St David's Day

                                   

March 1 is St David's Day. He is the patron saint of Wales so it is a Welsh National Day. You are supposed to wear a daffodil as a buttonhole. Unfortunately, except in the mildest years, my earliest daffodils are not in flower for another week or so, so it is either a bought flower imported from the Scilly Isles or a plastic one sold in aid of the Marie Curie cancer charity. Often young children go to school in national costume.       

                                   

Valentine's Day

February 14th is Valentine's Day, a day of great popularity or heartbreak for young people. The idea is supposed to be that young men send a card or flowers to the young woman of their choice but do not sign their name leaving the young woman to work out who they are. Nowadays most young men value certainty over romance and tend to identify themselves. It is also an opportunity for husbands to get into their wife's good books by sending her flowers and taking her out to dinner. The occasion is getting commercialised by card manufacturers, flower sellers and restaurants.
Nevertheless I have known three separate young women whose boyfriends have done the whole thing in style by sending a huge bouquet of flowers to her work, (where her colleagues will notice); taking her out to a restaurant which has been previously bribed to produce a special pudding with a diamond ring , and getting down on one knee to ask her to marry him.

Pancake day

             


Rio and Venice get Carnival but England just gets Pancake Tuesday. Both festivals are because this is the last day before the 40 fast that was observed for Lent in preparation for Easter by the christian church. Obviously people didn't stop eating for 40 days but the medieval church had them banned from eating meat, although fish was allowed. Nowadays many christians give up something regarded as a treat -like chocolate- for Lent.
In preparation  for Lent people would eat up food supplies, hence Carnival and the parties, but in England this seems to have been reduced to just cooking pancakes; most people will eat pancakes today whether practising christians or not.
Other traditions which are slowly dying out are pancake races. Pancakes have to be tossed to turn over the cooking side in the frying pan and it was traditional for women to run races in whch they carried pans with pancakes which had to be tossed a certain number of times in the distance. if the pancake were dropped on the ground or did not arrive whole you were disqualified. The secret is to move steadily tossing the pancake rather than trying to run to quickly.

Basic pancakes with sugar and lemon

Ingredients

For the pancake mixture

• 110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
• 50g/2oz butter

To serve

• caster sugar
• lemon juice
• lemon wedges

Preparation method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs - any sort of whisk or even a fork will do - incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so.
2. Next gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don't worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk). When all the liquid has been added, use a rubber spatula to scrape any elusive bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.
3. Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you're using the correct amount of batter. I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm/7in pan. It's also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it's tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only - then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
4. Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest. Serve sprinkled with a little  sugar and lemon juice.

I would never eat pancakes with anything other than sugar and lemon but other filling are becoming popular, particularly, Bananas and Chocolate Sauce, and ,Cherry Pie Filling and Icecream.

Twelth Night

                                   

January 6th is Christmas day for the Orthodox Church but for western christians it is the feast of the Epiphany celebrating the coming of the Wise Men to worship the infant Christ and is otherwise known as Twelth Night being the 12th day of the Christmas Feast.
In the middle ages this would be the day that the fool or one of the lower servants was made Lord of Misrule and took the place of the master to direct the feast.
Nowadays most people regard it as the end of the Christmas celebrations and the day they take down their decorations and throw out the tree although one vicar has been on the radio a lot yesterday and today explaining that the  church regards Christmas as a 40 day feast which ends at Candlemas on February 2nd. This is of course a cross quarter day and emphasises the link with pre-christian religion.
Shakespeare wrote one of his plays for the court festivities of 1601. It is a comedy and one of its themes is a play on the upside down world usually created by the Lord of Misrule. We saw an excellent production at Stratford in the summer by the Royal Shakespeare company and they had managed to make it completely up to date with characters speaking on mobile phones.

                                      

The commercial drive peters out now as the January Sales come to an end. In my youth these started in January with the excess stock not sold by Xmas substantially reduced to make way for new stock. All the repricing had to be done by hand so sales started in January. Now it's done by computer so some start before Xmas  and most on Boxing Day and most have finished by the time the schools go back next week. 

