The Medieval Christmas

by Sophie Jackson

Overview

Medieval Christmas – roaring fires, Yule logs, boar's head on a platter and carols. So many of our best-loved traditions have their origins in the medieval period that it would be impossible to imagine the season without holly and ivy, carol singers calling from door to door and a general sense of celebration in the face of the harshest season. Sophie Jackson investigates the roots of the Christmas celebration in this beautifully illustrated book. She offers guidance for re-creating elements of the medieval Christmas at home, tips on decorations, instructions for playing medieval games and recipes for seasonal dishes. Fascinating facts about some of our most cherished customs, such as the nativity crib, are unearthed, as are some that are less well known – wassailing the apple trees, the ritual beating of children on 28 December and the appointment of a Lord of Misrule and a boy bishop. Lively and entertaining, this book illuminates the medieval Christmas, showing how the traditions of the Middle Ages continue to delight us today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750956086
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	10/07/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Sophie Jackson has worked as a freelance writer specialising in historical subjects. She is widely published in magazines across the UK and US, including the Daily Mirror, Antiques Info Magazine, Your Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly. She is the author of Churchill’s Unexpected Guests, Churchill’s White Rabbit and SOE’s Balls of Steel, among many others.

Read an Excerpt

The Medieval Christmas

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By Sophie Jackson

The History Press

Copyright © 2013 Sophie Jackson
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5608-6

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CHAPTER 1

Mummers, Mysteries and Miracles

The History of Mystery and Miracle Plays

The medieval mystery and miracle plays performed at Christmas re-enacted Bible stories and were among some of the most popular entertainments of the Christmas season. They were probably based on an earlier form of religious theatre, the liturgical drama that first appeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries as a means of helping ordinary people learn biblical tales, consisting of very short plays in the vernacular as well as Latin, which gave the common man a chance to understand what was happening.

These early medieval plays were originally performed by monks, but problems soon arose with some of the subjects; for instance, the story of the Massacre of the Innocents posed the question of whether it was right for a monk to represent the evil King Herod. Was it even spiritually sound to portray such a vile act within the walls of a church? The liturgical dramas never went further than the original few short lines, but they served to open up a whole new dimension of entertainment. Secular performers had already started to develop new plays, so the atmosphere was ripe for the mystery and miracle plays to flourish.

As far as we know, the oldest such play was written by Abbot Geoffrey of St Albans in 1110. Taking St Katherine as its subject, it was performed in Dunstable, where the Abbot taught. In the years that followed, many mystery and miracle plays were created, and eventually the whole story of the Bible – from the Creation to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and, finally, Doomsday – was enacted.

The difference between the two types of play was that the mysteries described the stories of the Old and New Testaments, including those of Cain and Abel, Noah's flood and the Nativity. The miracles, on the other hand, told of the lives of the saints. The miracle plays could be performed in conjunction with the mysteries or as separate short pieces, as was the case with the one about St Katharine.

Pageants

The mystery plays were gathered together in cycles, which related the whole of the Bible. The entire cycle was performed in one day, usually close to Christmas or around Easter, the two most important Christian dates in the church calendar. At Christmas time, they brought life to the dark nights of winter and helped celebrate the festival. The plays were originally performed in churchyards, and large groups of people would gather outside the church to watch. But the actors tended to get carried away, and the plays became coarser, ribald and in some parts lewd. In the thirteenth century, many of the clergy were no longer prepared to tolerate what they saw as a debasing of the scriptural message, and the plays moved out of the churchyards and into the streets.

The actors now had no stage, but that did not stop them. They constructed two-tier wagons called pageants that could be transported to a given place in the town or city, the two levels of the stage providing performance space, with the ground in front of the wagon forming a third stage. Each Bible story had its own scenery, and this was fixed to the wagon. In cities such as Chester and York, each city guild created a pageant and acted out one Bible story on its own wagon. Thus it was even more important for the plays to be staged on pageants so they could process through the streets, stopping at a designated place, performing their stories and then moving on so that the next wagon could take their place and its occupants perform their own plays.

