Happy Christmas
The live broadcast of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is available on the web site at 9AM CST in the morning.
The British have some wonderful Christmas customs that have survived the incursion of Christianity, especially the Puritan party poopers. Stealing customs from the Celts, Germans, and Scandinavians, they have created a wonderful holiday that I fondly remember from time spent there.
The bird is a European robin that is featured on British Christmas cards, as it is a Winter bird in England, unlike the fair-weather laggard of the same name in America. It is bracketed by holly and mistletoe. All go back to the druids and solstice celebrations.
If you read the Harry Potter books you will get a taste, but not the full effect of a British Christmas. A full-on Christmas dinner is wretched excess to the nth degree – Thanksgiving on steroids.
The BBC has the background on Father Christmas.
2 comments
As I’m married to a European Robin with a December birthday, I have an affinity for that robin as well but I can’t seem to find any depictions of it on US cards or ornaments. Instead we have cardinals everywhere…
We used to get the ‘robin’ cards from people stationed in Britain, and your in-laws would be the best source for you. Actually we have live cardinals down most of the year, but they can range much further north these days.
From the pictures it is evident you had a happy Christmas again this year.