Christmas Every Day

This post is for fans of the High Middle Ages, 1000-1250.

• 1006 English King Aethelred the Unready meets with the Witanagemot in Shropshire where it is decided to pay £36,000 in Danegeld. A supernova, the brightest in recorded history, which first appeared in May, has returned in the skies.

• 1022 French king Robert the Pious and Queen Constance preside over a purge of heretics at Orléans. The accused are clerics including the Queen’s confessor. They will be burnt at the stake, the first time this punishment will be used against heresy.

• 1066 Coronation of William I “the Conqueror” of England. William, as Duke of Normandy, had invaded England and killed King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. The coronation was marred by a bloody misunderstanding. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis explains:

But at the prompting of the devil, who hates everything good, a sudden disaster and portent of future catastrophes occurred. For when Archbishop Ealdred asked the English, and Geoffrey bishop of Coutances asked the Normans, if they would accept William as their king, all of them gladly shouted out with one voice if not in one language that they would. The armed guard outside, hearing the tumult of the joyful crowd in the church and the harsh accents of a foreign tongue, imagined that some treachery was afoot, and rashly set fire to some of the buildings. The fire spread rapidly from house to house; the crowd who had been rejoicing in the church took fright and throngs of men and women of every rank and condition rushed out of the church in frantic haste. Only the bishops and a few clergy and monks remained, terrified, in the sanctuary, and with difficulty completed the consecration of the king who was trembling from head to foot. Almost all the rest made for the scene of the conflagration, some to fight the flames and many others hoping to find loot for themselves in the general confusion. The English, after hearing of the perpetration of such misdeeds, never again trusted the Normans who seemed to have betrayed them, but nursed their anger and bided their time to take revenge.

• 1086 In Constantinople, Patriarch Nicholas III Grammatikos is clamping down on unruly celebrations at Christmas in the great Hagia Sophia church. He complains this behaviour threatens to turn churches “into places of business and a den of thieves and the holy festivals into outrageous gatherings.”

• 1141 In China a peace treaty is signed between representatives of the Song dynasty and the Jurchen dynasty. The terms greatly favour the Jurchen who win territory in northern China and who are to be paid an annual subsidy.

• 1155 Fredrick Barbarossa holds court at Worms where he will punish wayward nobles – he will force a ritual humiliation on the Count-Palatine and ten others by making them carry a dead dog for a mile. In Constantinople, Michael the Rhetor urges the emperor to give to the poor at Christmas time.

• 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket preaches in Canterbury Cathedral and prophesies his own murder (he is killed 4 days later).

I have spoken to you today, dear children of God, of the martyrs of the past, asking you to remember especially our martyr of Canterbury, the blessed Archbishop Elphege; because it is fitting, on Christ’s birthday, to remember what is that peace which he brought; and because, dear children, do not think that I shall ever preach to you again; and because it is possible that in a short time you may have yet another martyr, and that one perhaps not the last. I would have you keep in your hearts these words that I say, and think of them at another time.

• 1202 The diverted Fourth Crusade is wintering in Zara which the knights have conquered for Venice. They are considering a morally-fraught proposition from Byzantine prince Alexius who asks them to put him back on the throne in Constantinople:

Since you are on the march in the service of God, and for right and justice, it is your duty to restore their possessions to those who have been wrongfully dispossessed. The Prince Alexius will make the best terms with you ever offered to any people and give you the most powerful support in conquering the land overseas . . . Firstly, if God permits you to restore his inheritance to him, he will place his whole empire under the authority of Rome, from which it has long been estranged. Secondly, since he is aware that you have spent all your money and now have nothing, he will give you 200,000 silver marks, and provisions for every man in your army, officers and men alike. Moreover, he himself will men, or, if go in your company to Egypt with 10,000 you prefer it, send the same number of men with you; and furthermore, so long as he lives, he will maintain, at his own expense, 500 knights to keep guard in the land overseas.

