When Christmas comes around each year, I often find myself wondering what it was like for our ancestors. And I don't mean the 80s More like the 1680s. Though the reformation had it banned in that century I believe due to the pagan nature of the festivities. But religion to one side...I don't want a political or theological debate, just a musing on how it must have been back then in terms of mid-winter/Christmas celebrating. Comparing those times to now, their winters would truly have been dark. The halls then would really have been decked with holly and ivy in an attempt to remind themselves of the hope of spring and the faith in the regeneration of nature. There are few places you can go now in the UK where light pollution doesn't impact. Traditional festive food, normally very rich and high in fat/carbohydrate, was once relevant because people back then ate poorer diets in terms of nutrition.
Are these customs/traditions relevant to modern society where the average person wants for nothing in the developed western world? Discuss
Mike, we're talking about the 16/1700s! I had no idea you went back that far!!! All credit to you for keeping going that long
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Im a paid up member of the SAD club. I dread Christmas being over, its all that gets me through November. January and February are awful. I've never tried the lights might invest in one.
I often think it would be nice to go back in time,maybe Charles dickens a Christmas carol?!
but id have to take with me central heating,antibiotics etc.
My husband sometimes reads a Christmas carol out loud, but I cant help thinking of black adders a Christmas carol,and tiny tom!
bbc2's wartime farm was good, the one at Christmas time very interesting.my mum remembers going to the cinema to see the wizard of oz with her dad,and my grandma being furious with him as she was so cold when they came home,but mum only remembers the thrill of going to the cinema.
// I find it strange that so many wise people today, know all about the origins etc of the season, yet still practice it.//
Bah bumhug!
I like all the silliness, fun and overindulgence of Christmas. The 'reason for the season' doesn't really matter for me, other than it cheers up an otherwise fairly miserable time of year.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I want a medal as a member of the SAD club. My birthday is on the 7th January. My Mum always thought the right day to take down the Christmas decorations was the 6th. So I would get up on my birthday to a totally bare cold house. Worse still, it was always the first day back at school after the Christmas holidays.
No wonder I still get down in January to this day. It's starting to bite at me already, sleeping for longer, losing motivation. I hate it!
I read recently that the medical profession has for years ridiculed the suggestion that SAD is linked to hibernation. (Despite many sufferers thinking it might be). Seems the latest research is now suggesting they were wrong and it really is the instinct to eat more, sleep more and switch-off from everyday tasks in some people that may be the cause of it.
I know I get just like that then feel down about it because I find it hard to keep up with even the most basic everyday tasks like doing the ironing, whilst the rest of the world is carrying on like normal.
The Christmas bit of is this thread got me thinking though, I very much kept the traditions of my Mum's idea of the perfect Christmas going. Made me wonder if it was a 1940's style of Christmas as she remembered it from her childhood, or a 1970's Christmas that I remembered from mine that my son will want to celebrate in the future - I guess more and more gets added and some forgotten as time goes on.
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Do you have any axle grease fishy, cos shillings used to be very rough round the edges.
Lyn...what did I say?
Words fail me dear! Thats got to be a first.
Mike, we're talking about the 16/1700s! I had no idea you went back that far!!! All credit to you for keeping going that long
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Perhaps Mike means the English Civil War Dove?
Im a paid up member of the SAD club. I dread Christmas being over, its all that gets me through November. January and February are awful. I've never tried the lights might invest in one.
I often think it would be nice to go back in time,maybe Charles dickens a Christmas carol?!
but id have to take with me central heating,antibiotics etc.
My husband sometimes reads a Christmas carol out loud, but I cant help thinking of black adders a Christmas carol,and tiny tom!
bbc2's wartime farm was good, the one at Christmas time very interesting.my mum remembers going to the cinema to see the wizard of oz with her dad,and my grandma being furious with him as she was so cold when they came home,but mum only remembers the thrill of going to the cinema.
// I find it strange that so many wise people today, know all about the origins etc of the season, yet still practice it.//
Bah bumhug!
I like all the silliness, fun and overindulgence of Christmas. The 'reason for the season' doesn't really matter for me, other than it cheers up an otherwise fairly miserable time of year.
I want a medal as a member of the SAD club. My birthday is on the 7th January. My Mum always thought the right day to take down the Christmas decorations was the 6th. So I would get up on my birthday to a totally bare cold house. Worse still, it was always the first day back at school after the Christmas holidays.
No wonder I still get down in January to this day. It's starting to bite at me already, sleeping for longer, losing motivation. I hate it!
I read recently that the medical profession has for years ridiculed the suggestion that SAD is linked to hibernation. (Despite many sufferers thinking it might be). Seems the latest research is now suggesting they were wrong and it really is the instinct to eat more, sleep more and switch-off from everyday tasks in some people that may be the cause of it.
I know I get just like that then feel down about it because I find it hard to keep up with even the most basic everyday tasks like doing the ironing, whilst the rest of the world is carrying on like normal.
The Christmas bit of is this thread got me thinking though, I very much kept the traditions of my Mum's idea of the perfect Christmas going. Made me wonder if it was a 1940's style of Christmas as she remembered it from her childhood, or a 1970's Christmas that I remembered from mine that my son will want to celebrate in the future - I guess more and more gets added and some forgotten as time goes on.