The place where the wagons stopped often depended on who could pay the most for the privilege of having the actors perform outside their houses. The wealthier merchants and townspeople preferred to watch the plays from the comfort of their homes – and considering how long the cycle could last this is hardly surprising. In York, the plays started at four thirty in the morning and did not finish until dusk. Those who could not afford to purchase the privilege of having a performance outside their homes would have to stand in the streets and watch, a brave act in the middle of winter.

The Actors

In liturgical dramas, monks had acted out the Bible stories; in the mystery and miracle plays, secular players took the roles and performed on the pageants. Any group of people might come together to organise a play for Christmas, but in the cities the guilds took over the running of the performances. The large guilds could afford to put on bigger and grander shows because they taxed their members. This tax was used to cover the costs of scenery, costumes and, in some cases, the hiring of the actors, though in other guilds the members took the roles. Actors were paid for performing, though deductions were made for poor acting or forgetting lines.

Despite the guilds' involvement in the plays, there was still a stigma attached to entertainers. Though some exceptions were known, most actors were considered the lowest level of society, little better than beggars, cripples or vagabonds. Though this attitude had softened somewhat by the thirteenth century, acting was not considered an honourable occupation, and despite having its own liturgical dramas, the church frowned upon it. Monks and members of the clergy were strictly forbidden to take part in any of the plays enacted in streets or houses during festivals. Those who were found doing so were punished.

The actors were mainly amateurs but threw themselves into their parts. When Father Nicholas de Neuchâtel-en-Lorraine played Christ in Metz, France, in 1437, he almost died on the cross.

There was often little money, unless the guilds supplied the funds, and the players often performed in their everyday clothes. Such costumes as there were would most likely have been based on the fashions of the time, though some characters, such as God, would have required special robes and a mask. The modern York plays are performed in fourteenth-century costume to be in keeping with the original actors' dress. The York Cycle is but one example of medieval mystery plays. In total, forty-eight plays were performed during the cycle, originally acted by different guilds. Imagine all these plays being performed one after another on huge wagons adorned with scenery and actors in fancy costume – it must have been an extraordinary sight and one that kept the audience enthralled the entire day. The pageant wagons were housed on Pageant Green, though they no longer are today. On a day near Christmas, the great wagons were drawn by horses away from the green and rumbled through the city, making twelve stops at each of which the actors performed their short plays.

Outside the cities, few would have known much about the elaborate mystery cycles unless they happened to have visited a place where they were being performed. For poorer villages and hamlets, another form of entertainment enlivened the dark winter. It was less expensive and did not require vast stages or a whole day to perform. This less grand form of acting had its own class of actors, the mummers, and was very different from the mystery plays of York and Chester.

Mumming

Mumming is an ancient form of street theatre. The practice began in Britain before the coming of Christianity and was a fertility rite marking the death of the summer during winter and its rebirth in the spring. The word 'mumming' or 'mummers' (meaning 'the performers') is controversial in origin. There are two possible explanations. It may derive from the German word Mumme, which means 'mask' or 'masker', suggesting the word did not come into use in England until after the Germanic tribes invaded in the fifth century and that before this the players would have had another name. The other theory is that the word comes from the Greek momme, meaning 'frightening mask' or 'ogress'. Both names refer to the masks the mummers wore to disguise themselves during a performance. This disguise was important for it was believed that if a mummer were recognised, the magic of the ritual would be broken and might even prevent the sun from returning. In some places, it is still important that mummers are not recognised while performing their plays.

Because of the timing of the ancient ceremony in mid-winter, when the days were at their shortest and the sun's rays weak, mumming has become associated with Christmas. The medieval mummers would start their performances around Halloween and continue through to Easter. The association with Christmas happened when Christianity reached Britain, and pagan ritual and practice were given new meanings that fitted into a Christian context and were assimilated into the new religion. So the popular ancient rituals of mumming that enacted the death of the sun and its rebirth in the spring were retained.