• 1223 St Francis of Assisi assembles the first live Nativity crèche at Greccio, Italy

The gifts of the Almighty were multiplied at Greccio, and a wonderful vision was seen by a virtuous man who was present at the Mass. He saw the little Child lying in the manger seemingly lifeless, and then Francis, the holy man of God, went up to it and roused the Child as from a deep sleep. This vision was not unfitting, for the Child Jesus, who had been forgotten in the hearts of many, was brought to life again by God’s grace working through his servant Francis and was stamped deeply upon his memory. And when the solemn vigil of Christmas was brought to a close, each one returned home with unspeakable joy. 

The hay that had been placed in the manger at Greccio was kept,  so that the Lord might save beasts of burden and other animals through it. And in truth it happened that many animals throughout that region, beasts of burden and others with various illnesses, were freed from their ailments after eating of this hay. Indeed, even some women who had been labouring for a long time in a difficult birth delivered their children easily when some of this hay was placed upon them; and a large number of persons of both sexes, suffering from various illnesses, obtained the health they sought in the same way.

• 1248 In Nicosia Cyrus, Louis IX of France on crusade entertains an embassy from a Mongol commander in Persia. The envoys are Nestorian Christians. A chronicle declares: The king then called these envoys into his presence and they spoke for some time in their own language. Brother Andrew translated their words into French and told the king what they said: that the greatest prince of the Tartars had been christened at Epiphany and many Tartars with him, even including some of their greatest lords. They also said that Eljigidei would bring his whole Tartar army to support Christendom and the king of France against the caliph of Baghdad, because he wanted to avenge the terrible acts of shame and hatred done to Our Lord Jesus Christ by the Khwarazmians and other Saracens. Their lord, they said, also wanted to tell the king that when spring came he should enter Egypt to attack the sultan of Babylon, and at exactly the same time the Tartars would invade and make war on the caliph of Baghdad, and so they would be able to help each other.

Today’s post about exciting doings on December 25 will concentrate on the Early Middle Ages, 500-1000

• 567 Beginning of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” as decreed by Council of Tours. The days from Christmas to Epiphany on January 6, containing commemorations of St Stephen, St John, the Holy Innocents, the Holy Family, and the Virgin Mary, are united in one festal cycle.

• 597 Augustine of Canterbury baptizes thousands of Saxons in Kent. The Italian monk Augustine was sent to England to evangelize the Anglo-Saxon pagans whose king had married a Frankish princess. She has persuaded her husband Æthelberht to allow Augustine’s mission which will prove successful in starting the conversion of the barbarians who had overrun Britain.

• 683 Emperor Gaozong of the Chinese Tang dynasty is ailing, perhaps dying of a slow poison. On his death two days later, his consort, Wu, will seize power and become the only empress regnant in Chinese history.

• 691 The controversial Church Council of Trullo has banned the giving of Christmas presents.

• 764 The weather is so cold that the Black Sea “froze over hundred miles and over thirty miles, the ice thickness was one cubit [45cm or 18 inches] and it was hard as stone. People walked on it as they were on solid earth. Snow was so abundant that it formed mountains and exceeded 20 cubits [about 9 m or 30’]”.

• 768 The Caliph of Baghdad, Al-Mansur, orders that his physician Jurjis be given three beautiful slave girls to console him for the absence of his old and frail wife. Jurjis was not pleased. “

Pupil of Satan!”, he yelled at his student, “Why did you let them into my house? Go at once and take them back to their owner.” Mounting his mule, he rode with his pupil and the slave-girls to the caliph’s palace and handed the girls over to the eunuch. When al-Mansur heard of the matter, he sent for Jurjis and asked him why he had returned the slave-girls. “Such persons cannot stay in the same house with me,” answered Jurjis, “because we Christians marry one woman only, and as long as she lives, we take no other wife.” A1-Mansür was filled with admiration, and immediately gave orders that Jurjis should be allowed admittance to the quarters of his wives and concubines and that he should serve as their physician. This incident enhanced his prestige even further in the caliph’s eyes.

