes to everyone for Christmas and the New Year of 2022.

Once again, our thanks go to Sue Wells for providing us with Christmas cake and Mince pies at the end of the meeting with our teas and coffees.