By the Middle Ages, mumming activities had already lost some of their original significance. People were no longer as afraid as their primitive ancestors had been that the sun would not return, though they still continued the old practices just to be certain. The mummers were turning into actors, their performances now as much for entertainment as to follow ancient ritual. The Anglo-Saxons might have used some of the mumming rituals as training for their warriors, but as the medieval period progressed, so gradually mumming became solely a Christmas entertainment, and its original purpose and meaning were obscured.

Medieval Christianity brought new characters to the mummers' plays. Of these, Beelzebub was the most common, and he frequents most modern versions of the old plays. There was also Father Christmas or, as he was sometimes known in medieval times, Old Man Winter, who would appear wielding a club and shouting – certainly not a Father Christmas we would recognise. The most important new character, one who transformed the part of the hero and altered the nature of some of the mumming, was St George. He came to fame after supposedly killing a dragon in Egypt around the third century, and his life was described in a book entitled Famous Historie of the Severn Champions of Christendom that included six other champions.

St George became a staple of medieval mumming plays, sometimes accompanied by his dragon, though this was a difficult and expensive prop to make; hence, the dragon became more symbolic, and his place was taken by other villains. After the crusades, this became the Turkish Knight.

St George was eventually replaced in later periods by Prince George or King George, but his Christian influence on the art of the mummers was not forgotten. In modern mumming, St George is beginning to reappear.

The Three Types of Mummers' Plays

There are several different forms of mummers' plays, but not all performers who went under the name of mummers actually acted. Some simply cavorted about the streets in animal masks, occasionally singing carols and often visiting houses to collect money or a drink of ale. These performers could be little more than beggars and sometimes troublemakers. The true mummers performed three types of mummers' plays, which were the Hero/Combat, the Wooing Ceremony and the Sword Dance. All treat the themes of death and rebirth, each in a different way, and to understand the mummers it is necessary to understand the differences between their plays.

The Hero/Combat plays are the best known. The mummers stand in a circle in the middle of their audience and proceed to speak lines, which are rhymed. They start with the prologue, introducing the characters who are about to perform. (The main mummer, such as St George, may read this piece and step forward as he does so.) Though the actors usually form a circle, some of the plays contain directions for entrances and exits just as for a play performed on a stage in a theatre. In this case, as the introduction is spoken, the main characters join the speaker in readiness to perform. After the prologue, the hero often speaks, his speech usually making little sense other than to act as a challenge to his opponent, the villain. This villain can be any character – in the case of St George, it could be a symbolic dragon or the Turkish Knight.

The challenges result in a sword fight. This can be highly ritualised, like the Sword Dance Ceremony, but always ends in the death of one of the combatants, as often the hero as the villain. Then follows the lament, performed by either the hero or another character. The lamenter regrets the death of the combatant and calls urgently for a doctor to come and revive the fallen man. A quack doctor then appears and attempts to resuscitate the dead man in a scene that is comic and often forms the main part of the play. Before his cure is even carried out, the doctor recites a list of the diseases he has cured and the places he has been and in general blows his own trumpet in a long speech before he finally produces a bottle of medicine, which he gives to the corpse. Miraculously, the strange potion revives the fallen man. But this is not the end of the play. Occasionally, there is another fight, sometimes with different combatants, and if one dies he may not be revived as before. The play concludes with the arrival of superfluous characters who appear to have no real function in the plot but have nevertheless become a part of the ritual. Most common among these late arrivals is Beelzebub. He appears just in time for the ending of the play with a seasonal song.

