A British Christmas Perennial

Christmas Crackers: Tom Smith's Magical Invention, Peter Kimpton
In the United States, some people use Christmas crackers, but in the United Kingdom they are a traditional part of the Yuletide celebration. Shaped like wrapped "bonbon" candies with a twist of paper at each end, but six- to twelve-inches long, the cracker wrapper usually enfolds a funny paper hat, a "motto" which is usually like a "Dad joke" or a silly pun, and then some other type of prize or prizes (small animal or people figures, toys, tiny games, etc.). It's called a cracker because when when two people pull one apart, a strip of paper gives the cracker an audible "snap."

Many manufacturers on the British Isles have made crackers over the years, but the most famous of them is "Tom Smith, Inc." (sadly, no longer owned by the Smith family), whose boxes and crackers themselves as well as their catalogs featured brilliantly colored, inventive illustrations. And that's the main draw of this history of the Christmas cracker: the gorgeous color plates of Tom Smith (and other manufacturers') cracker boxes over the years. There are also photos of the original Smith family and the Smith factory with its factory girls, and some interesting ads that would not be allowed today that perpetuate racial stereotypes. One chapter covers the history of crackers during the first World War, and an appendix has a reprint of an article by Charles Dickens Jr about visiting a cracker factory.

If you're one of the people to whom Christmas crackers are an indispensable part of the holiday, or if you're curious about this Christmas tradition, this is a great overview of the history of the holiday treat.

Puppies and Just a Little Bit of Murder

Here Comes Santa Paws, Laurien Berenson

I've always loved Berenson Melanie Travis books, but this entry, a Christmas novella, is a little bit on the fluffy side, and at one point Melanie and her friend Claire do the dumbest thing ever.

Christmas is fast approaching when Melanie gets two intriguing phone calls. The first, from her formidable Aunt Peg, takes her visiting to see Peg's newest acquisitions, three adorable Australian Shepherd puppies someone abandoned in a big decorative stocking on her mailbox. The second, from Claire Travis (she married Melanie's ex-husband and they're all now friends), is a bit more problematic: Claire, a party planner and, for the holiday season, a personal shopper, has just found one of her clients, Lila Moran,  murdered in her gatehouse home while delivering her packages. Frightened and knowing she has solved other murders before, Claire wants Melanie to be with her while she's questioned by the police.

All this I can understand, as well as Claire hoping Melanie can get to the bottom of the mystery. But somewhere in the middle of the book they do something so unbelievably stupid that Claire suggests and Melanie goes along with that it bugged me for the rest of the book. Also, I pretty much pegged the murderer right out. Nice touch basing a character on the unconventional Huguette Clark, and the Travis/Driver Christmas prep and the dog characters are, as always, lovely. But, dang, I hate it when the characters have to do something stupid to add to the plot or move it along.

Christmas in the Factories and the Workhouse

A Lancashire Christmas, compiled by John Hudson
Yet another in Alan Sutton Publishing's Christmas compilations highlighting poetry, essays, art, and photographs from the different shires of England. In this one we venture north into England's industrial area, west of Yorkshire and north of Liverpool. This volume has a bumper crop of personal reminisces from working-class people: an entertainment at a mill strikes terror into a shy boy, a visit to Santa Claus may cause a youngster to doubt, verse tributes to the school Nativity play, a girl's memory of visits to her grandfather known as "Wonnie," Christmas during the Blitz, a free Christmas goose makes a lot of trouble in the kitchen, a final class tries "barring out the schoolmaster" to disastrous results, taking geese to market, the story of the hymn "Christians Awake!" (written by a Lancashire man), and more. There are several reports about Christmas in the workhouse, including a sad account of "suits" debating whether the people in the workhouse deserve a special Christmas meal (it has echoes to today as several of the members of the committee say the workhouse inmates are just layabouts and don't deserve a treat).

The delightful highlight of this volume is the comic poem "Old Sam's Christmas Pudding," about Sam Small, a sad-sack World War I soldier who is punished for his dirty kit by denying him his Christmas pudding, but he redeems himself during a return cannonade with a surprise weapon.

Some of the poetry and stories are in Lancashire dialect, but these shouldn't detract from the narratives.

Murder for the Holidays

Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings, Liz Ireland
This is first in a series taking place at the North Pole and featuring April Claus. April, formerly an innkeeper in Oregon (she still owns the inn), met and fell in love with one of her guests, Nick Kringle, who'd come to her inn to decompress. They marry and it's only then April discovers she has married...Santa Claus! Nick became the official Santa after the death of his father and of his oldest brother Chris, who died in a hunting accident.

