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A Very Pepysian Christmas
by Marlo Avidon (@marloavidon.bsky.social) In seventeenth-century England, Christmas services could be a drawn-out affair. For Restoration diarist Samuel Pepys, the lengthy 1667 Christmas Eve service in the Royal Chapel proved especially tedious; his attempt to combat his boredom led to one of the most shocking passages of his Diary. After arriving at the Royal Chapel and…
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Holiday Gifting and Social Power in Early Modern England
By Marlo Avidon (@marloavidon.bsky.social) While today, families gather around the tree to open gifts on Christmas morning, in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England Christmas Eve and Day were a comparatively solemn affair. That did not mean, however, that families, friends, and their patrons did not exchange gifts over the holidays! Rather than Christmas morning, New Year’s…
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Hannukah Bushes? The Twentieth Century Origins of the Festival of Light
For many Jewish families today, Hannukah, or the festival of light, is a holiday season highlight. It is full of fried potato pancakes known as latkes, spinning tops called dreidels, and the exchange of gifts over eight nights marked by the lighting of the Menorah. While the miraculous origins of Hannukah trace back to the…
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On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas
Gifts are about as Christmasy a tradition as one can have — to give and share is at the heart of the enterprise (be it Dickensian or Coca-Colanian). But what is the appropriate juncture at which said gifts and sharables are to be gifted and shared? For most of the Anglophone world, the answer might…
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Market Day
At the turn of the hour when the days start lengthening again, the Christmas Markets come! Of all German contributions to Winterval festivities this one is perhaps the most unusual. While Tannenbaums and advent wreathes and a host of Christmas curios have arguably rather ancient origins, the mid-winter market is a decidedly more recent affair.…
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