Wednesday, February 3, 2016

It's not over till the pancakes...

Kind of hard to get going after Yule this year...and that's traditional, because in the past, festivities continued right up to Candlemas (Feb. 2). On old English estates the holiday was marked by music, dancing, games, and feasting, and even sometimes a "lord of misrule" figure:

        "The larder was filled with capons, hens, turkeys, geese, ducks, beef, mutton, pork, pies, puddings, nuts, plums, sugar and honey.... A glowing fire, made of great logs, the principal of which was termed the 'Yule log,' or Christmas block, which might be burnt till Candlemas eve, kept out the cold; and the abundance was shared by the lord's tenants amid music, conjuring, riddles, hot-cockles, fool-plough, snap-dragon, jokes, laughter, repartees, forfeits, and dances."




But when it's over, it's really over this time--by tradition, Candlemas eve was the date upon which all Christmas decorations had to be removed (or else you had to deal with a goblin infestation, and nobody wants that...)