The Wooing Ceremony is similar to the Hero/Combat in that it, too, has rhymed speeches and a death and revival scene. However, the story, in as much as there is one, is very different. The play has two versions. One, known as the Recruiting Sergeant play, has a love triangle as its theme. A farm labourer is courting a lady, but when he joins the army he abandons his love, and she transfers her affections to the character known as the Fool, marrying him instead. There follows a scene with an Old Dame and the ever-popular Beelzebub. They argue, and Beelzebub knocks down the Old Dame, killing her. Once again, the doctor is summoned, this time to cure the Old Woman, which he proceeds to do in a comic scene.

The second version of the drama is known as the Wooing Ceremony; in this version, several suitors court the same lady and try to win her hand. There may be fighting among these suitors, and the doctor has to be summoned to revive those who die. When none of the suitors succeeds in convincing the lady to marry, she instead falls in love with the Fool. The play then proceeds as before.

The Sword Dance differs from the previous plays in that it has little acting, though rhymed lines are spoken. Instead, it revolves around the sword dance. There are two separate categories of sword dance that are unique to certain areas of Britain. Durham and Northumberland have the Rapper dance, while Yorkshire and South Durham have the Long Sword dance. Both involve forming a circle while the mummers grasp their neighbours' swords, forming a rigid ring during the Long Sword dance but a moveable ring during the Rapper dance.

The dance begins with the leader of the mummers, who sings an introduction, naming the performers individually. He walks in a circle followed by the men, as he names them, until his song is finished, and the mummers form a circle, each holding his neighbour's sword. The dance begins with the men jumping over or dancing under the held swords, never letting go their grip. They dance around and weave through the swords until a pattern is formed with the weapons, usually representing a five-pointed star in the middle, depending on the number of dancers. The name of this linkage of swords can be star, rose, nut or lock. The shape is displayed to the audience, the mummers moving round in a circle with the swords above their heads. At a given point, another mummer enters the ring, and the knot of swords is placed over his head and around his neck. The dancers then move in unison to lift the swords back over his head. Sometimes the trapped mummer wears a hat that is removed during this process. When the swords are removed, the mummer is 'killed', and then a doctor is called upon to revive him. This final enactment of trapping the mummer occurs only in the Long Sword dance, where the blades are actually made of wood and it is quite safe for the mummer to put his head in the knot. The Rapper dance, which dates from much later, uses blades of sprung steel, which are deadly sharp, and often only the mummer's hat is trapped in these dances.

Sword dances were essential to the mummers' plays and a part of the popular medieval Christmas traditions. They formed, with the other two types, an integral part of the seasonal festivities and one that carries on to this day.

The Mummers and their Disguises

In pre-Christian times, it was imperative that the mummers could not be identified. They would blacken their faces and possibly put on simple masks or the fringed caps that were later used in medieval mummery. The disguise was needed so that ordinary men could be transformed into magicians capable of summoning back the sun for another year. The magic could be broken if anyone called out to someone they recognised: the spell would fail, and the sun would not return. As time went on, the earlier perceived danger that lay in revealing a dancer's identity diminished. It was still considered bad manners for a person to make it known that he recognised a mummer, and the performers still wore their costumes, but it was now for the sake of maintaining the mystery of the performance and not to enact an ancient rite.

The evidence for medieval mumming costumes is limited. Perhaps one of the simplest would have been a tall headdress from which rags or ribbons were suspended so as to conceal the face. This would form a fringe around the head and might hang in tiers. The medieval mummers would have used old clothes worn beyond repair and other ragged items that could be cut into strips and sewn to a cone or cap on the head. They might also have attached knots or rosettes to their clothes, and they would still have blackened their faces to heighten their disguises.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Medieval Christmas by Sophie Jackson. Copyright © 2013 Sophie Jackson. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Introduction,
Chapter One Mummers, Mysteries and Miracles,
Chapter Two Wild Boar and Wassail,
Chapter Three Carols for the Common Man,
Chapter Four Green Magic,
Chapter Five Seasonal Saints,
Chapter Six Smoking Fools and Boy Bishops,
Chapter Seven St Nicholas, the Medieval Father Christmas,
Bibliography,
Plate Section,
Copyright,