Awesome Advent: Day 25

Awesome Advent Day 25: Christmas Conclusion

Through the past 25 days, with the help of HH, we’ve taken you through both some festive things people have done throughout time and some horrible happenings going on before Christmas. For many Christmas is the time of giving, just as the Kings of medieval Scotland would do on Daft Day. People have also bought some strange new traditions-Christmas Trees, wassailing and some festive food.

Not everyone has been so jolly-some people have been Christmas Scrooge’s. Oliver Cromwell banned it (luckily Charles II restored the monarchy and Christmas!), Queen Elizabeth wasn’t too thrilled about her Christmas presents and some early Emperors and Priests killed men who soon became Saints.

Coming up to the New Year, Christmas has been a time of new beginnings, not necessarily forgiveness though! The Glorious Revolution kicked out James II and welcomed Mary II and William III, which pleased most of the country; the French Revolution got rid of the French monarchy when their King pushed his luck. Going back to the Middle Ages the throne saw Stephen become King, and most famously in 1066 William the Conqueror was crowned starting the tradition of doing so at Westminster Abbey. Also, Columbus set ahead for new expeditions, the Stuarts saw the first woman on stage and Charlemagne came to power, eventually to complete a conquest of the Saxons of North Germany.

And so, throughout time people have celebrated Christmas in many different ways. Whether you believe it was the birth of Jesus, or whether Christians stole the Winter Solis celebrations off from the Pagans and claimed it as Christmas, it’s a time where we all gather together and celebrate life. The Germans and Brits held a truce in WWI and played football, Victorian prison masters gave prisoners a Christmas meal and overall we have all exchanged Christmas traditions from around the world and globally celebrate a day of love and peace.

Merry Christmas folks!

Awesome Advent: Day 24

Awesome Advent Day 24: Seasonal Saints

Through the Christmas holidays there are many saintly days, each with a story behind them.

26th December: Saint Stephen

Stephen was one of the first Christians. The priests of Jerusalem said he was wicked and put him on trial for his life. Instead of pleading for his life he shouted rude words at them and was stoned to death.

27th December: John the Apostle

John was one of Jesus’ original followers in the Bible, and the only one to live to old age. Emperor Domitian had him thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil but the Saint stepped out unhunt!

1st January: Saint Telemachus

The Romans loved to watch gory gladiator games, however Telemachus did not. He thought it was cruel and wicked and once stepped in the middle of a fight and told them to stop. The crowd was so upset that they stoned him to death. However, Emperor Honorius did put a stop to gladiator fights.

2nd January: Saint Basi of Caesarea

This Saint brings gifts to children every January the 1st in Greece (whereas Father Christmas brings gifts on Christmas Eve). On St. Basil’s Day families serve ‘vasilopita’, a rich bread baked with a coin inside.

3rd January: Saint Gordius

Gordius was a Roman soldier who thought it was a holy idea to shed some blood for Jesus. He went to the arena and told the Roman Governor: “I am a Christian, kill me.” The Governor had Goridus killed with swords.

4th January: Thomas Plumtree

When Elizabeth I was on the throne she was having Catholics tortured and executed all the time. Thomas joined a revolt against Elizabeth but was captured when the rebellion failed. He was told he could go free if he gave up the Catholic Church. He refused and was hung in Durham Castle.

5th January: Charles of Mount Argus

Saint Charles was a Dutch priest who worked in Ireland and became famous for curing the sick. A 12-year-old boy who lost the use of his leg was blessed by Charles. In a few minutes the boy was walking again-a miracle! Crooks started selling bottles of water and said it was Charles’s holy water. That got him banished to England for a few years. On the 5th of January 1893 he died of old age.

For more Seasonal Saints check out Terry Deary’s Horrible Christmas/The Big Fat Christmas Book, with awesome illustrations by Martin Brown.

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That’s our Awesome Advent Calendar complete! Come back for one more Day tomorrow and check out our Christmas conclusion.

Awesome Advent: Day 23

Awesome Advent Day 23: ‘Orrible Overthrowing

Today in 1688, as part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England fled from England to Paris after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

The Glorious Revolution was when people of England decided they’d had enough of Catholic James II, and wanted his daughter Mary to become Queen instead of him. They revolted and exiled James II France, putting his daughter Mary II on the throne with William III.

Awesome Advent: Day 22

Awesome Advent Day 22: Christmas Coronations

As the years have to come to a close in December, several new beginnings have started. Today in 1135 Stephen became King of England, and most famously on Christmas Day in 1066 William the Conqueror was crowned. These Christmas coronations started of the big long line of English monarchs-see if you can learn this off by heart!