Burns night

                                            

January 25th2013 may be the feast of the Prophet's birthday in the Islamic world but in Scotland it is Burns Night. This celebrates the 18th lowland scots poet Robbie Burns and all over the world groups of (usually only)men get togther in his memory. They eat Haggis, a Scottish speciality made from a sheep's stomach stuffed with various parts of its minced offal, barley and flavourings and boiled for hours. It is ceremoniously piped in by a pipe'r wearing full kilt costume,(usually all the men will be in kilts too), Burns' poem "Ode to the Haggis" is recited and the it is cut with a sword before being served.
At many Burns dinners each diner is required to bring a bottle ofwhisky and there is subtle competion as who has brought the rarest or oldest malt (and hence the most expensive).Everyone is supposed to partake of each and as theorectically each man is expected to drink a bottle of whisky (for a non-alcholic to do so would probably mean a trip to Casualty with alcohol poisoning) everybody gets very very drunk.

                                                

                                                                                

                                                      
Here is one of Burns' more lyrical poems which is often set to music

My love is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June :

My love is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love,

And fare thee weel a while !

And I will come again, my love,

Thou’ it were ten thousand mile.

Goodbye 2012

                                  

2012 has been a good year for Brits what with the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee although Londoners got the best of it and the rest of us may just remember 2012 as the wettest year since records began. Meanwhile we are all waiting to welcome in the New Year.
The place to be is Scotland where the New Year celebrations are called Hogmanay and are much more important than Christmas. They have two days off to recover and probably hangovers to match as the welcome consists of numerous toasts of whisky.
New Year is the other time (with Guy Fawkes night) when the public can buy retail fireworks and a number of neighbours will be letting them off at midnight but fireworks are a recent addition to the New Year celebrations. In London the traditional place to go was Trafalger Square and crowds would gather and the more inebriated celebrate in the fountains. Many years ago they started turning the fountains off to prevent this  and controlling access to the square to prevent crushes and stampedes as Trafalger Square can only hold about 80.000 people. For the Millenium the authorities were concerned that many, many more people than usual would turn out so they put on a special fireworks show on the river to disperse the crowds. It could take 250,000 spectators safely and was such a success  that they have repeated it every year since.
The old tradition is of first-footing where the first person to visit the house, usually immediately after mid-night should be tall, dark and bring presents of salt and coal. Usually a member of the party, preferably not the householder was sent out at five minutes to mid-night to be let in at 30 seconds past. It is also traditional to sing "Auld Lang Syne" by the Scots poet Robbie Burns. The words are not really English but lowland Scots.
My favourite New Years were when we were living in Liverpool. It was the tradition there to leave your party and go out into the street to join hands in a circle to sing Auld Land Syne at midnight. The circle would be joined by other parties and stray motorists who hadn't got to their party in time. Midnight was marked by the sounding of horns by ships on the Mersey and after the singing you would kiss everybody in sight and wish them "Happy New Year".

                                             

                                           Auld Lang Syne

                                               Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
                                               And never brought to mind?
                                               Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
                                               And days o’ lang syne!

                                              Chorus:
                                              For auld lang syne, my dear
                                              For auld lang syne,
                                              We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
                                              For auld lang syne!

Father Christmas

                                                              

Father Christmas (UK) and Santa Claus (USA) have different histories but are now  essentially agreed to be the same character.
He lives in Lapland (UK) or the North Pole (USA) where for most of the year he makes toys with the help of Elves. On Christmas night he flies round the world in his magic sleigh pulled by reindeer called Dasher, Dancer , Prancer, Vixen,Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen and, on foggy nights, assisted by Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.In the course of the night he visits every child in the world bringing them gifts but only if they are asleep and if they have been good in the previous year.  His elves keep a list of all the naughty children so that he knows who to visit.

