The English do love their Christmas pudding, a holiday dessert that is surrounded by a host of customs some of which are illustrated in this article from the 1920s, illustrated by E.H. Shepherd, famous for his drawings for Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows.
Aficionados of the pudding know that wishes can be made while stirring the ingredients three times, provided that the motions are clockwise. This action is best performed on stir-Up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent (so-called because the scripture reading on that day is “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people”. It was customary to bury a silver sixpence in the mixture with riches and good luck accruing to the dinner who finds it in his portion. (The Royal Mint still makes special ‘Christmas Silver Sixpence’ coins every year for use in puddings.) This evolved to include a variety of other objects which would prophesy the future for those who found it — a thimble or a bachelor’s button would predict an unmarried fate, a ring meant a marriage was in the offing.