The Folklore Society’s Advent Calendar 2024 Part 3
The Folklore Society’s Advent Calendar 2024:
[Part 1], December 1st to 8th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024/
Part 2, December 9th to 14th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-2/
Part 3, December 15th to 21st: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-3/
Part 4, December 22nd to 25th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-society-advent-calendar-2024-part-4/
21 December
Winter Solstice
Make your own ‘Fudgehenge’ (NB: measure it in inches not feet) and eat it while watching the solstice live streamed from ancient monuments.
Stonehenge, Wiltshire: Watch the livestream of the 2024 winter solstice at Stonehenge on English Heritage’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zzIJivapL0
English Heritage’s Stonehenge skyscape camera can be viewed here: https://www.stonehengeskyscape.co.uk/
And here’s the recording of the 2023 winter solstice at Stonehenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zzIJivapL0
Maeshowe Chambered Cairn, Stromness, Orkney: view the recording of the 2023 winter solstice at Maeshowe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IBIWm7Zoro
New Grange Passage Tomb, Co. Meath, Ireland: for links to the live stream from inside the burial chamber on 21 December, and more information about the winter solstice celebrations at New Grange, visit https://heritageireland.ie/learn/newgrange-winter-solstice/
And if you’re in London on Saturday 21 December, there’s a free Winter Solstice Festival at Greenwich Park: https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/royal-observatory/winter-solstice-greenwich-park
20 December
Snowmen
♪ We’re walking in the air, We’ve lost our underwear, somewhere. We’ll go to Mothercare and buy another pair ♫
On the history of snowmen, and probably the earliest image of a snowman (in a 14th-century Dutch manuscript), visit https://www.galtmuseum.com/articles/great-snowmen-in-history
Watch ‘Terry Pratchett’s Abominable Snow Baby’: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/terry-pratchetts-the-abominable-snow-baby
19 December
Mari Lwyd
Hide under a white sheet while holding a horse’s skull on a stick, and go knocking at the neighbours’ doors and sing them a song: Good Luck!
Here’s the Llantrisant ‘new’ Mari Lwyd at Halsway Manor in 2017 with her ‘Keeper’ Pat Smith singing the Mari Lwyd’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vozN7TNexY8
For more on the Llantrisant Mari Lwyd, http://folk.wales/magazine/archive/Dec%202011/Mari%20Lwyd.html
Saturday 18 Jan 2025: Chepstow Mari Lwyd and Wassail, hosted by Widders Border Morris: https://www.facebook.com/events/chepstow-wales/chepstow-mari-lwyd-and-wassail-hosted-by-widders-border-morris/409567398315491/
18 December
Guising
‘“Health to the master, the mistress also, And all the little children that round the table go, With your pockets full of money & your cellar full of beer, We wish you a Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year.” (Hat carried round during this song – Costumes, white shirts, smutted cheeks, or corked moustaches &, high paper caps, wooden swords or sticks) (Miss Rutter had this version from a young lady friend who had learned it from an old nurse, & believed it to be the true Northumberland version)’
(Folklore Society Archives, Ordish Collection; Guizard’s Song from Scremerston, Northumberland, 1902. Scans & transcript at https://archives.vwml.org/records/TFO/1/19/10)
More on Guising & Mumming Folk Plays:
https://media.efdss.org/resourcebank/docs/RB203BeginnersGuideEnglishFolkDrama.pdf
17 December
Ghosts
16 December
Chocolate
It’s National Anything-covered-in-chocolate Day, so feel free to eat the Christmas tree decorations today and get some more tomorrow.
Why chocolate coins at Christmas? They may be linked to the stories of St Nicholas helping the poor by throwing gold coins down the chimney, and to the Hannukah Gelt tradition that emerged in the early modern period after the introduction of chocolate to Europe, according to the blog at The London Mint (who couldn’t resist mentioning After Eights): https://www.londonmintoffice.org/blog/371-coinage-to-confectionary
15th December
Holly and Ivy
‘1689: pd. for candles and orniment “holly and ivy” for the church on Christmas day…2s.
1803: pd. for evergreens for the Church at Christmas…3s 6d.9’
(Churchwardens’ accounts for St Martin’s, Chester; cited by Susan Drury, ‘Customs and Beliefs Associated with Christmas Evergreens, ‘ Folklore, vol.98, 1987, p.195)
More on Christmas Holly at: https://www.plant-lore.com/plantofthemonth/christmas-holly/
Sing along to ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ (Roud 514) with Steeleye Span: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9lAvYjeu7k
And, as it’s Gaudete Sunday, here’s Steeleye Span singing ‘Gaudete’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbq2pPLW6I
The Folklore Society’s Advent Calendar 2024:
[Part 1], December 1st to 8th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024/
Part 2, December 9th to 14th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-2/
Part 3, December 15th to 21st: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-3/
Part 4, December 22nd to 25th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-society-advent-calendar-2024-part-4/