It's now April's first Christmas as the official Mrs. Claus (although most people think of Pamela, Nick's mother, as "Mrs. Claus") and December is a harried jumble of activities. But things have gone sour at one of the first Christmas activities: an elf named Giblet Hollyberry, who was already angry at Nick when he lost an ice-sculpting contest and accused him of killing Chris, is murdered by a black widow spider in his stocking. Next a snowman (snowmen in Santaland are alive) is melted to death...and again Nick is the suspect when his custom-made coat button is found in the remains. April doesn't trust Constable Crinkle, the affable police officer, to hunt down the real killer, and even with dark detective Jake (not Jack!) Frost on the case, she knows she'll have to do some sleuthing to get Nick cleared.

Ireland does some fun world-building here, with the Santa family heirarchy (Lucia is actually the eldest, but the Santa title officially goes to the oldest boy) and family squabbles, the "Santaland" geography, the elf community, the idea of reindeer dynasties as well as Santa dynasties, the relationship between the in-laws being the same as in ordinary families, all mixed up with a cozy mystery, a misfit and coddled reindeer named Quasar, and an intelligent protagonist who's a little bit in over her head. Lots of interesting characters, including Jake Frost, although most of them lightly sketched, including Nick, which is frustrating.

Trouble is, I twigged to the murderer early on, and I think most people will, too, plus April is kind of a stock cozy character: perky red-haired inn-owning good-looking young woman. If you buy into the whole fantasy, it's fun. Otherwise, you may find it confusing—there are so many characters—or dull.

A Cathedral Miracle, A Donkey's Tale, and More

A Cheshire Christmas, compiled by Alan Brack

This is another of Alan Sutton publishing's "Christmas Anthologies," which contain short excerpts of Christmas/Christmastide passages from various British novels, memoirs, and poetry books, with the action taking place in the shire or historical era denoted in the title.

This volume has more "real life" excerpts from diaries/books than usual, and doesn't repeat the usual "mummer's play" scripts as some of the other volumes do. The first essay is about owning a turkey farm that supplies free-range birds for the holidays. There are also an encounter with a ghosts at an old estate, a woman's memories of Christmas at the family's country house, an amusing narrative of an 82-year-old man who goes hunting on Boxing Day and ends up having to be extricated from the mud where he was trapped under his horse (the horse came out okay, too!), the story of a supposed "miracle of light" at Chester Cathedral during a sermon and what really happened, a fictional tale of two feuding families and how the sickness of one family's baby brought the feud to an end, several lively Christmas poems (one told from the POV of the donkey who carried Mary to Bethlehem) as well as one very lugubrious one about the mortality of man for New Year's Eve, and even two excerpts by Americans: a diary entry from Nathaniel Hawthorne, who spent an English Christmas in 1854, and passages from Washington Irving's "Old Christmas" section of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon. Elizabeth Gaskell of Cranford fame is represented, as well as Lewis Carroll, whose "Christmas Greetings," the original inscription for his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is reprinted.

All in all a nice selection for bedtime reading before Christmas!

Cards and Tree Lightings

Season's Greetings from the White House, Mary Evans Seeley

This is a coffee table style book I found at the library book sale about the history of the official White House Christmas card and also the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, which date to the same era. The special production of a Christmas card from the White House started during Calvin Coolidge's presidency, as did the erection of a Christmas tree, originally on the lawn of the White House, as a "National Tree." The cards were created by artists who produced watercolors, gouache, and other media types for the White House—except for most of the cards during the Eisenhower administration, which were painted by the President himself—and then specially made by Hallmark or American Greetings. The lighting of the tree and the President's speech is also covered for each year the President was in office, and later articles detail how the White House itself was decorated and the theme each First Lady chose for that year. There are large photos of each card and something about the artist and how he (there were no female artists chosen, not even in the Clinton era) conceived and created the painting. This itself may be the best part of the book, as the narrative is a bit dry, but learning how the artists perceived their commission and how they then carried it out is fascinating. The book covers the administrations of Coolidge through Clinton, and, as an appendix, selected addresses by the President at the National Tree Lighting are reproduced (such as Roosevelt's famous 1941 sharing of the platform with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was secretly in town for war planning against the Nazis; Churchill's speech is also included) and Reagan's speech after the return of the Iranian hostages after their 444-day ordeal.

Worth finding if you are a White House history devotee or even someone who enjoys knowing how an original artwork is commissioned and then becomes a Christmas card or print.

