The Folklore Society’s Advent Calendar 2024 Part 3

— Posted on 15th December 2024

19th-century German Advent Calendar with 24 small images of children's toys & other Xmas themes, and the Kristkind (Christ Child) in the centre

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

Model in a shop window of Stonehenge made out of fudge, on a green table top with a sign in front reading 'Fudgehenge. Roly's Fudge. Salisbury; photo Jeremy Harte — Fudgehenge: shop window display 2021; photo Jeremy Harte, who sent this verse to go with the photo: ‘And, oh, how they danced, the little children of Fudgehenge beneath the haunted moon, for fear that dentists might come too soon.’

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

Hand-coloured photograph magic lantern slide from around the 1910s showing a group of 6 boys making a large snowman, with shovels and hands. The snowman has coals or stones for face and buttons, and at its base is a school slate with the chalked message 'Glad to See You.' Digital photo Nigel Longstaff. — Boys making a snowman, c.1910s

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/

A Mari Lwyd: a person under a sheet holds a beribboned horse skull on a stick, beside 3 people in winter clothes standing outside a house at night waiting for the door to be opened — Mari Lwyd; photo Doc Rowe

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

5 people in colourful Guiser folk play costumes on a dark night with a bonfire behind them; they are dressed as typical hero play characters, including a knight with a St George's cross tabard and a wooden sword; a doctor in a top hat; a woman with a basket; each person's face is completely covered with scarves or chain mail, etc. — Guysers at Fylingdales, 2005; Photo Doc Rowe

17 December

Ghosts

‘There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!’ (Scrooge to Marley’s ghost, in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)

Here’s one of the shortest ghost stories ever, from folklore forefather John Aubrey: ‘Anno 1670, not far from Cirencester, was an apparition; being demanded whether a good spirit or a bad? returned no answer, but disappeared with a curious perfume and most melodious twang. Mr W. Lilly believes it was a fairy.’ (Aubrey, Miscellanies, 1696)

And here’s one of the best talk titles ever, from our own folklorist i/c ghosts, Dr Paul Cowdell: ‘Wights in Night Satin: Ghosts in Bedsheets’ (Folklore Society online talk, 2022)

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

left image: foil-covered chocolate Xmas tree decorations (snowmen, soldiers, Santas) lined up beside piles of gold and silver foil-covered chocolate coins, in front of oranges and pomegranate; right image: empty chocolate coin wrappers and 1 empty chocolate snowman wrapper in front of oranges and pomegranate with a chocolate Santa figure peeping out from behind the fruit — Chocolate Xmas tree figures and coins

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

circular Christmas garland attached to a door, with variegated holly, ivy, cypress, teasels, and other foliage; photo C.Oates — Xmas garland with holly & ivy

Earlier days on 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/