Читать книгу Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook - Regula Ysewijn - Страница 12

|

19

Introduction

“Artificiers, Labourers, Servants, or Apprentices,

to play at any games, except at Christmas.” In

fact, recreation was encouraged at Christmas, but

there were exceptions. For example, the lower

classes still held on to the pagan tradition of

mumming, though the authorities tried to pro-

hibit it, as they believed it too often led to rioting

and even murder. Some mummers were not even

disguised, as they could not afford masks, instead

just darkening their faces with soot.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, or Christ-

mastide, which extended from December 25 to

January 5, the eve of Epiphany, were a time of

general merrymaking, of song and dance, of food

and frivolity, of visiting neighbors and friends.

December 25 was all about the feast—both the

food and the splendor—with little thought given

to Christ’s birth. On December 26, the feast day

of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the

nobility typically gave their household servants,

who had spent Christmas Day serving them, the

day off to see their families, sending them out

with small gifts and sometimes leftover food from

the holiday table. A lord would also give a gift to

his tenant farmer, and the farmer would recipro-

cate with perhaps a couple of hens, an exchange

that would have been stipulated in their contract.

In other words, it was a business transaction. For

the poorest people, donations were made to alms

boxes in churches, the contents of which were

distributed on December 26. This custom of the

rich giving to the poor on Saint Stephen Day was

the precursor to Boxing Day (see page 90), which

became a public holiday in 1871.

At court, Henry VIII distributed gifts on New

Year’s but also received gifts from all his cour-

tiers. One year, Anne Boleyn gave the king a set

of spears used for one of his favorite holiday pas-

times, wild boar hunting. It was a capital move

from Anne, as he married her about a year later.

Mary I, the daughter of Henry VIII, made

an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the Protestant

reforms of her father, hoping to make England

a Catholic nation once more. During her reign,

she did reduce the extravagance of the Christmas

celebrations, but on her death, the elaborate holi-

day festivities of her father were promptly revived

when Elizabeth I, her half sister, was crowned

in 1559.

Elizabeth was set to enjoy her life and loved

music, dancing, and theater, especially the plays

of William Shakespeare. She spent a tremendous

amount of money on every feast, as she liked to

display her wealth with opulence. These lines

from “Christmas Husbandry Fare,” a poem of the

era by Thomas Tusser (1515–80), describes the

festive food of the time, with turkey making an

early appearance:

They both do provide against Christmas

do come,

To welcome their neighbour, good cheer to

have some;

Good bread and good drink, a good fire in

the hall,

Brawn pudding and souse, and good

mustard withal.

Beef, mutton, and pork, shred pies of the best,

Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well

dressed;

Cheese, apples, and nuts, jolly carols to hear,

As then in the country is counted good cheer.

Some of the foods associated with Christmas,

such as mince pies and spiced fruitcakes and

buns, were eaten on special occasions year-round.

But that ended in 1592, when the London office

that oversaw markets issued a decree halting the

sale of spiced baked goods except for funerals,