As the Yuletide festivities approach and the traditions of the season commence, let’s look back on the history behind some of them throughout East Anglia.
The Royal Family has been spending Christmas at Sandringham since the end of the 19th Centurybut in fact, it wasn’t the first time the reigning monarch ventured to our region to celebrate. 900 years ago in 1121, King Henry spent his Christmas Day at Norwich Castle, then a royal residence, and dined on a luxurious menu.
Served as an early lunch, the first course was typically a soup, broth or weak stew with some meat at the bottom. The second course might be a vegetable stew of leeks and onions. Then finer meat delicacies such as fish (salmon, herring and trout) and seafood (eels, oysters and crab) with meats roasted on a spit over an open fire.
Besides legs of beef and mutton, there was veal, venison, goose, capon, suckling pig, duck, plover, lark and crane, to name a few. Sauces added more flavour to many dishes and were thickened with breadcrumbs, which contained wine or vinegar, herbs and spices.
And often Dessert consisted of thick fruit custards, pastries, nuts, cheese and luxury fruits like oranges, figs and dates.
Turkey originally came from the Americas and was not found on English tables until the late 16th century. They were eaten instead of cows and chickens because the farmers needed their cows more for their milk and needed their chickens for the eggs, which back then were more expensive than they are today.
Festive celebrations have been wrecked by plague throughout East Anglia and ruined the festivities of 1348, 1578, 1602 and 1665.
Christmas 1645 was completely cancelled. All activities, including dancing, seasonal plays, games, singing carols, cheerful celebrations and especially drinking were banned by the Puritan-dominated Parliament of England led by Oliver Cromwell. From this point until the Restoration, Christmas was officially illegal until Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660.
On Boxing Day 1606, the first known performance of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ was performed before the court of King James I at Whitehall in London. Such performances were common a Yuletide and not the curious British institution called Pantomime that we know today.
Pantomime literally means “all kinds” of “mime”. It is generally acknowledged that the origins lie within the 16th-century Italian theatrical form of ‘commedia dell’arte’ - troupes of professional actors working from a synopsis of a story, not the complete script, with improvised situations and dialogue and characters with names such as Harlequin, Columbine, Pantaloon and Arlecchino.
By the time it crossed from Europe and developed in England in the mid-18th century, the shows involved scenes from classical mythology and fairy tales and children’s stories. This format became quite standard for many decades – first the play, quite often Shakespeare, then a dance, possibly some music, and then the pantomime.
However, by the start of the 20th century, the family show became separate from the other performances and focused on children’s Fairy Stories such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. With storylines of good v evil, colourful, eccentric costumes, slapstick comedy, gender role reversal and audience participation, the Panto is now performed throughout our region in large theatres to small village halls.
Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. It was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
The custom of displaying Christmas trees was brought to Britain in the late eighteenth century by Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, although it was a yew tree rather than a fir that was used. Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, is usually credited with having introduced the decorated tree in England in 1840, along with ornaments in bright colours and reflective materials that would shimmer and glitter in the candlelight, and finally a variety of tree-toppers: the star, representing the Star of Bethlehem, an angel (the Christmas angel), or a finial of some description.
Would you fancy plunging into the sea on Christmas or Boxing Day? You don’t have to be in Australia to do so. One of the more bizarre East Anglian festive traditions, followed by thousands of people in the region every year, is joining in a Christmas swim in aid of charity. Increasingly, swimmers are being invited to wear costumes for the occasion.
If the bitterly cold North Sea does not appeal, though, the less brave among us may prefer to go along as spectators to Hunstanton, Cromer, Southwold, Lowestoft and Felixstowe. It’s a good excuse to work off that extra helping of pud!
