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Ashen Faggot
The ashen faggot (also known as ashton fagot) is an old English Christmas tradition from Devon and Somerset, similar to that of the Yule log and related to the wassail tradition. A faggot is a large log or a bundle of ash sticks. It was bound with nine green lengths of ash bands or 'beams', preferably all from the same tree. At the appropriate moment during Christmas Eve, the faggot must be burnt in a hearth while people who are watching sing Dunster Carols. Historical significance Ash was probably chosen for this ritual because the ash tree has a long pedigree of magical associations: perhaps the most important is the Yggdrasil of Norse mythology, also known as the World Ash Tree. The Christian version of the use of ash was when Mary used wood to light a fire in order to wash infant Jesus. In Romanian culture, it was thought that Jesus was born in a field and that he was kept warm by the head of an ash. Christmas Eve ritual The wassail party passes around a bundle of ash stic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a predominantly Temperate climate, temperate-continental climate, and an area of , with a population of around 19 million. Romania is the List of European countries by area, twelfth-largest country in Europe and the List of European Union member states by population, sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, followed by Iași, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați. The Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows in a southeasterly direction for , before emptying into Romania's Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture In Devon
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor, Edward. (1871). Primitive Culture. Vol 1. New York: J.P. Putnam's Son Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is counted a typical be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas In The United Kingdom
The observance of Christmas around the world varies by country. The day of Christmas, and in some cases Christmas Eve, the day before and Boxing Day, the day after, are recognized by many national governments and cultures worldwide, including in areas where Christianity is a minority group, minority religion. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Christmas traditions for many nations include the installing and lighting of Christmas trees, the hanging of Advent wreaths, Christmas stockings, candy canes, setting out cookies and milk, and the creation of Nativity scenes depicting the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas carols may be sung and stories told about such figures as the Baby Jesus, Saint Nicholas, St Nicholas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Christkind or Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost. The sending and exch ... [...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] |
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ''The British Folk Revival 1944-2002'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), pp. 55-65. History The label began as an offshoot of the communist led Workers' Music Association in 1939, selling Soviet and left-wing political music by mail order. After a period of relative inactivity in the Second World War, production resumed in the later 1940s, moving towards traditional music for the emerging revival market. Up to 1949 the composer Alan Bush was involved with choral and orchestral music released on the label. Topic also produced some of the first American blues records to be commercially available in Britain. From about 1950 the two key figures of the second revival, Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd, became heavily involved, producing several records o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Collins
Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on piano and portative organ created unique settings for Shirley's plain, austere singing style. Biography Early life Shirley Collins was born in Hastings, East Sussex, England on 5 July 1935. She grew up, with her older sister Dolly, in the area, in a family which kept alive a great love of traditional song. Songs learnt from their grandfather and from their mother's sister, Grace Winborn, were to be important in the sisters' repertoire throughout their career. On leaving school, at the age of 17, Collins enrolled at a teachers' training college in Tooting, south London. In London she also involved herself in the early folk revival, making her first appearance on vinyl on the 1955 compilation ''Folk Song Today''. In 1954, at a party hos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of the devil can be summed up as 1) a principle of evil independent from God, 2) an aspect of God, 3) a created being turning evil (a ''fallen angel''), and 4) a symbol of human evil. Each tradition, culture, and religion with a devil in its mythos offers a different lens on manifestations of evil.Jeffrey Burton Russell, ''The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity'', Cornell University Press 1987 , pp. 41–75 The history of these perspectives intertwines with theology, mythology, psychiatry, art, and literature developing independently within each of the traditions. It occurs historically in many contexts and cultures, and is given many different names— Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Iblis—and at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Axmouth
Axmouth is a village, civil parish and former manor in the East Devon district of Devon, England, near the mouth of the River Axe. The village itself is about inland, on the east bank of the Axe estuary. The parish extends along the estuary to the sea, and a significant distance to the east. The village is near Seaton and Beer which are on the other side of the Axe estuary. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 493. History In the will of King Alfred the Great, a copy of which is in the British Library, Axmouth was left to his youngest son Aethelweard. According to Historic England, 'Axmouth was ranked as a major port by the mid-14th century and accounted for 15% of the country’s shipping trade'. The remains of a late medieval fishing boat can be seen at low tide in the River Axe, just south-west of the village. Historic estates Within the parish of Axmouth are various historic estates including: * Bindon, an ancient seat of the Wyke family, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Withy
A withy or withe (also willow and osier) is a strong flexible willow stem, typically used in thatching, basketmaking, gardening and for constructing woven wattle hurdles.Life on the Upper Thames by H. R. Robertson (1875), chapters II-IV The term is also used to refer to any type of flexible rod of natural wood used in such as or created through |
Withy
A withy or withe (also willow and osier) is a strong flexible willow stem, typically used in thatching, basketmaking, gardening and for constructing woven wattle hurdles.Life on the Upper Thames by H. R. Robertson (1875), chapters II-IV The term is also used to refer to any type of flexible rod of natural wood used in such as or created through |
Faggot (wood)
A faggot, in the meaning of "bundle", is an archaic English unit applied to bundles of certain items. Alternate spellings in Early Modern English include ''fagate, faget, fagett, faggott, fagot, fagatt, fagott, ffagott,'' and ''faggat''. A similar term is found in other languages (e.g. Latin: ''fascis''). Background Sometimes called a short faggot, a faggot of sticks equals a bundle of wood sticks or billets that is in length and in circumference. The measurement was standardised in ordinances by 1474. A small short faggot was also called a nicket. A brush-faggot (sometimes shortened to brush) was a bundle of similar size made of brushwood. A long faggot of sticks equals a bundle larger than long. In a book on slang used at Winchester College fire-dogs were fire basket (andirons) that could hold long faggots, and half-faggots were smaller andirons that could only hold short faggots and were later converted for use with coal. A long faggot was also called a kidd faggot,Yaxley, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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