A Tudor Christmas - New Year's Eve (31st December)

 31st December - Post & Pair

For us in the modern age, the 31st December is the last day and final celebration of the year, which would be a foreign concept for the Tudors. They didn't really celebrate New Year's Eve as they were getting ready for the big day known as Twelfth Night in 4 days time. This was another day for games and sport. For the rich this would have included hunting and outdoor sport. Like I said previously many sports were banned and this was the only time they could be played, this was because Henry VIII liked men to practice their archery.

The better-off would be playing board games, a from of guessing game, word games, dice and cards where sums of money could be won or lost. Some games that were played then have developed into well known games that we knw and still play to this day. All this would have been organised by the Lord of Misrule. 

A simple yet hazardous game that could even be played today (with caution) was played was Snap-dragon. It was a Tudor favourite and commonly played on Christmas Eve. Raisins, almonds, currents or candied fruits were placed into a bowl of warm brandy and was then set alight. Players then had to snatch the fruit without burning their fingers. This is possibly were the tradition of pouring brandy over the Christmas pudding and then lighting it came from.

A game for children came from the idea of Hide and Seek, it was called By-your-leave. One would sit in the middle blindfolded, the rest had to go and hide. The child in the middle then had to go find the others, the goal was to get back to the middle of the room where the blindfolded child started from, whoever managed it was named King in his room. 

Most games were boisterous and rough, for example Hoodman Blind, which would later become Blind Man's Bluff. There was also Fox-In-The-Hole, Shoe The Mare, Hot Cockles and Prisoner's Base. In some houses there was also games like shuttlecock, skittles, fortune-telling, music, dancing and paid entertainers.