He used to wear a green coat like the elves but for the last century and a half he has worn red trousers and a red jacket trimmed with white fur and a red hat. He has snowy white hair and a long beard and moustache. He used to come down the chimney to children but now fewer houses have chimneys he has to be more imaginative. He puts smaller presents into stockings which children leave for him by the fireplace or at the end of their bed but larger presents (like bicycles) will be left wherever is convenient. As it is hard work delivering presents he likes it if the children leave a glass of sherry or brandy and a mince pie for him and a carrot or some sprouts for his reindeer. If Father christmas has visited these will always have been eaten and drunk when the children come downstairs in the morning.
In order that he knows the right present to take to each child he has lots of assistants who dress like him and go into shops and town centres in December to ask children what they want. Some of these also collect money for charity or to buy christmas presents for poor families. Alternatively children can write to him at Lapland or the North Pole and get a reply from him telling them to be good; or you can send you note to him up the chimney.

NORAD track the progress of his sleigh on Christmas Eve and a few lucky children with wealthy parents are able to visit him in Lapland before Christmas on special holiday flights. They can see the reindeer and ride in a sleigh themselves.
He has starred in many films and is the subject of numerous songs and poems. In particular http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19286

                                                                

                 A Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight

Lights and Greenery

A further tradition from pagan times is of bringing evergreen plant into the house as decorations for Xmas. Also as the festival celebrated the return of the sun, lights and candles are are feature of the decorations.
Traditionally holly and mistletoe were used.



Holly


 There is a tradition that a lady must give a kiss when asked beneath mistletoe. This tradition is particularly popular with young men who ensure that bunches are placed above doorways.




Mistletoe

But the main symbol in which evergreens and lights blend is the Christmas tree. Large ones are in every town centre bedecked with lights and every home will have at least one usually decorated with lights, tinsel, and shiny glass baubles. Artificial trees are useful for people lik me who are allergic to the scent of pine or spruce and we have one in silver tinsel. I could not get any holly this year; seasonal foliage is gradually declining in favour of forced plants and flowers from the horticultural industry.
Our living room is now at its best with fairy lights, the Xmas tree, flowers and present waiting to be opened on Xmas day.

The Christmas Nativity Story

The Nativity Story as it is currently told relies on two gospels and a lot of medieval tradition. As christianity has no prohibition on religous images (except in some of the most extreme protestant denominations) the story is told in pictures from churches all over the Christian world. This week is the last week of the school term before the Holidays so it wil also be told as a play acted by primary school children in almost every school in the country and many churches. Model representation are also very popular often carved in wood and used both inside and outside.

Mary was a young woman espoused (married but not yet claimed to live with him and consumate tne marriage) to an older man , Joseph. The angel Gabriel appeared to her and told her she was to give birth to the Son of God. She questioned how she could give birth whilst still a vigin but conceived on hearing the Angels word. When Joseph heard of her condition he intended to repudiate the marriage but an Angel appeared to him and explained the nature of the child.
The couple lived in Nazareth where Joseph worked as a carpenter but towards the end of Mary's pregnacy had to travel to Bethlehem for a census. When they got to Bethlehem the inns were full and they were turned away until one innkeeper took pity on themand offered a place in his stable. Mary was confined in the stable and laid the baby Jesus to sleep in a manger as a crib with an ox and ass watching.
Some shepberds were watching their flocks in the country near Bethlelem when an angel appeared to them and told them that the #Son of God had been born and they went to the stable to worship him and gave him a lamb  as an offering.

                         

Meanwhile in the East some wise men saw a new star a decided to follow it because it signified the birth of a King. The star moved before them and guided them first to Jerusalem where the saw King Herod the then ruler of the Jews and asked him where the new King was born. Herod asked them to tell him of the new kig whom he regarded as a userper. The star then guided them to Bethlehem were they too worshiped Jesus bringing him gifts of Gold(signifyinh he was a king), Frankincense, (signifying he was god) and Myrrh(presaging his death at the crucifixion). In many representations the 3 wise men are themselves 3 Kings representing kingdoms in Europe, Asia and Africa and are called Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior respectively. The Magi decided not to tell Herod about Jesus and went home a different way.
Joseph had a dream telling him King hHerod wanted to kill Jesus and the family went to Egypt and lived there for 2 years before returning to Nazareth. Meanwhile Herod killed every male child in the Kingdom under 2.



