A Tudor Christmas - And Thus It Ends For Another Year (6th January)

6th January - And Thus it Ended

Known as the Feast of the Epiphany, this was said to have been twelve days after The Three Wise men had seen the star that would have taken them to Christ. Epiphany means a moment of sudden revelation and manifestation. It's on the feast day that gold, frankincese and myrrh were offered in the Royal Chapel on behalf of the Monarch, it is a ceremony that is still carried out to this day. 

Pageants were also performed at court, the play would act out Epiphany all over the country in churches and churchyards before moving to wagons as they performed in the streets. Any of the pageants that depicted the Wise Men were the most popular and were also performed. This in Victorians times would be perfromed by schoolchildren and would become the Nativity plays that schools still perform every year to this day.

Many of the celebrations would equal or rival those that had taken place on Christmas Day. This was seen as a new season and a new opportunity to make merry. There was feasting in which everyone would indulge in, Roast Lamb was traditional and there also the remins of the Twelfth Night Cake to eat along with a Epiphany tart. This festival reached its highest point in the seventeenth century with iced cakes topped with sugar figures, there was also kissing and guessing games being played.

This was the last day of great processions, feasts and festive fun, the Yule Log had burnt out and spicy food was part of the feast. Epiphany also marked the end of Christmastide but at court Yuletide didn't end till the 2nd February with Candlemass and the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, it was on this day that churches were covered with candles and were packed with people.

It was now time to get back to normal, take down decorations and get back to work. Plough Monday or St Distaff's Day often fell on the 7th January, this was the day when women resumed their domestic duties. Before the Reformation it was common for farmers who shared a communal plough to drag it from door to door asking for blessings and donations for the Parish. Those that refuded had the risk of having their garde ploughed over.

Today there is still some evidence of the Tudors in our Christmas celebrations, but everything else had come from the Victorians. There are many historic houses that still dress them in the traditional Tudor decoration from Hever Castle, Hardwick Hall and Hampton Court. If you are interested in being in the middle of a Tudor Christmas then I would recommened going somewhere that is decorated up, I have been to a few and know that it is worth it. I would like to at some point do my own Tudor Christmas one year just to see the difference and to keep the history alive.