Dec 2 2022 - Merry Christmas

 

It is everywhere "Merry Christmas".   "Why don't people wish you a Festive Christmas? And a Merry New Year?  In fact, why is Christmas merry when no other occasion seems to be?  After all, you probably don't wish people a Merry Birthday very often. You probably also don't hear many Merry Hanukkahs or Merry Ramadans either! What's the deal? Historians and linguists can't pinpoint for sure exactly why we tend to use Merry Christmas. The greeting dates back to at least 1534 in London, when it was written in a letter sent to Henry VIII's chief minister Thomas Cromwell from bishop John Fisher. Scholars also note the phrase was used in the 16th century English carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." That's from an article that explains the Christmas expression. A big milestone was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. That was in 1843.  But still,  The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore ends with  "A Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night." The article goes on to say that Happy Christmas tends to be used in Great Britain.   Merry is associated with boisterousness and intoxication, as in "making merry."  I remember that from Dicken's Christmas Carol, too. I find the expression  sounds as it means - cheerful and lively.  That's versus happy which wants more depth of feeling - contented, joyful, satisfaction and fulfillment.  That's a lot to ask of Christmas, to my mind.   Maybe it wasn't too much to ask for way back then.   I expect that was the hope of the christian churches during all those ages past.  The result would be that by having a celebratory context they could reiterate the events of the faith's foundation.  And the results would be increased commitment to the church.  Maybe even contentment with the church. In North America a poll asked Americans if they prefer Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, it was almost an even split.  Of course, they were asked "when they go to a store, which greeting do they prefer?"  I guess North Americans will spend more time in department stores than in religious centres at Christmas.  I bet all first world countries do. We have ignored where the word Christmas comes from - because pretty well "Christ's mass" explains it. That was the 12th century.  Adding Merry to it brings out the celebration aspects to my mind. A display of heritage ornaments at the Centennial Greenhouse in Toronto.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 17 2020 - Turducken for Christmas

 

My brother, Brian, had a grand dish for planned for Christmas dinner together this year, but it turns out the second wave lockdown has hit Toronto.   What did he get for the occasion?  Turducken - a dish consisting of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, further stuffed into a deboned turkey. It is also known as a three bird roast, and Gooducken is a traditional English variant, replacing turkey with goose.    This seems like an exotic dish - a King's feast - to me.  It turns out it is.  And there are even more exotic feasts for kings of the past.  There are bizarre pictures  of a combination of pork and turkey - actually stitching together the butchered upper portion of a baby pig with the lower portion of a turkey (or chicken).  They are cooked, displayed as entertainment before being eaten.  You can look this up and see the creepy picture.   This was popular from 1500 to 1800.  Cockentrice is what it was called - a capon and a pig. The instructions include the following:  When it is done, gild the outside with egg yolks, ginger, saffron and parsley juice.  Then serve it forth for a royal meat.   What was the most extreme form of this tradition?  "Roast Without Equal" was formed by stuffing 17 birds inside each other like Russian dolls.  You can read about this strange tradition in the Atlantic article HERE.  I am on to Christmas Greetings from a visit to Longwood Gardens quite a while ago.  What a beautiful display in the fern house.

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Celebration Day

Santa is heading to the North Pole, Arctic in 13 minutes.  I guess he's finished his work.  The NORAD map won't let me view the Article Circle as the underside - from the bottom.  There's an 'up' to the planet and that's it - I can see it from the side, though, and this is what is useful -to see the continents and land masses in their correct size and spacial distances.   Now Santa's back home! He delivered over 7.5 billion gifts in his trip this year. That's a lot of children per adults of the 2.2 or 2.4 billion people (depending on whose count you are counting on) considered to be Christian.  How many of the 1.9 billion Muslims might have given gifts.  And the Secular, nonreligious, agnostic or atheists at 1.2 billion - did they participate in the Santa tradition? These numbers come from the Pew Forum in their December 2012 study The Global Religious Landscape. It is HERE. They updated the study as of 2015, and it indicates Christians remain the largest religious group in the world.  So it is no surprise that Christmas is the big festival of the year that it is. But what about the 2/3 of the people who aren't Christian? Those of us who come from the dominant religion ask:  Can we parse the secular from the religious parts of Christmas for all to enjoy the festival part?  Christmas will be here for a while.  Its festival of lights and Santa fun are so easy to engage with and so attractive to us, like Santa Claus and his trip around the world.  Not so easily done is the report that comes back. So Christmas is here with lots to contemplate and to enjoy.  Our traditional Merry Christmas greeting comes from Santa and Mrs. Claus when they visited the Museum's Fantasy of Trees.

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