As I partly let slip when twittering in the market place
the other day, I am planning several Christmastide educational and creative endeavours
for next year's celebrations. To this aim, around preparations for the Academy
opening I persevere with antiquarian investigations – and what better
employment at this time of year! I shall primarily incorporate my discoveries
within talks, walks, and workshops; in academic publications and presentations;
and I hope in more publically accessible texts, such as the pamphlet Old Christmas on which I now work (as mentioned
previously). But for now, perhaps my reader might be interested in occasional tid-bits
from my findings, and work-in-progress.
In my current writing I consider the
widely held beliefs and assertions surrounding continuity from the Roman and Medieval eras, and explore the influence
of early modern
and industrial
period antiquarians upon our understanding of ‘Old Christmas’ in
Britain.[ii]
One article pays particular attention to the
almost universal assertion within popular
works that the origin of the ‘modern’ Christmas lies in the pagan Roman
festival of Saturnalia. This
primarily agricultural feast (typically involving over indulgence), merriment
(usually including pranks and role-reversal), and present giving, was initially
observed on December 17th and 18th, and later celebrated
over five days. The festival is of interest to antiquarians of my time –
including the redoubtable Edward
Gibbon Esq.[iii]
Some consider another Roman cult (with somewhat similar celebrations) as a more likely candidate – that of sol invicta (the ‘unconquered sun’), whose ‘birth’ was marked by
the winter solstice, Brumalia, on the 25th December. It is usually claimed that with ‘Christianisation’
of the empire in the 4th century, the church chose to adopt this
date for celebrating the birth of Jesus,[iv] providing direct continuity of British Christmas festivities from this
time, to this day.
However, while my 18th century antiquarian self might allow
such a conclusion (though may start to see alternative viewpoints emerge in the
following decades), from the perspective of my 21st century
archaeologist self, I cannot escape the contention that many claims of continuity are largely based upon assumptions.
[v]
I will elaborate within future
publications, but for now shall very briefly highlight several important issues
with regard to notions of continuity. This forms part of the well-attested argument that, by
considering the work of antiquarians over several centuries, it is clear that
interest in (and thus expansion of knowledge about) the past was (and is) largely
intertwined with the various social and political circumstances and concerns of
the day.[vi]
Over time customs are selectively appropriated, modified, and discarded when no
longer relevant, giving rise to new traditions that are most ‘meaningful’ at
particular times, in particular places.
The first point is that such arguments
rely upon homogenous ‘Roman’ culture – which any study conducted at various
scales of analysis (the household, community, region, and – where appropriate,
state or nation) reveals was clearly not the case.[vii]
It also assumes that the rites described within written sources relating
particular parts of the empire, at particular times, may readily apply to the
British isles – which again is not necessarily (or often) the case.
Secondly (but following the same line of
reasoning), until relatively recently, while the church provided an
(inter-)national calendar of festivals – of course including Christmas, the
actual form of associated rituals often varied significantly in different
places, at different times, with much revelry taking place outside the sphere
of the church. Such diversity might be expected without the mass media of
recent centuries to aid the sense of shared culture across a wide area:[viii]
for many centuries after the ‘fall’ of Roman, learning and the written word was
concentrated within religious establishments, and primarily confined to
ecclesiastical concerns.[ix]
Thirdly (though still connected with the
previous issues), these assumptions seem to largely ignore that extensive
changes that took place during and after the Middle Ages. Clerics had long been
interested in the past (notably the work of Gildas in the 6th
century, Bede in the 8th, and Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th);[x]
but with the Renaissance, interest
in classical culture and origins grew. Antiquarianism flourished during the early modern period,
with greater attention paid to the medieval era. In breaking from the Church of
Rome, the Tudor monarchy looked to the Germanic settlers for political and
religious foundations,[xi]
while defense against invaders from the Continent, and colonial expansion, were
significant in forming England (and later, Britain) as a nation.[xii]
By bringing together, and committing to paper, various local customs,
‘national’ traditions were born. (I have considered similar issues here, with regard to
‘Halloween’ traditions).
With increasing urbanisation and
industrialisation in the 18th and early 19th centuries, conflict
after conflict, social change (with the development of a ‘middle class’), and
economic strife, many Christmas traditions are out of place, and fall into
disuse. The sense that declining ‘ancient’ traditions will soon be lost – the
dying embers of which are seen as sustained by ‘simple’ people, in rural
regions, and preserved for posterity within antiquarian collections – provokes nostalgia
for the supposedly static and ‘uncorrupted’ traditions of a semi-fictional past:
‘Merrie England’ (spanning
the 15th to 17th centuries). Antiquarians continue attempts
to ‘save’ ‘ancient’ rituals at risk of extinction, but those devoid of meaning to
the society of the day go ‘out of practice’.[xiii]
During the Victorian era,
some traditions are adapted; others forgotten; and others still (famously
including the Christmas tree, card, and cracker) are added to the corpus of
popular customs.