Awesome Advent: Day 21

Awesome Advent Day 21: Slimy Stuarts

In the Stuart there were several problems around Christmas time. The first was the fact that Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans banned it! After that, when Charles II restored the monarchy, but there were still some things that went wrong…

Awesome Advent: Day 20

Awesome Advent Day 20: Nifty Nicholas

Here are some foul facts about St. Nicholas, now known today as Father Christmas or Santa Claus.

1. Bishop Nicholas died in AD 343 and was buried in Myra, but 800 years later, half of his skeleton was snatched by thieves who wanted his bones to perform miracles.
2. Tests on his bones show that Bishop Nicholas was just 150cm tall and had a broken nose.
3. As well as being patron saint of children he is saint of merchants and thieves.
4. In the Middle Ages, Saint Nicholas was always painted in pictures as a man in green. In his home town, in Turkey, there was a beautiful statue of Saint Nicholas. It was taken down by the mayor in 2005, and replaced with a red plastic Santa Claus for tourists

More Seasonal saints on Day 24 of Advent!

Awesome Advent: Day 19

Awesome Advent Day 19: Christmas Kings

Lots of Kings have got into the Christmas spirit throughout the past. Here are 5 facts about some Christmas Kings:

1. Alfred the Great invented the 12 days of Christmas. Alfred’s law said no free Saxon should be made to work between Christmas and the Twelfth Night.
2. King Henry III hated people who made copies of his coins and kept a special punishment for them that was carried out on Christmas Day. They would have their right hand and their naughty bits chopped off-by the Bishop!
3. In Medieval Scotland, on the Twelfth Night, the King gave up his throne and let someone else rule for a day. This was known as Daft Day, and all you had to do was find a bean hidden in the Twelfth Night cake.
4. On Christmas Day in 1454 Henry VI was suddenly cured of his mental illness which he’d had for over a year. His mental illness meant that he would’ve sat in silence like a  statue for hours, lost his memory, didn’t recognise his own family and struggled to move. A happy Christmas for him and his family that year!
5. When George V gave his Christmas speech on the radio, he sat on his favourite chair (not the throne) and it collapsed! He cried out “God bless my soul.”

Not every King was so jolly, though. Good King Wenceslas was quite different to the carol you sing. The truth is…

Awesome Advent: Day 18

Awesome Advent Day 18: Foul Food

Henry VIII certainly loved his food, and when it came to Christmas he made the traditional treat of mince pies a little more interesting…

Awesome Advent: Day 17

Awesome Advent Day 17: Daft Donkeys

The Bible says a donkey carried Mary to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. The Donkey was there on the first night of Christmas night, so we now associate the animal with Christmas.

People through the ages have had some daft ideas about donkeys.

Top 10 donkey beleifs:

1. Donkeys have a cross of dark hair on their backs, on the spot where Mary sat and she was carried to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus. People believe this cross is the mark of God.
2. People also believe that the donkey cross has the magical power to cure all sort of problems, including toothache and fits.
3. Passing a child three times under and over a donkey was believed to cure a whopping cough.
4. Sometimes donkey hairs were mixed with bread and eaten for luck.
5. Sometimes people would have to put a sick person’s hair in the donkey’s food for it to eat to cure the person’s illness.
6. In the fifth century poet Aurelius Clemens said that donkeys and other animals in the stable where Jesus was born could speak. He said it was so they could join the angels in praising Jesus.
7. In 1223, the Pope allowed St. Francis of Assisi to use live animals, including a donkey, on stage to tell the Christmas story in a play. These ‘Nativity’ plays became popular all around the world.
8. The nativity stories added the tale of Aurelius Clemens and the talking animals. The plays showed that God had given the animals in the stable the power to speak for an hour at midnight on Christmas Eve.
9. People also believed it was very bad luck to catch the animals chatting. One thing you may hear is the donkeys debating whether their master will die before next Christmas.
10. In Britain the story has changed- the animals in British legends never do their Christmas chatting when there is a human a round to hear.

Want more Horrible Christmas? Check out the book, Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas.

Awesome Advent: Day 15

Awesome Advent Day 15: Foul Football

When soldiers signed up to fight for their country in 1914, everyone said the war would be over by Christmas. Four brutal years later the war finally ended. One of the most remarkable things about it, though, was what did happen in 1914 on Christmas Day. Although technically the war still going on, soldiers called  a truce, got out of their trenches and had a game of football over no-mans-land!

The next days soldiers refused to fight each other but were given strict orders by their officers to carry on fighting.