Welcome to my blog, "The British Are Coming, Y'all!" From 17–27 November, I'm participating with several hundred other bloggers in the "Gratitude Giveaways Hop," accessed by clicking on the logo on the left. All blogs in this hop offer reader-appreciation giveaways, and we’re all linked, so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. But here on my blog, I’m posting essays from Relevant History author guests on the theme of gratitude and thanksgiving. We'll give away books and gifts during the eleven days, to show appreciation for our readers. To find out how to qualify for the giveaways on my blog, read through each day’s Relevant History post below and follow the directions. Then click on the Gratitude Hop logo so you can move along to another blog. Enjoy!
Relevant History welcomes back historical mystery author Peg Herring, who loves mystery in all its forms. Author of the critically acclaimed Simon & Elizabeth (Tudor) series as well as the contemporary Dead Detective series, Peg believes readers deserve well-crafted plots with memorable characters. She lives with her husband in northern Michigan and writes "Strong Women, Great Stories." For more information, check her web site and blog, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Thanksgiving seems to be a uniquely American tradition, but of course giving thanks is as old as mankind. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and many other cultures offered thanks to nature and their gods at harvest time (often in fear of reprisals if those same gods noticed them "stealing" their bounty).
The Tudor equivalent of Thanksgiving would probably be a saint's day, but the sumptuous meal served for our Thanksgiving dinners might best be compared to one of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Advent was a time of fasting for the Tudors, so they celebrated the whole twelve days when that period ended, from December 25th to January 6th. Nobody worked who didn't have to (those who cared for animals, for example) and women put flowers on tools such as spinning wheels as a reminder that they were to be idle.
The biggest feasts were on December 25th, January 1st, and January 6th (Twelfth Night). Huge banquets were prepared for the nobility. There were sporting events for the nobles, although no games except archery could be played on December 25th. Everyone went to church, and Edward VI made a law that they had to walk there, a practice still followed by many today.
Traditional feast meat was swan, goose, or woodcock, although turkey was added almost as soon as it arrived from the New World. Venison was likely to be served as one of the twenty-four possible courses. Peacocks, roasted and then re-dressed in their feathers, were a popular addition. Salads, mince pies, puddings, pickled pigs' ears and feet, roasted boar's head, and fruitcake with prizes baked inside were big hits as well. Desserts grew more and more elaborate over time, taking on unbelievable sizes and shapes and made with sugar, which was considered a very healthy addition to a meal.
As to drink, large wooden bowls of punch were served. The punch might be ale or beer with added sugar, spices like nutmeg and ginger, and apples. The bowl would be served to the most important person, who drank and then passed it around the table, a common practice of the day.
Like our Thanksgiving, Tudor feasts were meant to be days of celebration and reflection on what God provides. And like many of us, the Tudors probably got caught up in the celebrating part and slighted the real purpose of a holiday (from the Old English "holy day"). However, they did give the leftovers from their feasts to the poor, so some good came from all that overeating and overdrinking.
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A big thanks to Peg Herring. She'll give away an electronic or print copy of the first book of her series, Her Highness' First Murder, to someone who contributes a legitimate comment on my blog today or tomorrow. Make sure you provide your email address. I'll choose the winner in a drawing from among those who comment on this post by Monday 21 November at 6 p.m. ET, then publish the name of the winner on my blog 28 November. Multiple ebook file formats are available, and no eReader is required. Delivery is available within the U.S. only for print.
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Walking to church seemed well called for after the feasts you described.
Turkey still isn’t prevalent in English holiday meals, in my experience. I have a vivid memory of other types of fowl hanging, half plucked, from hooks in Oxford’s market.
LOL, Liz! Henry the Eighth should have walked to church more, eh?) In Britain, a small can of pumpkin cost the equivalent of $6 in the early 80s. It would probably cost double that now.
Spot-on about the turkey. The Brits prefer other fowl, like pheasant. Pheasant was plentiful in the market the autumn I was living near Norwich, England. The locals snarked that the birds might be “overflow” from Prince Charles’s recent hunting trips to the area and thus full of buckshot because his aim wasn’t that good. While I was in Norwich, I made an American Thanksgiving feast for my British acquaintances. They were intrigued by the food combinations I used and referred to pumpkin pie as “squash pie.” (Some of them declined to sample it. Yes, squash pie is cultural and an acquired taste.
Although the info on the food is interesting, I’m more curious why archery was allowed on December 25 to the exclusion of all else? What made archery so special?
Thanks for another great blog post, and Happy Thanksgiving to both of you, Suzanne and Peg.
My duaghter ran into the whole squash/pumpkin pie thing when she lived in Bahrain and had lots of Brit, Aussie, and Kiwi friends. She did fall in love with pumpkin soup, which we don’t see a lot (or at all) in Michigan.
Linda, the archery element interests me, too. I envision Robin Hood and the Tournament of the Golden Arrow.
I hope Peg has an answer for this.
Peg, recipes for pumpkin soup and other squash soups (ex. butternut) show up without fail in the autumn issues of foodie magazines like Vegetarian Times. Do the expensive restaurants in your city offer it as a seasonal appetizer?
My mind stuttered on the mention of twenty-four courses. No wonder they had dancing and games afterward. And I thought our American thanksgiving feasts were obscene in their amounts.
BTW, I cannot imagine paying so much for pumpkin.
We do have pumpkin soup in Michigan though Peg- its what happens when you mess up a recipe for pumpkin cheese cake. (-;
sophiarose1816@gmail.com
Sophia Rose, it’s amazing what you’ll pay when you really, really want something. That pie was one of the best tasting pumpkin pies I’ve ever made. I’d probably decided that it would be delicious, just because the pumpkin cost $6. Plus I knew I wouldn’t get another pumpkin pie until I returned to the U.S.
To answer questions: I’m not sure why archery was allowed, but my guess would be it wasn’t likely that anyone would get hurt like they might in jousting. Or maybe Henry liked archery–he always got what he wanted!
Giggling at Suzanne: we HAVE no expensive restaurants in Onaway—we just got Subway a while ago! Sophia,I do love a good pumpkin roll, and the pumpkin cheesecake sounds delicious!
And looking back, I really do know how to spell daughter! :/
I love pumpkin cheesecake.
One of the reasons for the restoration of the monarchy after the civil war was to bring back the traditional celebration of Christmas.