Christmas Mummers and Ghosts

A Berkshire Christmas, compiled by David Green

This is another in Alan Sutton Publishing's Christmas compilations highlighting poetry, essays, art, and photographs from the different shires of England. This Berkshire volume features excerpts from Jane Austen's Christmas diaries (not very Christmasy to us today; more a commentary on social mores), yet more of the ghost stories that were so popular around the holidays (commemorating the belief that on Christmas the "veil" between the mortal world and the "great beyond" was extremely weak, and ghosts could communicate with the living), "The Christmas Mummers" (a long version of the usual "St. George and the Dragon" play that was a tradition from medieval times), and of course there are nostalgic essays about "Christmas in the olden days" when children were happy to get a gingerbread cookie, an apple, an orange (an exotic and expensive fruit back then!), and nuts in their stocking.

Fictional offerings, too, such as ones from "Miss Read," provide colorful views of village life and the rivalries therein.

In addition, we have an excerpt from Queen Victoria celebrating her still happy early married life at Windsor Castle, a different "Holly and Ivy" song, a Christmas excerpt from The Wind in the Willows and also from Kenneth Grahame's The Golden Age, and much more.

Always a treat!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Many European countries celebrate St. Nicholas Day as the gift-giving day of December and leave Christmas Day for religious observances. Some countries celebrate on both days.

In the Netherlands St. Nicholas rides a white horse and arrives on a ship from Spain. Other St. Nicholas figures ride a donkey. They usually travel with a companion like Zwarte Pete ("Black Peter"), Krampus, Belsnickel, or Pelznichol, who is the actual figure who disciplines the children. When the children swear they will do better, St. Nicholas forgives them and gives them a gift, holding off the Christmas disciplinarian!

St. Nicholas Day - December 6, 2021 - National Today

How St. Nicholas Day Became a Cincinnati Tradition

German Culture--St. Nicholas Day

Heinz History Center: Awaiting the Arrival of Old St. Nick

Leave Your Shoes Out: It's St. Nicholas Day

St. Nick May Have Inspired Santa, But His Own Story is Very Inspiring

Celebrating Sinterklass in the Netherlands

"Christmas"

Christmas, goodwill and good cheer

Comes, they say, but once a year.

Presents, tinsel, food galore,

All the goods come out of store.

Lots of money needed now,

Parents must find it somehow.

Songs on radio, TV,

All add to the spending spree.

Mincepies, crackers, Christmas cake,

Busy mothers try and bake.

Puddings, holly, mistletoe,

Carols sung where e'er we go.

Turkeys, geese and chicken fine,

Port, gin, sherry and white wine.

Open parcels, eat and drink,

Not much time to really think.

Once more mankind intent on bliss,

The hidden beauty tends to miss.

They keynote of it all is love,

Brought to us by the power above,

Beneath, around and in all life,

To overcome problems and strife

E'er present on this planet Earth.

Remember then the divine birth!

Translate the love in kindness true,

In every little act you do.

In every thought and every day,

Help someone on their weary way.

Although we can't all Christlike be,

At least we can each try and see.

. . . . Percy E. Corbett from his collection The Enternal Stairway

The People of Christmas: Washington Irving

If asked what writer did most to extend the spirit of Christmas, most people would probably respond "Charles Dickens." But many Americans might not know that one famous short story writer contributed more to the revival of Christmas in the United States than anyone else: Washington Irving, who's better known today as the author of the spooky Hallowe'en tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and also "Rip Van Winkle." Both these stories appeared in Irving's book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Esquire, but fully five other stories describe a grand Christmas celebration in England. These chapters greatly contributed to the emergence of Christmas as an important holiday in the United States, as the holiday was suppressed in New England almost through the Civil War, and was only a big celebration further south of New York City.

Irving, the youngest child of a Scottish father and English mother, was named after George Washington and met the first President at age six. He was a lackluster student who nevertheless had a mania and a talent for writing. "Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip" were inspired by trips to Tarrytown, NY, and to the Catskill Mountains. His first noted work, Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York, a fictionalized "history" of the Dutch founding of the city, created the myth that St. Nicholas was the patron saint of the city, and, long before Clement Moore put his hand to poetry, wrote "...and, lo! the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children" as well as "...when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe he twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look, then mounting his wagon, he returned over the treetops and disappeared."