The Massacre of the Innocents is usually left out of the school plays but the rest of it is acted out with the children each playing a part whether a main speaking part or standing in the background being an angel or an ox, ass or camel. When sweetheart was young I used to dread the letter home saying your child has been  chosen to play..... and must have a costume by...because sewing was never my strong point; although I did get my revenge in her last year at primary school when I had to provide a palestinian villager costume and sent 2 different rectangles of material and a length of rope with instructions on how to tie a sari and a habib. Nowadays supermarkets have racks of angel, sheep and donkey outfits for small children in early December.

The changing face of Britain

They published the 2011 census results yesterday whcich showed how we have changed since 2001. Although 80% of us describe ourselves as "white British" 20% describe themselves as some other ethnicity which is a 25% increase in the decade. 4.7million people now sat they were born in another country. London which is a truly cosmoplitan city now has less than half the population describing themselves as "white British".
Most striking is the decline in religous belief, with 25% of the population saying they have no religious belief. 60% say they are christian but this will include many people who are not actively practising their faith by eg going to church. Of the other 15% the next most numerous religion is Islam with showings for Hindus, Buddists, Jews and small numbers of any religion  on the planet.
There are fewer home-owners than in 2001 and 15% of households now rent. Every area in the country except London now has more cars than households.Wales stands out for its inhabitants thinking they have poor health. 

Commercial Christmas

The commercial Christmas is in full swing. It starts early, There were some Christmas goods in the shops before we came to Morocco in September. At that time the Christmas TV adverts were for furniture. Buy a new bed or table for your guests and we will deliver in time for Christmas. When we went back at the end of October the main supermarkets were clearing their shelves of Halloween goods and replacing them with Christmas merchandise. Decorations, cards and tins of chocolates and biscuits at that time. We went to London and Covent Garden market already had its decorations and tree up.
The adverts have gone through bicycles and large expensive toys, party clothes and deals on decorations and are now settling down to a last gasp of perfume, food and alchohol. By Christmas Eve the shelves will be empty and the shops more or less deserted save for some few desperate looking men who have left their present buying too late and are scanning the near empty perfume shelves for something for their mother or girlfriend with their mobile phone to their ear whilst they describe to some other friendly woman, presumably a sister, what is left, and accept her instructions as to the most suitable purchase. 
Meanwhile pity the poor shop assistants. The shops play special Christmas songs to get customers in the mood to  purchase. They tend to be very annoying. The american ones tend to be very sentimental and the british ones have more edge. They are all designed to get you singing when you are drunk. They had started playing them when we were home in October and the poor shop assistants have to listen 8 hours a day for 3 months.
Here are links to some of the popular songs
 http://xmasfun.com/Lyrics.asp?ID=165
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r89CjMZDQpQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzczoqLBWAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOe18JcatZo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCjrcjFGQCA&feature=watch-vrec
http://xmasfun.com/Lyrics.asp?ID=38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQpP9Ippfps

Annoying are't they? But every child will know the words to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells and probably lots of the others.

Advent

                           

We are now in Advent which is part of the religous Christmas preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ. It started last Sunday and continues for the next 3 Sundays before Christmas. The religous preparations include the telling of the Christmas Story so that it is understood by converts or children;readings from the Old Testament fortelling the coming of the Messiah with whom Christ is identified; and preparing for the second coming. Christians believe that Christmas celebrates the first coming of Christ as God made man but that at the end of time he will come again; the dead will rise ( which is why some Christians insist on whole body burial) and that he will Judge both the living and dead, condemnig the unworthy to eternal torture in Hell and allowing the worthy into Heaven. Depending on the particular branch of Christianity and the age of the audience the emphasis of the sermons changes.
A german custom was to give children an Advent Calender with a window which could be opened each day in December revealing a picture illustrating part of the Christmas story. The idea has been imported into the UK and sis very popular but nowadays the windows reveal a chocolate imprinted with a shape associated with the secular Christmas or a toy.

