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Wassailing
The tradition of wassailing (''alt sp'' wasselling) falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by carolling. The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year. Notable traditional wassailing songs include "Here We Come a-Wassailing", "Gloucestershire Wassail", and "Gower Wassail". Etymology According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the Old Norse salutation ''ves heill,'' corresponding to Old English ''hál wes þú or wes hál'' – literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'. It was initially used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wassail
Wassail (, , most likely from Old Norse ''"ves heill"'') is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year. Etymology According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the Old Norse salutation ''ves heill,'' corresponding to Old English ''hál wes þú or wes hál'' – literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'. It was initially used in the sense of 'hail' or 'farewell', without any drinking connotation. The English interjection "" is a cognate of the etymon of the second part of "wassail", and was probably influenced by the Old English phrase. The expression later became part of the drinking formula ''"''wassail...drinkhail" which, the OED suggests, initially arose in England among the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twelfth Night (holiday)
Twelfth Night (also known as Epiphany Eve) is a Christian festival on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, marking the coming of the Epiphany. Different traditions mark the date of Twelfth Night as either or , depending on whether the counting begins on Christmas Day or . A superstition in some English-speaking countries suggests it unlucky to leave Christmas decorations hanging after Twelfth Night, a tradition also variously attached to the festivals of Candlemas (2 February), Good Friday, Shrove Tuesday, and Septuagesima. Other popular customs include eating king cake, singing Christmas carols, chalking the door, having one's house blessed, merrymaking, and attending church services. Date In many Western ecclesiastical traditions, Christmas Day is considered the "First Day of Christmas" and the Twelve Days are , inclusive, making Twelfth Night on , which is Epiphany Eve. In some customs, the Twelve Days of Christmas are counted from sundown on the evening of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloucestershire Wassail
The Gloucestershire Wassail, also known as "Wassail! Wassail! All Over the Town", "The Wassailing Bowl" and "Wassail Song" is an English Christmas carol from the county of Gloucestershire in England, dating back to at least the 18th century,Buckland,_Gloucestershire.html" ;"title="f Buckland, Gloucestershire">Bucklandgave me; they are printed without any alteration. The last three stanzas are from a variant sung to me by Mr. Isaac Bennett of Little Sodbury (Gloucestershire). The words are very similar to, but not identical with, those of "The Gloucestershire Wassailer's Song" quoted by [Robert] Bell (Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 183). Through the years, there have been, and to a lesser extent still are, many different variations of the lyrics, chorus, and number of stanzas sung, depending on historical time period, geographic location, arrangement, and individual circumstance. The underlying tune used for the lyrics has also altered considerably, depending on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-foot
In Scottish, Northern English, and Manx folklore, the first-foot ( gd, ciad-chuairt, gv, quaaltagh/qualtagh) is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year's Day and is seen as a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. Similar practices are also found in Greek, Vietnamese, and Georgian new year traditions. Origin The origins of first-footing is uncertain, although there may be a connection to the Viking Invasion of the British Isles: "This may go back to the time of Vikings when the arrival of a blond stranger at your door would be the cause of fear and alarm." Whenever a public ritual is suppressed many continue it at another date. Many customs of first-footing (bringing coal, knocking on doors, group singing Auld Lang Syne to pass from the old to the new) parallel those of Samhain, the Celtic new year, for which fuel was gathered, food collected by reciting verses door-to-door, and a ritual fire lit to welcome crossing the threshold to the next world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gower Wassail
The Gower Wassail is a wassail song from Gower in Wales, UK. Wassailing is a midwinter tradition wherein either orchards or households are blessed by guisers, which came to Wales through exposure to English custom. The song is printed in A.L. Lloyd's book ''Folk Song in England'' (1967), having been heard from Phil Tanner. Structurally, the song is in 6/8 time with bacchius trisyllables, a Balliol rhyme scheme, and the "ffal de radl" musical syllables characteristic of much of Welsh folk songs. Some of the lyrics closely resemble other popular wassailing songs, such as the 'Gloucestershire Wassail' Anderson, Douglas D. "Wassail! Wassail! All Over The Town" Hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com,https://web.archive.org/web/20191031192848/https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/wassail_wassail_all_over_1.htm Lyrics The majority of versions of the song begin with the same two stanzas, although pronouns (i.e. you, we, your, our, etc.) vary. Following the second verse and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caroling
A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with Christian church worship, and sometimes accompanied by a dance. A caroller (or caroler) is someone who sings carols, and is said to be carolling (or caroling). Today the carol is represented almost exclusively by the Advent carol, the Christmas carol, and to a lesser extent by the Easter carol; however, despite their present association with religion, this has not always been the case. History The word ''carol'' is derived from the Old French word ''carole'', a circle dance accompanied by singers (in turn derived from the Latin ''choraula''). Carols were very popular as dance songs from the 1150s to the 1350s, after which their use expanded as processional songs sung during festivals, while others were written to accompany religious mystery plays (such as the "Coventry Carol", written before 1534). Sacred music was traditionally sung in Latin by clergy or appointed cantors of the Catholic church ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jèrriais
(french: Jersiais, also known as the Jersey Language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an island in the Channel Islands archipelago off the coast of France. Its closest relatives are the other Norman languages, such as , spoken in neighbouring Guernsey, and the other . Use of has been in decline over the past century, as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration on Jersey. There are very few people who speak as a mother tongue and, owing to the age of the remaining speakers, their numbers decrease annually. Despite this, efforts are being made to keep the language alive. The language of Sark, Sercquiais, is a descendant of the brought by the Jersey colonists who settled Sark in the 16th century, with mutual intelligibility with the Norman language of mainland Normandy. is often called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the largest of the Channel Islands and is from the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy. The Bailiwick consists of the main island of Jersey and some surrounding uninhabited islands and rocks including Les Dirouilles, Écréhous, Les Écréhous, Minquiers, Les Minquiers, and Pierres de Lecq, Les Pierres de Lecq. Jersey was part of the Duchy of Normandy, whose dukes became kings of England from 1066. After Normandy was lost by the kings of England in the 13th century, and the ducal title surrendered to France, Jersey remained loyal to the The Crown, English Crown, though it never became part of the Kingdom of England. Jersey is a self-governing Parliamentary system, parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Figgy Pudding
Figgy Pudding (occasionally Piggy-Pudding) is a vague term used for a class of traditional Christmas dishes usually forming sweet and savory cakes, containing a sour-sweet creamy layer of honey, fruits and nuts. In later times, rum or other distilled alcohol became often added to enrich the fruitiness of the flavor. Etymology Medieval cooking commonly employed figs, in both sweet and savoury dishes. One such dish is fygey, in the 14th century cookbook ''The Forme of Cury'', which in Modern English is "figgy", this dish being known as ''figgy pudding'' or fig pudding: The Middle English name had several spellings, including , , , , and . The latter is a 15th-century conflation with a different dish. Figee was in fact a dish of fish and curds, which was named in Old French, meaning "curdled" (the past participle of the Old French ). But it too came to mean a "figgy" dish, involving cooked figs, boiled in wine or otherwise. A turn of the 15th century herbal has a recipe for fig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trick-or-treating
Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The "treat" is some form of confectionery, usually candy/sweets, although in some cultures money is given instead. The "trick" refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on the resident(s) or their property if no treat is given. Some people signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors; houses may also leave their porch lights on as a universal indicator that they have candy; some simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely, on the honor system. The history of trick-or-treating traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of guising, going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with food o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints ( hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day. Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,Brunvand, Jan (editor). ''Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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