Old Christmas (a.k.a. Christmas at Bracebridge Hall)

"How Washington Irving Shaped Christmas in America" 

"How Christmas Became Merry"

The complete The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Esquire

Knickerbocker's History of New York

A Little Boy and a Lion

Once Upon a Wardrobe, Patti Callahan

It's December 1950 in Worcestershire, England. Megs Devonshire is a young woman fascinated by mathematics and facts, with not a lot of room in her world for fancies, who attends Somerville College at Oxford University. The one thing she loves more than numbers and logic is her family, especially her eight-year-old brother George, who was born with a heart condition and spends most of his life in bed. His one consolation is reading, and as the story opens, his soul is on fire from a new book he finished, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Megs sees it as just another storybook, but George requests that since she attends Oxford, where C.S. Lewis teaches at a different college, she must ask him "Is Narnia real?" And if it isn't, where did it come from?

Megs, reluctant to address Lewis on campus, follows him one day to "The Kilns," the home he shares with his brother, and she is found by "Warnie" Lewis, who introduces her to his brother, who prefers to be known as "Jack." But when she asks him about Narnia, instead he starts telling her the story of his life, and while George loves the stories she brings home about "young Jack," she is continually frustrated: why won't he tell her the one thing George wants to know? But even as she tells George the stories, it awakens his creativity and curiosity, and also, with the help of a redheaded fellow student named Padraig Cavender, opens Megs' mind to the unseen mysteries of the world, the ones that can't be explained by maths and facts. In fact, it is Padraig that eventually makes George's Christmas wish come true.

Callahan works a bewitching magic in this book; her vocabulary is pitch-perfect vintage English, and she describes Oxford, the Kilns, and even the Devonshires' cozy house with such warmth that it's like walking out of the wardrobe and arriving in Narnia. It has the same warm, familiar feeling as a Beatrix Potter drawing or the passages about Mole and Ratty in The Wind in the Willows. Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis' stepson, has given this book a big thumbs up, as do I. Enchanting.

First Sunday of Advent

There's a rule here: no Christmas decorations before the First Sunday of Advent.

However, today all the gloves are off!

So I hit the ground running: walked the dog a mile, then put him on a leash on the grass while I took down the Thanksgiving items and put up the wreath on the door, the Santa Claus moon flag, the mailbox cover with the goofy moose on it, and the Christmas greens basket. At this point I let Tucker go inside and then started on the real work: the lights. I managed to get through this practically unscathed.

Decided I wanted to go back to the blue lights this year. Now Saturday at Lowe's I bought six strings of 100 blue lights on discount, but we still had blue lights, so I put those out instead. Thinking I should have put the Lowes lights on instead; some of these are badly faded and the blues don't even match. When I took a photo one string even looked green! Maybe I'll redo. Also put up the Christmas tree with the multicolor lights and the wreath, which has the multicolor seed lights on it. I could probably go out and get a new blue set for the tree, but I prefer the wreath in colors, and don't think I'll find them in blue anyway.

I didn't have a terrible time with the lights, but I do understand why my dad always swore while he did this!

Our neighbor Ashley came out while I was working on this, to take out little Diesel (he's some kind of Lhasa Apso or shih-tzu mix) and Nala, who's some type of Rottweiler cross, and we were chatting for a while. It was just her birthday and she'd been to Colorado as a birthday gift. They had snow and everything. She kept asking me if I needed help. Maybe I was just looking particularly decrepit this morning? I know I didn't feel decrepit; when I put up Christmas decorations I feel about fifteen (except my back didn't hurt this dang bad when I was fifteen).

A year or two ago James bought this set of four LED snowflakes that were on clearance for $7. I put them behind the three log deer as kind of a fun display. Didn't use any of the lighting effects, though; maybe will try them out later. You can twinkle and flash and make them chase, eight different effects in all.

Before dark I had also put all of the candoliers in the windows (blue lights as well; frosted for the upstairs and clear for the library downstairs), the multicolor changing bulb candle in the kitchen window, and the two flickering candles in James' "man cave." These eat up four AA batteries, but they will last through Epiphany, even though the flicker will be minimal by then!

My last step was to turn on the two flickering candles at 5:30 (they have timers and will keep them on for five hours) and put the batteries in the seed lights (this also has a timer that will turn on the same time every night and go off six hours later). And all is lit.