• 800 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor in Rome

Now when the king, upon the most holy day of the Lord’s birth, was rising to the mass, after praying before the confession of the blessed Peter the Apostle, Leo the pope, with the consent of all the bishops and priests, and of the senate of the Franks, and likewise of the Romans, set a golden crown upon his head, the Roman people also shouting aloud. And when the people had made an end of chanting the Lauds, he was adored by the pope after the manner of the emperors of old. For this also was done by the will of God. For while the said emperor abode at Rome, certain men were brought unto him, who said that the name of emperor had ceased among the Greeks, and that among them the empire was held by a woman called Irene, who had by guile laid hold of her son, the emperor, and put out his eyes, and taken the empire to herself, as it is written of Athalia in the Book of the Kings; which, when Leo the pope and all the assembled bishops and priests and abbots heard, and the senate of the Franks and all the elders of the Romans, they took counsel with the rest of the Christian people, that they should name Charles, King of the Franks, to be emperor, seeing that he held Rome, the mother of empire, where the Caesars and emperors were always used to sit, and that the heathen might not mock the Christians if the name of emperor should have ceased among the Christians.

• 820 Leo V the Armenian, Byzantine emperor, is murdered in Hagia Sophia church. Leo had arrested one of his generals, Michael the Amorian, and condemned him to be thrown into a furnace on Christmas Day but was convinced by his wife that such an act on such a day was wrong. At the Christmas morning service in Hagia Sophia, a group of Michael’s friends attacked the emperor. 

When the Emperor realized that he was being attacked, he went into the sanctuary and seized the thurible by its chains (some say it was the divine cross) with which to ward off the blows of his attackers. But the conspirators attacked all together, not one at a time. He was able to resist for some time by parrying the sword-thrusts with the divine cross, but then he was set upon from all sides, like a wild beast. He was already beginning to flag from his wounds when, at the end, he saw a gigantic person about to deal him a blow. Then, with an oath, he invoked the grace which inhabited the temple and begged to be delivered. The noble was of the Krambonitai family; “This is not the time for swearing oaths, but for killing,” he declared – and dealt him a blow which cut off the arm at the joint, not only severing the member, but also sundering an arm of the cross. Someone also cut off his head, which was already damaged by wounds and hanging down.

The corpse of Leo will be dragged through the Hippodrome. Michael, still in chains is brought from his prison and crowned emperor. Leo’s sons are exiled, castrated, and confined to a monastery as monks.  Ironically, nine years later, Theophilus, the son of the usurper, will order the death of those  those who had conspired to put his father on the throne by the murder of Leo. 

• 858 A meteorological phenomenon is recorded in a German chronicle: On the very night of Christmas and on the following day, there was a violent and recurring earth-tremor at Mainz, and a great pestilence followed. The sea threw up a certain tree, torn out by the roots, which had previously been unknown in the provinces of Gaul: it had no leaves, but instead of boughs it had little tiny branches like blades of grass, thick-spread in places but longer, and instead of leaves it had things shaped like triangles and in colour like human nails or like fishbones, quite tiny and attached to the very tips of the grasslike branches as if they had been stuck on from outside, just like those little things made of various kinds of metals which are fixed on to sword-belts or on to the body-armour of men or horses by way of ornament.

998 In Iceland a bloody Christmas: That winter at Yuletide had Thorolf a great drinking, and put the drink round briskly to his thralls; and when they were drunk, he egged them on to go up to Ulfar’s-fell and burn Ulfar his house, and promised to give them their freedom therefore. The thralls said they would do so much for their freedom if he would hold to his word. Then they went six of them together to Ulfar’s-fell, and took a brushwood stack, and dragged it to the homestead, and set fire therein. At that time Arnkel and his men sat drinking at Lairstead, and when they went to bed they saw fire at Ulfar’s-fell. Then they went thereto forthwith, and took the thralls, and slaked the fire, and the houses were but little burned. The next morning Arnkel let bring the thralls to Vadils-head, and there were they all hanged.

Today we will look at events from Late Antiquity, a period that covers the last couple centuries of the Roman Empire in the West and the early period of the barbarian incursions, so roughly 250-500.