‘Yule’ –
a festival associated with the early medieval Germanic and Nordic ‘peoples’,
who are credited with bringing winter traditions to this land that remain a
part of modern Christmas celebrations – provides an interesting case when
considering the putative ‘ancient’ origins of ‘British’ Christmas traditions. We
see both the selective appropriation of
certain customs (perhaps more extensively
at the end of the early modern period); and their adaptation and rejection with
urbanisation and industrialisation during and after the 19th
century. But we can also more general
similarities between these customs, and those of many societies and cultures (Christian and pagan) in Northern and
Western Europe over the centuries –
including those of the late Roman empire (again both pagan and Christian).[xiv]
The celebration of a mid-winter festival
is widespread – past and present, which, though diverse (and not directly
related), incorporate a range of broadly comparable rituals. This frequently
includes rites surrounding warmth, light, and food; communal festivities,
frequently boisterous and indulgent; and although often taking place within a
religious calendar, not necessarily involving sustained religious devotion.[xv]
The extent and endurance of festivals at this time of year suggests their
significant social (and perhaps psychological) value.
The aim of this post has not been to
dismiss any notion of continuity with regard to Christmas customs; instead, it has
been to show that rather than monolithic and unchanging, ‘traditions’ are living
performances that shape, and are shaped by, our understanding of both past and
present, and expectations for the
future. By joining in, we invest a part of our selves, for succeeding
generations.
A Happy Christmas, one and all!
Notes
[i] Image:
Google
[ii]
There are some notable exceptions, which I shall elucidate in subsequent work.
[iii] Perhaps some of my readers will be familiar with Gibbon,
though his twelve-volume work of the 1770s –
80s, The History of the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire. In this work (Vol. I, Chapter XV, Part III) he speaks
of the festival in discussing the progress of the Christian religion.
[iv] Returning
to Gibbon’s History, in Vol. II he
suggests that without knowledge of the true date of Christ’s birth, the Church
adopted the date of the pagan festival that celebrated the birth of the sun.
[v] In
the final decade of the 20th century, and first decade of the 21st
century, I specialised in the late Roman and early medieval periods, in
particular examining the prospect of cultural continuity and change, especially
with regard to tradition and ritual, and local, regional, national, and
imperial identities. My doctoral research examined (among other topics) the
significance of Christianity and Roman culture in the formation of ‘British’
identity and maintenance of power; the bibliography has references to research
on the spread of Christianity in Roman and early medieval Britain. My work on
the late pre-Roman period to 5th century is available here,
and reference to my work on the 6th – 7th centuries, here.
For the last six years, I
have concentrated on post-Medieval culture and society,
including consideration of the significance of the past (and the role of antiquarians – hence the
‘Academy’ endeavour!), and the importance of history in the formation of local
communities, regions, and nations. This includes research projects that examine
domestic life through standing buildings and surface artefact deposits (through
Living in the Past Community
Archaeology Project); family life and gender (though the Past Sense Project); folk magic
(through Malefic Midlands
Project); and various independent research as part of my teaching work, as
highlighted on this site, and my other freelance website,
and blog. References to
my academic work are available here.
[vi]
For a more detailed discussion of this topic, see e.g. Ronald Hutton (2001) Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (OUP).
[vii] Much work has been done in this field: see the bibliographies
of the works cited above.
[viii]
See Benedict Anderson (2006) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the
Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso.
[ix]
It may be difficult for modern readers to imagine the investments needed in
order to write prior to the development of paper and the printing press, with
the production of velum from animal skins being most time-consuming and costly.
[x] Gildas:
The Ruin and Conquest of Britain; Bede Ecclesiastical
History of the English People; Geoffrey of
Monmouth: Histories of the Kings of Britain; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
[xi] An interesting summary on this topic is Sue Content
and Howard Williams (2010) ‘Creating the Pagan English, From the Tudors to the Present Day’, in
Martin Carver, Alex Sanmark and Sarah Semple (eds.) Signals of Belief in Early England. Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited.
Oxbow, pp. 181-200.
[xii]
While I have argued elsewhere (see the references provided in note v) that a small
body of elites may have held some notion of ‘British-ness’ (as defined in
relationship to the Roman empire, and in the formation of post-Roman states in
opposition to other ethnic groups), the concept of widespread British identity essentially
develops during and after political change in the early modern era. See Linda
Colley (2009) Britons: Forging the Nation
1707–1837. Yale University Press.
[xiii]
There works of the early 19th century – both for popular consumption
(within magazines and newspapers), and academic interest (in the journals of
the numerous antiquarian societies) – that seek to record declining traditions
are too numerous to mention here. I shall outline various material in future publications.
[xiv]
See e.g. Margaret Baker (2007) Discovering Christmas Customs
and Folklore: A Guide to Seasonal Rites Throughout the World. Shire.
[xv]
See note vi.