Also did my usual Sunday chores (towels washed, master bath cleaned, meds sorted for the week) and managed to sit and listen to some Christmas music and work on a story. It ended on a sniffle, so I think I achieved my goal. 😀

Cattern Cakes for St. Catherine's Day

St. Catherine of Alexandria was a Christian martyr who was condemned to death on a torture device called "a breaking wheel." "Catherine wheel" fireworks are named after this event, and "cattern cakes" are made in the shape of a swirl or in a spiral shape to commemorate her. The day was once widely observed and the days before and after the holiday were known as Catterntide. In medieval times, Catterntide marked the beginning of Advent.

 

St. Catherine is the patron saint of spinners, weavers, and lacemakers, and the latter used to take their annual holiday on this day.

Here's a British recipe (from "The Simple Things") for Cattern cakes:

275g (9.7oz) self-raising flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

25g (.9oz) currants

50g (1.77oz) ground almonds

2 tsp caraway seeds

200g (7oz) caster ("superfine") sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

100g (3.5oz) butter, melted

1 medium egg, beaten

Sift flour and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl, then add currants, almonds, caraway seeds, and sugar.

Add the melted butter and beaten egg to form a soft dough.

Roll out on floured surface to about 2cm (3/4 inch) thick and cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter. Lay the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Using a sharp knife, make swirls in each cake, then sprinkle on sugar.

Bake for about 10 minutes in an oven already preheated to 190C (375F) or until they are brown and slightly risen. Cool on a wire rack.

❤ French Culture: What Do the French Do on St. Catherine's Day?

 

❤ The Free Dictionary: St. Catherine's Day 

 

❤ St. Catherine and Milliners 

❤ Fish Eaters: St. Catherine

 

St. Catherine was known to be well-educated and a book lover. You can celebrate her feast by buying a book as well!

"A Thanksgiving Poem"

The sun hath shed its kindly light,
   Our harvesting is gladly o’er
Our fields have felt no killing blight,
   Our bins are filled with goodly store.

From pestilence, fire, flood, and sword
   We have been spared by thy decree,
And now with humble hearts, O Lord,
   We come to pay our thanks to thee.

We feel that had our merits been
   The measure of thy gifts to us,
We erring children, born of sin,
   Might not now be rejoicing thus.

No deed of our hath brought us grace;
   When thou were nigh our sight was dull,
We hid in trembling from thy face,
   But thou, O God, wert merciful.

Thy mighty hand o’er all the land
   Hath still been open to bestow
Those blessings which our wants demand
   From heaven, whence all blessings flow.

Thou hast, with ever watchful eye,
   Looked down on us with holy care,
And from thy storehouse in the sky
   Hast scattered plenty everywhere.

Then lift we up our songs of praise
   To thee, O Father, good and kind;
To thee we consecrate our days;
   Be thine the temple of each mind.

With incense sweet our thanks ascend;
   Before thy works our powers pall;
Though we should strive years without end,
   We could not thank thee for them all.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

"The Thanksgivings" (translated from the Iroquois)

We who are here present thank the Great Spirit that we are here to praise Him.
We thank Him that He has created men and women, and ordered that these beings 
      shall always be living to multiply the earth.
We thank Him for making the earth and giving these beings its products to live on.
We thank Him for the water that comes out of the earth and runs for our lands.
We thank Him for all the animals on the earth.
We thank Him for certain timbers that grow and have fluids coming from them for 
      us all.
We thank Him for the branches of the trees that grow shadows for our shelter.
We thank Him for the beings that come from the west, the thunder and lightning 
      that water the earth.
We thank Him for the light which we call our oldest brother, the sun that works for 
      our good.
We thank Him for all the fruits that grow on the trees and vines.
We thank Him for his goodness in making the forests, and thank all its trees.
We thank Him for the darkness that gives us rest, and for the kind Being of the 
      darkness that gives us light, the moon.
We thank Him for the bright spots in the skies that give us signs, the stars.
We give Him thanks for our supporters, who had charge of our harvests.
We give thanks that the voice of the Great Spirit can still be heard through the 
      words of Ga-ne-o-di-o.
We thank the Great Spirit that we have the privilege of this pleasant occasion.
We give thanks for the persons who can sing the Great Spirit's music, and hope 
      they will be privileged to continue in his faith.
We thank the Great Spirit for all the persons who perform the ceremonies on this 
      occasion.

Harriet Maxwell Converse

"The Harvest Moon"

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
  And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
  And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
  Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
  And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
  Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
  With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
  Of Nature have their image in the mind,
  As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer's close,
  Only the empty nests are left behind,
  And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Thanksgiving"

Let us be thankful—not only because
   Since last our universal thanks were told
We have grown greater in the world’s applause,
   And fortune’s newer smiles surpass the old—

But thankful for all things that come as alms
   From out the open hand of Providence:—
The winter clouds and storms—the summer calms—
   The sleepless dread—the drowse of indolence.