• 283 Emperor Carus on campaign in Mesopotamia dies. His secretary reports his death in this way: “Carus, our dearest emperor, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the camp. The darkness which overspread the sky was so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each other; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from us the knowledge of all that passed in the general confusion. Immediately after the most violent clap of thunder, we heard a sudden cry that the emperor was dead; and it soon appeared that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal pavilion, a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Carus was killed by lightning.” Carus’s demise leaves the throne in the hands of his sons Carinus and Numerian. 

• 303 In Nicomedia, a large number of Christians suffer martyrdom when their basilica is burned down.

• 304 St Anastasia martyr d. Anastasia is murdered in the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian. Her cult became strong in Constantinople and she will be honoured in the second of three masses in Rome on Christmas morning in her basilica at the foot of the Palatine.

• 360 In North Africa, Optatus of Mileve delivers the earliest known Christmas sermon. The text he preaches on is the Massacre of the Innocents, chosen because Christianity was then undergoing trials at the hands of Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor. The sister of St Ambrose is consecrated as a nun by Pope Liberius. 

• 362 Emperor Julian, who has abandoned Christianity to take up the old Roman paganism, publishes his “Hymn to King Helios”, the sun god. 

What I am now about to say I consider to be of the greatest importance for all things “that breathe and move upon the earth” and have a share in existence and a reasoning soul and intelligence, but above all others it is of importance to myself. For I am a follower of King Helios. And of this fact I possess within me, known to myself alone, proofs more certain than I can give. But this at least I am permitted to say without sacrilege, that from my childhood an extraordinary longing for the rays of the god penetrated deep into my soul; and from my earliest years my mind was so completely swayed by the light that illumines the heavens that not only did I desire to gaze intently at the sun, but whenever walked abroad in the night season, when the firmament was clear and cloudless, I abandoned all else without exception and gave myself up to the beauties of the heavens.

• 386 Christmas is celebrated on this date in Antioch over much objection (locals preferred a January 6 date) as John Chrysostom asserts: “I have three convincing arguments to share with you through which we will know for sure that this is the time at which our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word, was born.”  In Cappadocia, Gregory of Nyssa sermonizes on the nativity, saying that it is not by chance that Christ was born on the day of the winter solstice. Nature seems to me to say: “Know, oh man! that under the things which I show thee, mysteries lie concealed. Hast thou not seen the night, that had grown so long, suddenly checked? Learn hence, that the black night of Sin, which had reached its height, by the accumulation of every guilty device, is this day, stopped in its course.”

• 406 Germanic barbarians – Vandals, Suevi, and Alans – invade the Roman empire, crossing the frozen Rhine at Coblenz.

• 409 Emperor Honorius is forced to bribe the rampaging Goths with 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pieces of silver, 4,000 silk tunics, 3,000 scarlet hides, and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Imperial decree abolishes the office of “Magistrate of the Peace” as tending to corruption.

• 441 In his exile in Phrygia, Cyrus Panopolites, the bishop of Cotyaeum,  preaches a 30-second Christmas sermon in a front of a hostile congregation that had murdered four previous bishops. Here it is in its entirety:

Brethren, let the birth of God our Saviour Jesus Christ be honoured with silence, because the Word of God was conceived in the holy Virgin through hearing alone. To him be glory for ever. Amen.

The oration was greeted with great enthusiasm instead of a lynching, and Cyrus went to become a beloved bishop.

• 496 Clovis and 3,00 Franks are baptized as Catholic Christians. [pictured above] Gregory of Tours described the occasion: The public squares were draped with coloured cloths, the churches were adorned with white hangings, the baptistry was prepared, sticks of incense gave off clouds of perfume, sweet-smelling candles gleamed bright and the holy place of baptism was filled with divine fragrance. God filled the hearts of all present with such grace that they imagined themselves to have been transported to some perfumed paradise. Clovis was leader of the Frankish tribe that had occupied most of Gaul. His conversion to Roman Catholicism was a triumph over the paganism of his ancestors and the lure of Arian Christianity to which many other barbarians had been converted.  (Some historians make the case that the baptism took place in 508.) 

Yesterday, we posted this 1937 graphic mystery.

