Posted in Jane Austen's World, tagged 19th century christmas, Victorian Christmas on December 25, 2011| 13 Comments »
A Christmas Story, John Everett Millais, Illustrated London News, Dec 20, 1862. (Note the mistletoe)
Christmas is for taking time with family and chats by the fireside, for love and devotion, for celebrating the birth of the Christ child. May all who believe in this holiday have a most special, wonderful day.
Posted in 19th Century England, Christmas, Jane Austen's World, Regency Christmas Traditions, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency World, tagged 19th century christmas, Christmas in the Olden Time on December 24, 2011| 8 Comments »
Dear Readers, Happy Holidays! If you happen to stand under a sprig of mistletoe (these days it is most likely artificial), you will probably hug or kiss the person standing nearest you. This tradition did not appear in English literature until the 18th century. The practice of gathering mistletoe began in the second century BC with the Druids in ancient Britain. They gathered the parasitic plant at the start of winter from the sacred oak as a symbol of hope, peace, and harmony. Sprigs were hung in homes to herald good fortune. The plants were also used for medicinal purposes to promote female fertility and as an antidote for poison. Today we associate mistletoe boughs with Christmas. Gathered on this page are a few quotes from various sources.
Illustrated London News, Dec 20, 1851
The Mistletoe Season
Down South for the past month all the boys and girls who want to earn money have been gathering mistletoe.
Weeks before the Christmas-time, these young people begin to hunt the woods for mistletoe. Having found it, they watch it growing. If they find that some one else watching the same bunch, they announce it is their mistletoe.
The mistletoe grows on the tree, but is no more a part of the tree than the moss with which Northern children are familiar, or vines that climb up the outside of the tree. The mistletoe grows high up in the tree and, if out on a slender branch, must be reached after with a stick and pulled off gently. Even then it is not out of danger, for the beauty is marred if the little plant falls to the ground. – New outlook, Volume 52, edited by Alfred Emanuel Smith, Francis Walton Outlook Publishing Company, Inc., U.S., 1895, p. 1146
Mistletoe sprigs decorated chandeliers, doorways, and ceilings.
A ball of mistletoe, ornamented with ribbons, would be hung around Christmastime, and no unmarried girl could refuse a kiss if she was underneath it. At every kiss, the boy would pluck one of the mistletoe berries, and when there were no more berries, the ball was taken down until the next year. If a girl didn’t receive a mistletoe kiss by the time the ball was taken down, she couldn’t expect to marry in the following year. So the kiss could be a promise of marriage or a symbol of admiration, but it was also a kind of mystical fortune-telling trick. – Apartment Therapy – History of the Mistletoe
Gathering mistletoe in Nomandy
The best time for gathering mistletoe is in November after a few frosts have fallen and before the sap freezes, though it may be gathered and used at any period of the year. When gathered it should at once be spread out to dry as it will mould in a very short time if kept in a box or sack. It is best to dry it in the shade. – United States medical investigator, 1878, p 132.
Kiss under the mistletoe
Mistletoe grew in England and the United States. The common mistletoe of England grew on orchard trees and forest trees, and seldom on oak trees, which is why Druids revered it for its rarity. Mistletoe sapped the strength of apple trees in Brittany and Normandy. There it was gathered for the London market. The American mistletoe grows on deciduous trees, especially the tupelo poplar and red maple, from New Jersey, southern Indiana and east Kansas, to the Gulf. – The Standard reference work: for the home, school and library, Volume 5, edited by Harold Melvin Stanford Standard Education Society, 1921
Mr Fezziwig's ball, John Leech, A Christmas Carol by Dickens
By the Victorian era, there was scarcely a house or cottage that did not have mistletoe at Christmas time.
Down with the rosemary, and so,
Down with the baies and Mistletoe;
Down with the holly, ivie, all,
Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas Hall.
19th c. mistletoe gatherer
The damsel donn’d her kirtle sheen;
The hall was dress’d with holly green,
Forth to the wood did merry men go
To gather in the Mistletoe.”
– English botany, or, coloured figures of British plants, Volume 4, By James Sowerby G. Bell, 1873
Kiss under the mistletoe
Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen Blog, Jane Austen's World, Old English Customs, Regency Customs, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency society, Regency style, tagged 19th century christmas, Early Christmas decorations, Regency Christmas on December 17, 2010| 10 Comments »
“Heigh ho! sing heigh ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.”
– William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Decorating one’s house with natural boughs has been a Christmas tradition since Celtic times. Boughs of holly with their bright red berries were especially coveted. (Read Mythology and the Folklore of Holly.) One understands how easily people in rural areas could obtain these bright green leaves, but what about those who lived in London? This image of a holly cart pulled by a donkey provides a solution.
Note that the customer purchases a small amount of boughs. Christmas decorations in the 19th century were modest to none compared to ours. In this 18th-century print of a coffee house or chocolate shop, one can see small leaves of holly placed in each window pane and a bough hanging from the center of the ceiling. (One cannot imagine that mistletoe would be hung in a public setting.)
Bowles and Carver print, London. Circa 1775
In this image of a lavish family dinner by Cruikshank, not a single bough of holly decorates the room. Most likely a wreath had been hung on the front door or some boughs had been hung from the ceiling. With holly hard to obtain in metropolitan areas, one imagines that the spare use of decorations was as much from necessity as from tradition.
Image: Art.com
This image by Cruikshank of a family celebrating Christmas during early Victorian times shows a few boughs inserted into the chandelier, a roaring fire, and the Christmas pudding about to be served to the hostess. This year, I have taken the Regency approach to decorating my house, emphasizing the season with just a few well placed decorations. And I love it.
Other Christmas Posts on this blog:
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The neglected tombstone found in an overgrown burial ground.
Rear Admiral Charles Austen CB
Died off Prome, the 7th October 1852, while in command of the Naval Expedition on the river Irrawady against the Burmese Forces, aged 73 years.”
The grave after restoration
Read the full article in The Sunday Times. June 27, 2021.
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