Let us be thankful—thankful for the prayers
   Whose gracious answers were long, long delayed,
That they might fall upon us unawares,
   And bless us, as in greater need we prayed.

Let us be thankful for the loyal hand
   That love held out in welcome to our own,
When love and only love could understand
   The need of touches we had never known.

Let us be thankful for the longing eyes
   That gave their secret to us as they wept,
Yet in return found, with a sweet surprise,
   Love’s touch upon their lids, and, smiling, slept.

And let us, too, be thankful that the tears
   Of sorrow have not all been drained away,
That through them still, for all the coming years,
   We may look on the dead face of To-day.

James Whitcomb Riley

Christmas is Coming...The Earliest Recorded Version of "Silent Night"

Everyone knows the story of "Silent Night": the priest who wrote some verses after heading home from a call on a sick parishioner and seeing the beauty of the night, the organ wasn't working because mice chewed on the bellows; priest asks the sexton to set the verses to music—and voila, in 1818 "Silent Night" is born.

Well, that's the legend, anyway, but more convoluted is how the song got from the small Austrian town of Obendorf to the world: most tales credit it to an internationally-known singing group, the Rainiers, who carried the song out of Europe.

This is the earliest recorded version of "Silent Night," by the Haydn Quartet, I believe recorded by the Edison company. You will notice the lyrics are appreciably different from what we sing today, and I wonder if these are closer to the lyrics are closer to what was written by Gruber. It's also interesting to notice the difference in song performance techniques in that era.

The People of Christmas: St. Martin

St. Martin? Has he something to do with Christmas?

 

Well, peripherally!

 

St. Martin of Tours was originally a soldier, and it is ironic that his feast day falls on November 11, the anniversary of the Armistice that ended the first World War. Martin was a cavalryman, well mounted and well clad, but when he came upon a ragged man shivering for lack of clothing in the snow, he sliced his voluminous cloak in half and gave it to the man. That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half cloak and saying to a contingent of angels, "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is now baptized; he has clothed me." Martin converted to Christianity and later became a bishop.

 

His association with Christmas is that the preparatory season of Advent used to be forty days, the same as old Christmastide and the same as Lent, and began on his feast day, Martinmas.

 

In European countries, Martinmas marks the end of the harvest season. Livestock that had multiplied during the summer and which could not be fed during the winter was butchered and preserved by salting or smoking, and farmers would provide cakes and ale for the harvesters. Now that farm work was over, the laborers would attend Martinmas hiring fares to find positions for the winter.

 

Waterfowl are also involved in Martinmas celebrations. As at Michaelmas, a goose is usually eaten as part of the feasting. This alludes to the part of Martin's story where he did almost everything to avoid becoming a bishop, prefering to spread the gospel his own way. Martin hid in a pen of geese as a last resort, but the geese raised such a racket that he was given away. Weather forecasting is associated with the holiday, as it is on Candlemas, or, as it's known in the US, Groundhog Day. According to folklore, if Martinmas is cold and icy, the winter that follows will be milder, all through Candlemas. This is alluded to in a poem:

 

"Ice before Martinmas,

Enough to bear a duck,

The rest of winter,

Is sure to be but muck."

 

In other words, if the water is frozen over so that a duck cannot break through the ice on Martinmas, the remainder of the winter will be mild.

 

Snow on St. Martin's day is greeted with the exclamation: "Here comes St. Martin on his white horse!"

 

St. Martin of Tours 

 

Martinstag and St. Martin 

 

Historic UK: Martinmas

 

Slovenia Incognita: Martinmas 

The Tudor Society: The Feast of Martinmas

"Autumn"

Now, upon the brown earth’s breast
Fall the crimson leaves to rest;
Summer’s done—and laughing Spring—
What does gray-clad Autumn bring?
Autumn, like a gipsy bold
In her cap of red and gold!

Autumn, with her magic brush
Paints each wayside tree and bush;
Gilds the pumpkin at our feet
In the fields of yellow wheat;
Bids the wild duck homeward fly
Through the quiet, hazy sky;
Gaily through the orchard goes;
Tints the apple’s cheek with rose;
And with pleasant fruits and grain
Cheers the waiting world again.
There is loveliness sublime
In the earth at Autumn time—
Autumn, like a gipsy bold
In her cap of red and gold!

Edith D. Osborne, "St. Nicholas" magazine, October 1924