Today, the answer is revealed. “Christmas cheer” being a synonym for alcohol to which Jake was allergic.

In this holiday tribute in song to the give-and-take of personal relationships, Santa Claus is urged to provide a yacht, furs, jewelry and other consumer durables to a young woman who assures him she could be good if only her needs were met. Written by Joan Javits, and Phil Springer, the song was a hit for Eartha Kitt in 1953 (still the best version) and was later recorded by Michael Bublé, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Madonna, the self-anointed Material Girl.

Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me
I’ve been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, an out-of-space convertible too, light blue
I’ll wait up for you dear
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun I’ve missed
Think of all the fellas that I haven’t kissed
Next year I could be oh so good
if you’d check off my Christmas list

Boo doo bee doo

Santa honey, I wanna yacht and really that’s
Not a lot
I’ve been an angel all year
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa cutie, there’s one thing I really do need, the deed
To a platinum mine
Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, I’m filling my stocking with a duplex, and checks
Sign your ‘X’ on the line
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought at Tiffany’s
I really do believe in you
Let’s see if you believe in me

Boo doo bee doo

Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring
I don’t mean a phone
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight

“In the Workhouse, Christmas Day” is a longish poem, much parodied, by George R. Sims (1847-1922), often referred to as “Christmas Day in the Workhouse”. A poor man in the midst of the Christmas feast brought by the wealthy to the parish workhouse angrily refuses to eat his pudding because of the memory of his wife who starved to death rather than go to there last year. The parish had refused him “relief” and told him the House was the only option. Its penultimate verse gives a sample of the bathos the poem invokes:

Yes there, in the land of plenty,
Lay a loving woman dead,
Cruelly starved and murdered
For a loaf of parish bread.
At yonder gate, last Christmas,
I craved for a human life.
You who would feast us paupers,
What of my murdered wife!

The piece of cod that passeth all understanding. In Norway and Norwegian-America lutefisk is the quintessential Christmas dish, prepared from cod soaked in lye and possessing a pungency of aroma that deters many outsiders from appreciating its delights.

A popular Norwegian-American song sung to the tune of “O Tannenbaum” has outlined the attractions of the dish:

Lutefisk, O Lutefisk, how fragrant your aroma,
Lutefisk, O Lutefisk, you put me in a coma.
You smell so strong, you look like glue,
You taste just like an overshoe,
But lutefisk, come Saturday,
I tink I eat you anyvay

Lutefisk, O lutefisk, I put you in the doorvay.
I wanted you to ripen up just like they do in Norvay.
A dog came by and sprinkled you.
I hit him with my overshoe.
O lutefisk, now I suppose
I’ll eat you while I hold my nose.

Here is a light-hearted set of instructions for making this delicacy:

1. Get the lutefisk.
2. Lay it on a pine board.
3. Flatten with a meat cleaver.
4. Salt and pepper it and pour on butter.
5. Bake on board in oven for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
7. Throw out the lutefisk and eat the board.

In December 1937, Judge magazine published a graphic mystery, asking readers to discover who the murderer was. Can you play the detective? The answer will be published tomorrow. 

A Christmas novelty popular in Britain and countries of the Commonwealth. A Christmas cracker takes the form of a small cardboard tube covered in decorative wrap and containing a strip of chemically-impregnated paper which, when pulled, creates a miniature explosive snap. When opened the cracker reveals a paper hat, a motto or joke and a small prize.

The cracker was invented in 1847 by a London confectioner named Tom Smith. The idea began with the “bon bon”, a French candy in a twist of paper. To this Smith added a small motto and then conceived the idea of a noise when throwing a log on a crackling fire. After much experiment Smith came up with the right chemical formula and the cracker was born. He soon discarded the candy and began to call his invention “cosaques”, after the crack of the Cossack whip.

Since the 1840s the Christmas cracker has contained mottoes humorous, romantic, artistic and puzzling with prizes ranging from inexpensive plastic toys to decorated boxes to real musical instruments to expensive jewelry with special lines prepared annually for the Royal Family. It is now an indispensable part of Christmas dinner in millions of houses around the world.