                                     

Other traditions imported from Scandinavian countries involve the making of an Advent wreath with a candle lit for each Sunday or lighting  candles.

Two Christmases

    

People from non-christian countries tend to see Christmas as a christian festival but it is more complicated than that.
Of course it is a christian religous festival celebrating the birth of God made man. However stories of the birth are contained in only 2 of the 4 biblical gospels describing the life of Jesus Christ and they differ on the aspects of the story they tell.
When the Romans stopped persecuting christians and adopted christianity as the religion of the empire (some hundreds of years after the time the events were supposed to have happened) they grafted the celebrations on to a pre-existing pagan festival to celebrate the winter solstice.  Northern countries had always held a big mid-winter festival ,to celebrate the days lengthening, and because there is not much work you can do in short ,cold days and you want to stay inside , round the fire, and have a feast to cheer you up.
So many practices associated with local pagan festivals were adapted to celebrate Christmas and given new christian "meanings". Also with the growth of free market capitalism and cities christmas became a major marketing event and various new "traditions" grew in the 20C associated with this.
Britain is an increasingly secular country. Whilst many people may keep the religous traditions and look for the "real christmas"  within the other christmas  razzamatazz, many people just keep the merrymaking traditions without complicating them with any religous belief.
There will be lots of children who know nothing of the christian christmas story of the  birth of Christ, but except in extremely religous non-christian families there will not be a child under 7 who does not believe in Father Christmas. 

Stir up a Pudding

                                   

Today is "Stir up Sunday". That is the day when Xmas puddings were traditionally made. The name comes partly from that and partly because the Church of England prescribes prayers for each Sunday of the year and the one for the 5th Sunday before Xmas begins

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously reward

It was the tradition that every member of the house took a turn at stirring the pudding so it had to be done on a Sunday when there was no work or school. Small coins or tokens (today it would be a 5pence coin) would be added to the pudding. It would then need cooking for 8 hours today and to be heated for a further 2 hours on Xmas day when it would be eaten with cream or custard or brandy sauce.

For any of you who want to try here is a link to a recipe
http://britishfood.about.com/od/christmas/r/xmaspud.htm
The brandy is optional and can be omitted.

The suet used in the pudding is nowadays usually vegetarian but originally was beef suet which is the fat which surrounds the kidneys.

Perfectly good puddings can now be bought in any supermarket and can be heated on Xmas Day by 5mins in a microwave. You may guess whether most people buy readymade or cook from scratch.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is a wholly american festival and is not thought of at all in Britain. For a long time I'd no idea when it was but it is always on the 4th Thursday in November and in the USA it is the big family festival for which everybody returns home, like Christmas in Europe and Eid in Islamic countries.
It is to remember when the religous dissidents who left Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1620 to set up a farming colony in New England, (this was not the first colony but the most prestigous), sat down to celebrate their first year's harvest. They had been shown what to grow by local native americans and the feast traditionally consists of food native to America.
The meal is usually a variation on
Roast Turkey with Sage and Onion Stuffing and Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
String Beans (Haricot Vert in french or French Beans in Britain)
Glazed Sweet Potatoes
Sweetcorn
followed by Pumpkin Pie.

PUMPKIN PIE

One recipe of shortcrust pastry  (see pies November 18th)
Use a recipe with added sugar and an egg

450 g/1lb prepared weight pumpkin flesh, cut into 1in/2.5 cm chunks (these days with home freezers this may be the flesh removed at Halloween to make lanterns)
3 large eggs
3 oz/75g soft dark brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground ginger
200ml milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Grease a pie dish, rollout the pastry to line it and blind bake for 15mins with a tinfoil lining weighted with beans or chickpeas to keep the shape.

Meanwhile steam or bake the pumpkin to cook
Then blend the cooked pumpkin with the other ingredients and pour into the pastry shell and smooth level.
Bake for aprox 20mins until the pie is set but very slightly wobbly in the centre.

                                               

Serve with cream or ice-cream.